[book-info]
Don’t want to read the whole review? Click to jump to the Skinny Review.
Well, it took me a number of months to get into this book. To say that I was disappointed is such an understatement – this book was MEDIOCRE, to say the least!
I was looking forward to this book since I read Lady Bridget’s Diary last year because I liked James. He was written as such a cool and caring brother and the romance hinted at between him and Meredith was a tease that I WANTED to read. Unfortunately, this book failed in both.
Reasons Why It’s Hard Out Here for a Duke Failed
It was disjointed
This book is set concurrently with the other three books in the series and because of this, I felt like the story was very fragmented. Fragmented to the point where if you haven’t read the other books in series, you would feel lost (and I have read the other books in the series and I FELT soooo lost!). Because of this, I was skimming some of the parts.
Chemistry lost
What happened to the chemistry that was hinted at in the previous books? I felt like part of James and Meredith’s romantic interludes happened in the other books that it was MISSING in their own book!
Sure, I liked how they met and I liked the issues surrounding their relationship AND this trope is one of my favorites, too! But I wanted MORE! I wanted more interactions and more moments showing how James and Meredith fell in love.
Final thoughts
I’m not sure what went wrong! Maya Rodale is one of my favorite romance authors but I feel like this series missed the mark, for me at least. Her Bad Boys & Wallflowers series was AWESOME, actually.
This book was also inspired by The Princess Diaries and Grey’s Anatomy and I’m not getting the mash-up at all.
Recommendations
I’m not sure I can recommend this book at all. As much as I LOVED Lady Bridget’s Diary, books 2 and 3 were not my favorites.
This was a HOT MESS, in my opinion, and as much as I love Maya Rodale, she really missed the mark on this one.
[rating-report]
What do you think about series that are set concurrently with the other books?
![✦ ɴᴇᴡ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ ✦
I FINALLY read The Other Half of the Grave and I am kicking myself for waiting this long to read Bones’ POV! Halfway to the Grave was all in Cat’s POV and I was just so curious on what Bones’ was thinking – because let’s face it, Cat was very immature in Halfway and I couldn’t imagine a master vampire like Bones would put up with her.
The Other Half of the Grave did not disappoint. I love reading the book from Bones’ POV because now we know his thoughts and how he was reacting to Cat’s antics – as frustrating as Cat is! There are also new scenes here because this is Bones’ POV. It gave me another insight into what Bones was thinking.
If you are a fan of the Night Huntress series, then I highly recommend that you read Bones’ POV! If you can read this book alternatively with the OG books in the series, it would even be more immersing.
[Full review on blog. Link in bio]
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥💥
Cover Love: ❤❤❤❤
Audiobook: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
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I agree about this here. I definitely agree that this series has missed the spot for sure which is odd because her other previous books I have really liked so I don’t know why these books just didn’t do it for me, although I still need to read book one. And not sure I will be reading this one, maybe I will do it on audio through my library.
Thanks for the honest review.
Lover Of Romance recently posted…At A Glance: Month of November 2017
I really enjoyed Lady Bridget’s Diary but the other 2 books in the series were also disjointed! I just… meeehhh I think it’s just the romcoms that she picked really didn’t speak to me, you know?
I’m sorry this book didn’t work for you, I wasn’t familiar but I’ve seen it promoted a lot. I’ve never heard of a series taking place concurrently, that’s interesting…
I can’t remember what series, but I think there are a few. It’s not that common, though. Series standalones can do this I think (if this makes sense)