The Courtesan Duchess

"The title: a bit confusing but ultimately intrigued me enough into reading this book by Joanna Shupe (I have finally crossed her off my list of authors I desperately need to read from). I don’t know what it is but as soon as I find out that a book is set (at least partially in this case) in Venice, Italy, I immediately want to devour every word of it. It’s the whole ambiance and overall history of the place that just sucks me in. Then it became what I thought would be the dreaded “secret baby/pregnancy” trope, but oddly enough I dug it. It’s when the book does not advertise its self as such that ****** me off (*hint hint Christina Lauren). <br/><br/>I do think the bonkers plot at the end could have been left out and instead the author could have gone down the road of having a more in-depth exploration of the chasm between Nick and Julia, which could have lead to my favourite element in any romance novel: the almighty GROVEL. It left a bit to be desired that there wasn’t as much as I thought there should have been, considering how he treated Julia when she was pregnant. Even without as much as I wanted, I still enjoyed my time reading this book and I will continue on in this series. Joanna Shupe is definitely deserving of the hype and praise that she receives in Romancelandia.<br/><br/>Also on a side note: they never explained why Nick had a particular preference towards redheads and why it was never brought up after he went to that brothel when he arrived back in England. Any guesses of the origin?"