Primrose and the Dreadful Duke
Garland Cousins #1
Emily Larkin
Historical Romance
Published in 2018 [requested review]
H/h - Oliver Dasenby, the Duke of Westfell/Lady Primrose Garland
Setting: Regency-era.
Read in August, 2018.
[spoiler alert]
Garland Cousins #1
Emily Larkin
Historical Romance
Published in 2018 [requested review]
H/h - Oliver Dasenby, the Duke of Westfell/Lady Primrose Garland
Setting: Regency-era.
Read in August, 2018.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
I’ve been eagerly waiting for the sequel to Emily Larkin’s Baleful Godmother series for quite a few months now. Primrose and the Dreadful Duke, is
the first in the Garland Cousins series and I’m happy to say it was a
delightful read mostly because I adored our H and the h, Oliver and
Primrose. Of course, I do love Emily’s writing style, so all in all,
this was a great initiation to a new series!
Though Primrose and the Dreadful Duke
can be read as a standalone, I’d suggest you read the Baleful Godmother
series and its prequels containing 4 books, titled the Fey Quartet. The
prequels are set in the ancient times when magic seemed real and Fae
roamed the earth. You get to know why a family of females were gifted
with special powers by a cold and scary-looking Fae named Baletongue. It
began with the Miller Family; Widow Miller and her 3 daughters Hazel,
Ivy and Larkspur. Then the female descendants of their families were
gifted by Baletongue with a special power, what you can also call a
‘super power’ of their choice. The wish would be granted when they turn
from somewhere between 21 and 25 depending on which sister they
descended from. Girls born from a male descendant won’t inherit it and
if a female who was the last of a line inheriting special power either
lived her life as a spinster, or passed away without having a daughter,
that line would die with her.
The Baleful Godmother series is
Regency set and contains 5 books and a novella, each telling the story
of a girl descended from the Millers one way or the other. Some of them
were cousins; others didn’t even know they had relatives with special
powers until circumstances brought them together! It was a super fun
series, and apart from book 1, I enjoyed them all. The novella is M/M,
with 2 male characters appearing in the installment right before it. It
doesn’t really connect to the theme of the series directly but the state
of affairs in both books went simultaneously, so it’s connected that
way. The novella was written in a way that if M/M isn’t your cup of tea
you can skip it. I read and loved it myself. :)
Book 1, Unmasking Miss Appleby is of Charlotte’s and book 2, Resisting Miss Merryweather is of Merry’s. They’re cousins. Book 3, Trusting Miss Trentham
is about Letitia Trentham who turns out to be Charlotte and Merry’s
distant relative. Book 3.5 is the M/M novella, between one of Letitia’s
cousins and his best friend. Book 4, Ruining Miss Wrotham and book 5, Discovering Miss Darlymple
aren’t directly connected to the first installments but by the theme,
though I think Charlotte and Merry do make appearances in book 4. I’m
sure all those ladies are relatives one way or the other, whether they
know each-other or not.
The Garland Cousins are another set of descendants of Widow Miller. I said that Primrose and the Dreadful Duke
can be read as standalone because none of the characters from Baleful
Godmother make an appearance, nor are they mentioned. But of course, the
story is connected by the common theme and our ‘favorite’ Fairy
Godmother Baletongue. :P I don’t remember if Primrose was ever mentioned
in any of the installments before, and right now, I don’t really care.
The story flowed just fine and I enjoyed it being in the moment with her
and Oliver.
Primrose Garland AKA Prim as her closest call her is
the daughter of the Duke of Sevenash. Though Prim didn’t lack the
looks, the riches, the brains, an identity or anything else that may
hinder a girl’s marriage prospective, at 27 she was fast becoming a
dedicated spinster. Prim loved reading, especially books written by
Marcus Aurelius. She enjoyed using her brain rather than being the
air-headed misses that milled about inside the ballrooms. What she
didn’t think she’d ever find was a man who was as intelligent,
passionate and as considerate of his wife’s penchant for being
intelligent, something that put her off of marriage for good. Prim
thought she’d live out her life as a spinster, coddling her 3 nieces and
nephews from her older brother Rhodes.
