

A Duke of Her Own
Author: Eloisa James
Narrator: Susan Duerden
Unabridged: 11 hr 26 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: HarperAudio
Published: 12/16/2011
Categories: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Women
Author: Eloisa James
Narrator: Susan Duerden
Unabridged: 11 hr 26 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: HarperAudio
Published: 12/16/2011
Categories: Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Women
To say, it runs in the family, is an understatement when referring to the writing career of author, Mary Bly. Her credentials are impeccable with degrees from various prestigious schools, such as Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. She is a tenured professor on William Shakespeare, and has published with the Oxford University Press.
While attending the University of Virginia on a humanities fellowship, Bly began writing romance novels. Granted, the novels are not modern day romance, but set in England's Regency Period, where her incomparable knowledge of William Shakespeare serves as an added bonus in her works. She began this genre of writing to expedite paying off her student loans. Her first attempt was very well received.......The Pleasure Trilogy......and sold many copies in hardback, and her advance payment from the book paid off that student loan debt. After that, she decided to publish under the pseudonym of Eloisa James and to only publish in paperback format. It was more of a mass-market plan. Both worked in her favor.
Most of Bly's novels are not typical in character for the romance genre. Most have a very beautiful female character and a romantic interest in a handsome male character. Bly deviates from the norm by featuring a plump female character, or a hero who annulled a marriage because of impotence. Women friends or sisters play important roles in a Bly novel, because she places importance on those relationships in her own life. Most of her novels are in trilogy form or groups of four. That format gives her more story line time to develop interesting characters.
It was several years before Bly uncovered her secret second career to her intellectually snooty colleagues. She even disguised her appearance when she addressed each group, readers of her novels, and colleagues. When she realized how popular her novels were with her readers, she revealed her secret by giving each faculty colleague a copy of her latest novel. It was well received by all. And for the fact that the talent runs in the family, Mary Bly's (Eloisa James) Father, Mother, and Uncle were writers. Her romance novels are very popular all around the world.
Georgian hero with a very, very, very bad reputation wants to make amends to his small army of illegitimate children. He’s found the cynical chip off the old block who really needed more page time because their relationship was pretty entertaining as he tries to wangle together the rest of his child......more
I've been waiting for five books to see who Villiers--one of my fave rakes of all-- will finally fall for... and Ms James chose well for him. Delightful romance from start to finish! (reviewed 3/26/17)......more
I came to this book from one that I found incredibly boring. So straight from the beginning I found our heroine very interesting. The book starts with a spunky dialogue between two sisters about the looks and dress of our heroine (one of the sisters) and it is not flattering. She is described as som......more
Oh my god, this book. So many feels. I don't want to say too much and spoil, but this is a true gem. Eleanor is awesome, confident, headstrong, smart, just one of my favorite HR heroines EVER. And Leopold... at first he's so cold and reserved, almost aloof, but then he shows his true face and it's s......more