Nicola Cornick, The Confessions of a Duchess

I was very disappointed in this offering by Ms. Cornick. Not only is the progress of the tale tediously slow, I found the character of the heroine to be hard, dishonest — for no good reason — and actually cruel. She repeatedly lies to the man she supposedly loves — and has loved for 4 years and bore a child by. When she supposedly can no longer keep the truth from him after his has encountered the child and recognized her to be his own child, she says that she did not actively try to keep him from seeing the child — and thus, recognizing her as his own — but earlier in the book she says to herself that she must keep him from catching sight of the child. She repeatedly bemoans to herself the lies and dishonesty that keeps them apart, but does nothing to rectify the situation when it is her lies and dishonesty.

She is portrayed as a woman who cares deeply about others, especially those she cares about, but intentionally kept the child from its father not only while her former husband was alive, but even after his death — admitting that the child’s father was. Or the type of man to inflict harm on the child by making public the child’s actual parentage.

Dexter Anstruther definitely deserved a woman with far greater integrity to love.

The Confessions of a Duchess

Nicola Cornick

Harlequin HQN, Jun 2009, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373773770

In 1809 in the village of Fortune's Folly, Sir Montague Fortune is outraged when former housemaid Miss Alice Lister rejected him as the rumored wealthy heiress realized her suitor groom is an unprincipled person. Irate by the affront of an aristocrat like him by a working class nothing, Sir Montague decides to punish all unmarried females when he applies the medieval Dames Tax; either a woman is married or she pays half her fortune to the squire; in this case him.

The outraged single females decide to take counteraction with this sexist stance led by the Dowager Duchess Laura Cole as the village is flooded by impoverish wastrels who see the village as a marriage mart. Meanwhile the Home Secretary sends Dexter Anstruther to Fortune's Folly to investigate a homicide and for him to find a wealthy wife. However, Dexter is stunned to find Laura resides there; the greatest night of his life was with her four years ago but she dumped him in the morning after. As they fall in love and become lovers, she again rejects his proposal fearing her secret will send her beloved away; though he struggles on his personal front, he follows murder clues while she leads a Lysistrata like insurgency.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A DUCHESS is an intelligent Regency romance starring a strong secondary cast and two likable lead protagonists. The story line is fast-paced and amusing as the women revolt against their penuriousness (with his money) spendthrift (with their money) squire. Although the Regency era is not fully anchored, fans of historical romance will relish the Lysistrata insurgents dealing with an invasion of slimy piss poor males.

Harriet Klausner