Rhodes is the heir to the
Dukedom. He married young, had 3 children, then lost his wife Evelyn
just a year before. He’s been drowning in sorrow ever since. Prim and
the rest of her family have been very worried about Rhodes but had no
idea how to help him. The Duke and Duchess are alive btw. Prim also has 2
other sisters, Violet and Aster. All 3 of them inherited their gifts
already so I’m safely assuming that Violet AKA Vi and Aster are over 21
themselves. The Duke and the Duchess or the sisters never made an
appearance in this story but they were mentioned a few times. Primrose
has chosen the gift of ‘translocate’ or what can plainly be termed as
the power to teleport herself from one place to another, as long as she
can imagine the exact location. Her super power comes into handy a few
times in the story. I think I could imagine her doing it too. :D
When
Oliver Dasenby, the newly minted Duke of Westfell, returns home from
India Prim felt nothing but relief. Termed as ‘Daisy Dasenby’ by Prim
when they were young, Oliver is Rhodes’s best friend. Hence he’d also
known Prim for a long time and never missed an opportunity to irritate
the hell out of Prim by his ridiculous, overly dramatic activities,
hence the name Daisy. :P It’s one of those things that annoys you but
you can’t help but laugh at the perpetrator of it cause it’s harmless
enough. Though Prim found Oliver to be annoying AF, when he left to join
the Army some 8yrs. ago, she also deeply felt his absence. Over the
years, she’d missed him much, something she didn’t acknowledge until the
news of his death reached them a few months ago. Prim didn’t think the
news would strike her the way it did, that a person full of so much
joie de vivre, was dead! It was utterly unthinkable!!
But
then, the news of him being alive reached (it was an error of mixed up
names) and Prim felt a sense of relief that she’d never felt before. And
she’d gone to receive Oliver when he’d finally returned home. Out of
the ship and Prim knew Oliver may have changed outwardly—he’s gotten
tanned and even bigger than before—on the inside, he was still the Daisy
Dasenby that made her laugh, because the first thing he did was to cast
his dubious charm on her once more with some hyperbolic accolade to her
beauty. It was all Prim did to not roll her eyes as she was used to
around Oliver. Would this nutcase ever change? More precisely, would
Prim ever want him change? In a few weeks though, Prim would know her
answer.
Oliver had been dazzled by Prim’s beauty and his
accolade, however hyperbolic, was genuine. He’d liked Prim when she was
young, and he’d found that Prim is even more likable now that she’s
grown up to be an intelligent young woman. Beauty and brains went well
together where she was concerned and Oliver was smitten. Though he
didn’t think of it much in the beginning, he still kept on teasing Prim
with his usual bit of shenanigans, calling her ‘Prickly Prim’ because of
the way she’d look at him and twitch her eyes so that she doesn’t have
to roll it, which would be very unbecoming of a lady of her status. He
loved when she called him ‘The Duke of Westfool; a fiddle-faddle fellow
with jingle brains’ (that’s how I surmised it from their banters, which
was superbly funny). Only she and she would call
Oliver that, and more, disregarding his new, elevated status in life.
The status he certainly wasn’t groomed for since his father was the
second son and was thrown out by his grandfather for making a love
match. Hell, Oliver was planning on becoming a Colonel by 40 when news
broke that his eldest uncle, the current Duke and his two sons had
perished within the span of a few months. As he was the one direct in
line, Oliver had to acknowledge the fact that his days in the army has
come to an end.
