The Book Gourmet

***eBook available for free on Amazon***

Amelia travels to a country party as her aunt’s companion, while the woman tries to snare a duke. While exploring a maze in order to clear her head, Amelia stumbles upon a handsome, older-than-her gentleman, but flees before they’re introduced.

The next night, she once more stumbles upon the man, this time in the library, where he kisses her, and, once her aunt discovers them, Amelia learns the gentleman whose kiss she’s been enjoying is the duke her aunts plans to marry.


The story started off well, but soon lost its grip with reality. And since we’re speaking of a fictitious story, the accusation is grave indeed. From the tableau in the library, this story went from interesting to unrealistic and almost bizarre in a matter of pages. (Although I did enjoy the slapping incident at the end of the encounter in the library.)

The whole premise with the lust-at-first-sight turning into an offer of marriage turning into love with a spattering of familial reunions along the way happened too fast for it to be even remotely realistic. While I enjoyed the heroine and her stubbornness and “independence” wasn’t annoying, it was the hero and his constant internal monologues about him maybe getting old that got old fast and became annoying even faster.
I also didn’t care much about the, albeit short lived, misunderstanding and the a little longer-lived “indecision” about accepting the marriage proposal and the incessant debates that elicited.

I felt the story was short enough to curb any deeper characterization and plotting, so the fillers in form of the above-mentioned misunderstanding and debating about not-accepting-for-not-being-properly asked created additional and completely unnecessary drama and conflict while not actually benefitting the story or its pacing.