Unfortunately, I really did not like this book. In fact, I hated it so much I DNFd it. I'm really sad because this had so much potential. The cover was adorable and the premise of the story definitely had me intrigued. However, it was terribly slow, I wasn't attached to the characters, and I was not a fan of the writing.

Patience and Busick don't even REALLY meet until about 20 percent into the book and everything leading up to that was just unnecessary exposition. I also did not feel any sparks between Patience and Busick. I've noticed that many other reviews complained about how the book switches between the first and third person perspective, but that didn't really bother me. What did bother me however was the fact that the writing was so hard to read. It honestly felt like a bad classic.

To wrap things up, I really did not like this book, but I did like the fact that there was diversity, which you don't see often in historical romance.

The plot was intriguing and I was excited to read the novel. I was unable to finish it as the writing and story lost my interest. The dialogue is a bit off and I had a hard time connecting with the characters.

This is the first book in Vanessa Riley's new series, Rogues and Remarkable Women.

Patience Jordan is a newly widowed heiress from Demerara (a historical region on the north coast of South America that is now part of Guyana). Due to the laws of the time for women compounded by the fact that she is a minority, she has very few rights. She is wrongly sent to Bedlam by her husband's uncle, who initially takes possession of her home, Hamlin Hall, and guardianship of her infant son, Lionel. However, her husband's cousin, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, is his true legal guardian. The duke is an injured military commander and brings a small rag-tag army to Hamlin Hall to oust the uncle and claim his ward.
In the interim, Patience has found herself liberated from Bedlam by the Widow's Grace, a secret organization that helps wronged widows. With all of the former staff let go, the Widow's Grace is able to get Patience covertly installed as her son's nanny. Clearly having issues with pretending to be a servant when she was once mistress of the house, Patience is headstrong and forthright, However, Busick is draw to her impertinence, and they form a friendship. As they find common ground in their love for Lionel ... and maybe each other ... they work to untangle the mysteries surrounding her husband death.

This was my first time reading a book by Vanessa Riley. I love the attention to historical detail of the text and truly appreciated the author's notes following the story. A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby gives a rare look at the actual diversity that existed in Regency England, something most other historical romances ignore.

Riley chose to tell the story from two points of view. Busick's thoughts are share via third-person storytelling, the norm for historical romance, but Patience's thoughts are shared from her first-person point of view. It's an interesting choice, and while I appreciate the idea, it seemed gimmicky. I'd expect the first-person to help me better empathize with Patience, but this inner dialogue just made her seem more stubborn and impetuous since she was so self-focused when juxtaposed with Buswick's chapters.

As far as romance goes, the book is very chaste and nothing but a few kisses are shared between the couple (first kiss at about 70%), and the act of sex is alluded to in the last few pages. Many authors are able to keep sex off the page without a detriment to the chemistry shared by the main characters, but here, it felt very much like we were told there was a connection between Busick and Patience rather than shown.

Some of the phrases and sentence structure of book were also a little odd, and I frequently found myself backtracking to re-read and understand a sentence. A phrase that I'm not loving the imagery on is "he watched her wobble like she shifted through dessert jellies" or " a loud groan like a cannon's belch ripped from my duke." I also didn't enjoy ALL of the references to Patience breastfeeding her son. To hear about a Regency character breastfeeding their own child is amazing, and so a few mentions is more than fine, but it's shared that Busick smells Patience's "sweet milky soap" scent, Patience leaks though her clothes more than once and feels "sticky" - which is mentioned during one of their few kisses - and there are plenty of mentions to the baby Lionel's satisfied lip-smacking and loud burps. I like doses of reality in my romance, but this definitely takes away the chance for a romantic moment. Also, it's very rare that you find Patience interacting with her son and NOT breastfeeding him, while we see Busick reading to him and playing with him and having "crawling practice."

At the end of the day, I enjoyed the concept and the important social issues that Riley attempted to bring to light, but I felt the overall plot dragged as I stumbled over phrasing and word choice or struggled to connect with the two main characters.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Zebra/Kensington for an honest review.