Oliver was an orphan himself but he had 2 other
living relatives; his uncle Algernon, the youngest brother to his father
and his cousin Ninian, Algernon’s only son. He was exceptionally happy
to see his 2 last living relatives hale and hearty. He was grateful to
find that Uncle Algernon had done everything in his power so Oliver can
assume his duties as the Duke ASA he’s in England. But he wasn’t really
saddened by the loss of his eldest uncle and his cousins Basil and
Percy. It was said that the Dukes of Westfell are the cruelest POSs out
there. Maybe except for Oliver’s father, who never really became the
Duke. Oliver wasn’t fond of them since they’ve done their utmost best to
ignore his family as per his grandfather’s decree. The only person
who’d sneak in to check in on them was uncle Algernon and Oliver had
always been thankful for his visits. Ninian was practically a kid when
he left for the Army, but Oliver found him to be one of those fellows
that loved their clothes more than anything else. A fop, I think? Ninian
was a beautiful young man and though the clothes he wore looked
marvelous on him, Oliver was too hardened in battle despite his joie de
vivre. He viewed his cousin to be a weakling of sort. Later in the
story, Ninian would prove that he was way more than what meets the eyes.
In
London, Oliver was trying to settle into the new life as a duke and
catching up with everyone he’d missed while in India. Of course, his
first stop was the Sevenash House to visit Rhodes. Oliver was aware of
the tragedy that had befallen his best friend and tries his best to
bring him out of his shell. Rhodes was becoming reclusive and Prim was
ever so grateful to Oliver for helping him. While at it, and attending
balls, Oliver also finds out rather astonishingly that someone is trying
to murder him! As he was going out of a ball he was attending, on a
secluded area someone shoves him down the steps. Oliver was hurt but
largely unharmed; a fact he can thank to his years in the army, on a
horse, which greatly improved his reflexes. This also put a new twist in
his happy return to London. He knew the Dukes of Westfell were
basically a$$holes and they may have any number of enemies but why him?
He’d just assumed his title and definitely wasn’t one of
them in that sense!
Though Oliver hid the
first attempt away as misgiving, thinking it may have been an accident,
after the next attempt made on his life he was certain it’s something he
can’t ignore any longer. If he’s to live and be the Duke—and Oliver
doesn’t want to die so soon—he needs to find out what’s going on. So
Oliver confides in Rhodes. Later Prim comes to hear of it as well. The
three then discuss the possibilities and hatch a plan to catch the
murderer in action at a house party which they were to attend in a few
days. The suspects were also going to attend so that was their first
step into investigating this insanity. Oliver, personally, still
couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to murder him and he hated to suspect
people he’d thought his friends. But if he’s to live, it had to be done.
The rest of the story takes place in the house party
investigating the murder attempts on Oliver. I kind of had a guess on
the murderer early on, so that bit wasn’t very surprising for me. What I
absolutely loved was Prim and Oliver’s budding relationship that
becomes too deep too soon. Both had already figured out that behind all
the poking and prodding, silly banters and eyerolling, there was
something going on; something that began when they were young. Though
they would’ve never believed it 8 yrs. ago and laugh at the thought of
being romantically involved, in the interim the dynamics of their
relationship has changed drastically. They’ve grown up and now view
things in a different way. So while chasing a murderer, Prim and Oliver
find that they very much would like to catch up on that bit of their
life. It was, you can say, inevitable the way they found to be
attracting each-other wherever they went. Rhodes certainly wasn’t
surprised as if he’d been waiting to finally see this relationship come
full circle. I could only laugh in the end, tremendously happy with how
things turned out for these two.
I totally agreed with Prim
where she thought Oliver will always be Oliver; someone who had so much
joy for life that he made everyone around him happy. He was like a ray
of sunshine and Prim couldn’t think of him being any different. She
wouldn’t have him any different, hyperbole, silly dramatics and all
that. For Oliver, he was just, as I mentioned before, smitten with
everything about Prim. I was never in doubt truth be told. ;)
It
seems like the next story in this series would be Prim’s younger sister
Violet’s. I still don’t know the particulars but I’m really quite
excited to read more in the series, so much so that that 2019 is looking
a bit too far away at the moment. I also find myself quite smitten with
Rhodes and hoping he’d find love again. 4.5 stars and totally
recommended!
Review copy received, thanks Emily! x
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