Books › Duquesa by Default
Duquesa by Default
190 pages
A delightfully dramatic marriage-of-convenience romance where indignant frustration slowly melts into sweeping, unexpected love.
What it feels like
This vintage-feeling romance delivers a brisk, escapist fantasy built on the beloved marriage-of-convenience trope. The narrative moves with a delightfully melodramatic energy, plunging the reader into a world of aristocratic high-handedness and forced proximity. The mood is tense and sweeping, anchored by a heroine who spends much of the story in a state of exasperated indignation before slowly unraveling into genuine affection. The prose is straightforward but emotionally heightened, focusing intensely on the push-and-pull dynamics of a couple trapped by circumstance. It is a perfect afternoon read for fans of classic category romance who crave the delicious friction of an arrogant hero, a stubborn heroine, and a fake engagement that inevitably, breathlessly, becomes all too real.
- Mood
- escapist
- tense
- sweeping
- Tone
- melodramatic
- earnest
- exasperated
- romantic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- marriage of convenience · aristocratic society · loss of control · enemies to lovers · unexpected surrender
- The writing
- Straightforward and emotionally heightened, the writing leans heavily into the dramatic internal monologue and romantic tension of its heroine.
- The arc
- The protagonist moves from indignant frustration and feeling trapped by circumstance to a sweeping, unexpected surrender to genuine love.
- Who it's for
- Fans of vintage category romance who love a high-handed hero, a marriage of convenience, and plenty of indignant banter.
Content notes
- manipulation
- mild coercion
About the book
Joanna was very relieved that Duque Rafael de Santiago was able to help her out of the embarrassing mess she'd got herself into--but there were limits to her gratitude!
She would not marry his younger brother, Manuel! The bizarre situation soon got completely out of hand, for Manuel tricked them both and publicly announced Joanna's engagement to Rafael.
What drove these brothers? They didn't consider Joanna's feelings at all!
But she found she was marrying for love
Description from Open Library.
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