While I finished the book, I can't say I enjoyed it. As someone who reads very fast (AKA reading issue), I had a hard time tracking all the different components of the story. And I don't think they were all explored to their full potential

I think others might enjoy this since there were some very interesting & unusual things going one with characters and storyline.

I received an ARC for this review.

"A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby", by Vanessa Riley, is a novel based on an interesting premise: Patience Jordan, a widowed heiress has lost her husband (and all of his fortune) due to his suicide. She is now living in squalor and has been separated from her newborn son. When a Duke shows up on the son to inherit all of her previous husband's riches and their son as well, she must decide how to win it all back. The premise was intriguing, but this book just didn't draw me in. The characters were rather flat, and the chemistry between the heiress and the Duke was non-existent.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I've been looking forward to this book for so long, between the cover and the synopsis I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately it was a DNF for me. I couldn't get over the writing style and word choices, and the fact that it switched between first person narration and third person narration was bizarre to me.

Thank you, Kensington Books and NetGalley for this arc.

I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️. A story about Patience, an heiress who lost her husband from a very mysterious suicide: her newborn son was also taken away from her. Then there's Busick, a strict wounded military hero who is investigating his dead cousin's dangerous life. Both didn't get along in the beginning but will be an ally as things unfold.

A mother who will do everything to get her son back, a man who will do everything to keep the baby safe. I guess this is what gets me on this story. They both love baby Lionel. I do, however wish the romance between the two characters would be better because some points or engagement is monotonous. The story of Widow Grace is intriguing. There is some sequence that is a bit complicated to me, but nothing significant. The overall story is okay.

I found this book alternatively delightful and anxiety producing. I was completely captivated by wounded warrior Busick Strathmore. His sense of honor and his can-do attitude, his "drills" and solutions to problems won me over. I love that his sense of self is not in the least wounded. This is no shrinking violet who thinks life is over because of major injuries. Patience has enlisted the Widow's Grace secret group to right wrongs done to her. She has lost her home and her baby boy upon her husband's death due to a villainous relation. She is resilient and fearless. She and Busick cross paths when he arrives at her former home to take charge of her son, his new ward.

In Vanessa Riley's "A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby", a woman named Patience loses her entire family after her husband commits suicide, her son being adopted by the Duke of Repington. After finding a job as her son's nanny, Patience continues her maternal relationship, as well as creating a new, more romantic one with the Duke.

Throughout the novel, Riley uses multiple perspectives to tell her tale: through the first person POV of Patience, and the third person POV of the Duke. By utilizing this switch, Riley uses her skill as a writer to simultaneously show multiple sides to her story while also making it clear that Patience is her main character. Since these are the only characters however, it can at times cause confusion. Had the third-person portions been from multiple characters POVs (such as small vignettes), I think that this would create more clarity. I personally had little problem with it, but think it could have been stronger this way.

Overall, I loved the story. While Patience lost her whole family, she shows perseverance as a strong female character, pursuing the love for her son and not giving into her bleak situation. I would love to see a sequel to this book - I loved the scenes between the Duke and Lionel, and would love to see more!

"A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby" by Vanessa Riley pulls the reader into the story from the start by introducing you to Patience Jordan as she sneaks into her former home, dressed as a man, to feed her infant son. An outsider to English society from the West Indies, Patience is without family or friends and at the time of her husband's death is falsely accused of madness by his uncle who seeks custody of her son and her fortune. Committed to Bedlam, Patience is rescued by the Widow's Grace, a secret society of avengers led by Lady Shrewsbury.

With Lady Shrewsbury's help, Patience is hired as her son's nanny by his true guardian, Duke Repington. Although Repington is still recovering from injuries sustained during the Peninsular War, he is hoping to recover his strength to be recalled to serve Wellington again. Although she gradually comes to see him as an honorable man, Patience is determined to gain custody of her son and return home to her family in the West Indies.

