Down with the Aristos! | Would I Lie to the Duke by Eva Leigh

Title: Would I Lie to the Duke
Series: Union of the Rakes #2
Author: Eva Leigh
Published: July 28, 2020
Genre(s): Romance: Historical
Page Count: 384
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

Jessica McGale's family business desperately needs investors, and she's determined to succeed at any cost. But she knows London's elite will never look twice at a humble farm girl like herself. Posing as “Lady Whitfield,” however, places her in the orbit of wealthy, powerful people—most notably the Duke of Rotherby. His influence and support could save her company, but Jess never expected the effect he'd have on her.

Society thinks Noel is a notorious, carefree duke who dabbles in investments, but there's a side to him that only his closest friends see. When he crosses paths with Lady Whitfield at a business bazaar, his world tilts on its axis. She's brilliant and compelling, and brings him to his knees like no woman has before. Trust is difficult for Noel, but Jess makes him believe anything is possible...

As time ticks down on her Cinderella scheme, the thought of achieving her goal at Noel's expense breaks Jess' heart. He doesn't just want her now, he wants her forever. But will her secret end their future before it begins?

I suppose that a story about a commoner infiltrating the Regency era’s version of Shark Tank should have been fascinating. Instead, it was unspeakably boring. Eva Leigh’s character-building is shallow and dull, and her prose is ridiculously florid and purple. I didn’t dislike the book, but neither did I enjoy reading.

Would I Lie to the Duke is kind of like a meal you get at a fast-food place just because you’re hungry and don’t want to cook and it’s on the way home from work. It tastes okay, but it’s not somewhere you’d go as a first choice in any mood. That’s how I felt about this book.

Primarily, though, I want to complain about the duke. (Rant ahead)

Leigh all but force-feeds her readers the idea that Noel is a “progressive duke” and is therefore good and admirable and “not like other members of the aristocracy.” The problem is: when you advertise that your romance is trying to subvert historical truths, you give your readers expectations. And in this case, my expectations were very much not met.

I mostly don’t have a problem with “regular dukes,” where the source of their vast income is conveniently left a mystery—lots of romance authors do it, and as readers, we all seem to agree to turn a blind eye. But when you tell me repeatedly that your duke is different, I expect him to be different. But Noel was just a regular duke, in spite of all of Leigh and the other characters’ protestations to the contrary.

“The gentry get what they want, and we’re left in the muck. Bunch of blackguards, the lot of ’em.”

“Not all of them are bad, she said automatically. “Some try to do good with the power they’re given.” She dashed a knuckle across her eyes in a vain attempt to stem her tears.

Here, Noel is “trying to do good” by…not investing in sugar plantations. That’s it. That’s all the good he does. Slavery is bad, he tells us, so therefore I don’t invest my money in slavery. Instead, he invests in local business ventures (hence the Regency Shark Tank scheme). Except…investing, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily as altruistic as Leigh wants us to think. Noel is investing in order to make money, not to “help” small businesses. This is made clear, by the way, because his primary goal in life is to spend his money and have a good time:

When he’d become the Duke of Rotherby at the age of twenty-three, he’d had two intentions: enjoy the hell out of himself, and don’t abuse his privilege.

So here we have one of the most powerful men in the British Empire treating life like a fucking vacation. And need I remind everyone that at this point, slavery is still legal in said Empire?! Seems to me that if Noel actually, deeply cared about the oppressed, he could take his aristocratic ass to Parliament, put his money where his mouth is, and try to enact some change via the legal system—which he is uniquely suited to do. Or he could give away his money to charity! The only money he ever “gives” is to those he invests in, which…again….isn’t very selfless in the long run.

Fuck dukes, man.

Although, I must say that this made me laugh out loud:

Just then, he did feel like a human firework, brilliant as it exploded across the sky.

*carries boombox on shoulder, blasting Katy Perry*