The Duchess War (The Brothers Sinister Book 1)

I love this series! Have read all the Brothers Sinister books multiple times now and continue to be entranced by the relationship conundrums each couple has to overcome as well as the detailed descriptions of time and place in Victorian England. The author has done some incredible research on the mundane details of daily lives more than 150 years ago--from buildings, to clothing, to accommodations to food. The clothing in particular is front and center, particularly during the love scenes where corsets, petticoats, drawers, small clothes and chemises stand in the way of skin-to-skin contact.More importantly, this whole series features highly intelligent, creative, unusual women who do not fit the usual romance stereotype of beautiful and perfect. The leading lady in "The Duchess War," Wilhelmina Pursling/AKA Minerva Lane, begins the story well on her way to becoming a spinster with almost no marriage prospects, largely due to a prominent scar on her left cheek and a quiet, retiring disposition, fashioned intentionally to keep people away from the secret she harbors. Nevertheless, her brilliant mind cannot hide under a rock all the time, and she soon catches the attention of a handsome Duke, Robert Blaisdell, who is staying in town for a couple of months to pursue his own objectives. His attraction to her is completely unexpected but due in large part because he sees through her facade and is captured by her mysterious, clever persona, while she in turn responds to him not as a lord, but a regular man--something he has longed for but only experienced with his 1/2 brother and cousin.The story of how they find they their way to one another is at once tragic and inspiring, with lots of hurdles to overcome along the way. The dialogue is rich and believable reflecting the author's talent with description and metaphor: "It was such a damning thing to admit, that vulnerability. He felt like a turtle, stripped of its shell, being readied for soup." Sometimes the drama that ensues is rather overwrought, but I believe this comes about in response to the requirements of the genre to incorporate trials and challenges in and to the relationships presented..The other question in my mind with this whole series, however, is how the characters--both male and female--can be so sexually sophisticated, particularly in the context of that time period. The stereotype of Victorian England was that people were quite repressed, yet in spite of all the personal difficulties each individual in these stories has undergone to get to the point he or she can admit to being in love with another, they all manage to engage in great, mutually satisfying sex. In this one, at least Robert and Minnie's wedding night starts out with a few hiccups due to the fact they're both virgins, but Minnie's unusual directness (for a woman, that is), soon has them exploring all kinds of possibilities in their physical relationship that ultimately deepen their love and commitment to each other. What is being modeled in this series would be a good goal for building strong relationships between couples in the present time.The editing is very well done with few typos or missing words. There is better use of the subjunctive than many other books on the market, though still not completely consistent. These, however, are small complaints and do not detract from a very compelling series. The characters are thoroughly believable, and despite living during a period far removed from our own, feel as contemporary as anyone portrayed in our present time. Highly recommend these stories!

When more than one person mentions a specific author in the context of "if you like X, you may like Y", and if one's own books appear as either X or Y, it seems like a reasonable idea to check out what the other person is writing. And when one of that person's books turns up as a Kindle special, well, what the heck.And so I found myself reading Courtney Milan's The Duchess War. I've never been a voracious reader of historic romances--not like some people I know--though I have my favorites. (Despite certain deep flaws of social consciousness, I return regularly to Georgette Heyer for comfort reading.) But I'm not entirely au courant in the field of straight historic romance these days. (Alas, there really aren't enough lesbian historic romances to really consider it a "field", and so I make do.) That said, I can easily see why Milan gets recommended regularly to those looking to go beyond tired old tropes in their historicals. Despite beginning with a bare outline that feels all too familiar -- a handsome and personable Duke being pressured to end his bachelor state, an intelligent and sharply impertinent woman of less-than-exalted birth, with a Dark Past, who collides with him under disruptive circumstances -- we get a result that's far from routine.Milan's strength, in addition to a deft touch with description and setting, is taking the ordinary human foibles of two very different people falling disastrously in love, and making them seem romantic and attractive even in the midst of their chaotic messiness. (Is that too abstract? OK, it takes a good writer to write a realistic wedding night between two virgins and make it both sexy and endearing.) And if Milan's protagonists feel perhaps a bit too progressive and open-minded in their social politics for the setting, they aren't unhistorically so. It's just a matter of devising a story around the particular historic types needed to make it work. There were people like this, and they are no more unhistorical than the more common romance stereotypes. The result works very well, including the inclusion of enough secondary characters and trailing plot-threads to encourage the reader to seek out more of the author's works.If The Duchess War doesn't leave me eager to pounce on every other Courtney Milan novel available, it's only because it is, in the end, relentlessly heterosexual, and as usual I'm caught between the desire for well-written, engaging stories and the desire for stories that acknowledge my own existence. To be fair, one of the features The Duchess War has going for it is that one is permitted to fantasize that the heroine's two older female guardians are engaged in a well-closeted Romantic Friendship. Though you have to be aware of and looking for the possibility to spot it. In a perhaps not-so-odd way, historic romances that have less explicit sexual content make it easier for me to do a cross-gender identification when reading.But setting my own personal quirks as a reader aside, for those who enjoy progressive-thinking, well-written historic romance, with explicit but not excessive sexual content, I can definitely recommend this book.

Really loved this book. The story was so enthralling, so much intrigue, with humour and pathos … there was heartbreak, redemption and forgiveness but far too much sexual activity unfortunately. But at least it didn’t replace good writing and great dialogue. And the characters were appealing, colourful and well developed. Definitely worth reading, if you don’t mind a lot of very explicit sexuality.

Spoiler Alert - I absolutely adored this book. It's not perfect, sometimes were a little flat, but overall I loved the plot, more refreshing than the usual, I absolutely loved the carachters although I missed the great aunts, I think Minnie easily forgotten them after getting married, but buy favourite character was the Duke. His personality, he's longing for love he is just awesome. I liked Lydia as well. Also like the doctors although he was briefly mentioned it. And Lydia's father too. I really like the books even with its little faults. Recommend.

Good book..

Me enganché a la historia y la leí en dos días. Tanto él como ella tienen sus propios conflictos y se mantiene la tensión hasta el final. El último obstáculo parecía una nimiedad, una de esas trampas de las novelas para alargar aun más la trama, pero se resuelve adecuadamente. Mi única crítica con esta autora es que hacia el final ellas parecen tener todas las respuestas y ellos aparecen demasiado rendidos a sus pies. Disfruto más los conflictos entre iguales. En todo caso, una novela muy disfrutable.

I'm thrilled to have discovered this author. Courtney Milan is a superb writer, capable of producing three-dimensional, naturally flawed characters, who are shaped and developed by their pasts and environment. Some of my favorite aspects of this book is how much goes into the reader understanding what the characters are thinking, how they use their minds and their trail of logic, and the most satisfying way in which they come to their realizations and schemings. You will appreciate the occasional bursts of laughter from the characters' witty banter! It's refreshing to have heroines who are not solely defined by their appearance, but respected for their intelligence and skills and strength of character. The hero is not your typical nobleman, but a man seeking to revolutionize English society, adding a (modernized) social critique of the times, a refreshing take on the whole genre. I would recommend anyone looking for a smart, well-developed, and engaging historical novel.I bought the entire Brothers Sinister series after reading this (although I skipped the last novella, Talk Sweetly to Me), because they are so very very well-written and clever. It's hard for me to even choose a favorite. There are details of law and science and medicine brought up throughout, which was wonderful. Overall, these highly intelligent books are an excellent mix of smart, strong, capable female characters with goals and dreams, and the rare, special men able to appreciate them. Highly recommend!