At the heart of this book is the story of two wounded individuals who must gradually overcome their initial mistrust and fear to find happiness with each other. The story is told from alternating points of view and the reader can see the relationship develop through each of the character's perspectives - and fears. What is special about this book is that it confronts issues pertaining to prejudices about race and disability that easily enable injustice to occur.

When I finished this book, I immediately went to the Vanessa Riley's author page on the web to read more about her and start reading more of her books. In addition to other books Ms. Riley has authored, I learned that "A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby" is the first book in a new series involving women from the Widow's Grace. I cannot wait to read them!

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A romance, thriller, and sweet story of a widow trying to regain custody of her child. I would recommend this book if you're looking for

A love story of a mother trying to save her son
A duke falling in love with his baby ward and unwittingly the baby's mom
Rivals to lovers
A group of widows teaming up to escape an insane assylum
A slow burn
Closed door romance

My favorite parts of the book were the main characters with the baby. Both Patience and the Duke clearly loved Lionel so much, that was the heart of the book for me. The story between Patience and the Duke was fun, and I appreciated the Duke's story as a recovering war hero coming to terms with his amputation. But the story seemed rushed in parts, and their choice to get married referring it as a marriage of convenience when they both admitted/knew they had feelings just seemed sudden. Overall a book with twists and turns that will keep you reading.

Triggers: mental health, suicide, memory loss,

A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby was a lovely addition to the series. The lady is just trying to save her baby from an uncle that is taking advantage. When the Duke steps in and has to decide who he can trust. It was fairly predictable but a fun read. I did have an issue with some things that were mentioned in the book, but never resolved. Such as what happened to the items that went missing, and what were the strange noises? Other than that, I truly enjoyed reading this cozy mystery and would recommend it.

This book's plot was so intriguing to me as I read the synopsis. As I read the story it seemed especially convoluted to be as I knew both sides of the main characters intentions and plans, One conversation on page 12 and the main plot could've been wrapped up nicely. I think I would've enjoyed this from one perspective instead of two. I also felt like I came into the middle of a chapter at the beginning of the novel.
I liked the main characters but was incredibly intrigued by The Widow's Grace secret society. Ultimately the need for it was truly upsetting, but I loved the spy aspect of the plot more than the romance at times and wanted to hear more about them.

I had really high hopes for A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby, but ultimately had to DNF. Sometimes being dropped into the middle of the action is a good thing, but here I found it distracting and never regained my footing. I kept checking to make sure this was the start of a series because it seemed like I was supposed to be aware of established characters and histories, and that wasn’t the case at all. We get to read Patience in first person, but Busick’s point of view was in third person, which took away some of the internal thought processes that could help us learn more about him. I found myself struggling to connect with the characters and impatient for the story to gel. Unfortunately I could not finish A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby, but hope it works for others.

didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it, either. It lacked the components that I look for in a romance. I didn't get any feels between the characters, but I liked them as individuals, not necessarily together. They had common ground in the baby, Lionel, who was fathered by Patience's deceased husband and the Duke of Repington's cousin, but that was all they had.

The book started out on a good note when Patience is trying to get out of Hamlin Hall, dressed as a man. She'd been sneaking in and out of the place, trying to keep her baby fed while it was under the control of Colin's (Patience's husband) uncle Markham. He's got his eye on being Lionel's guardian and taking the stipend that came from Patience's father. And that leads to the mystery of the story. Patience has been thrown into Bedlam (getting out of there would've made a great story on its own) and is now trying to get her trust papers so she can get back to Demeraran to raise her son with her family. Once she gets them, she'll be gone. But it's never that easy.

The mystery of this wasn't all that interesting to me nor was it a new concept. I don't mind intrigue in a book. I like it as long as it's just a part of the story, but book was centered around it and the romance was secondary, lackluster, and just fell flat.

There were no surprises or twists. There was no steam, no feels, nothing I look for when I'm reading a romance. No covert looks, no wistful thoughts, but maybe there would've been had the book been consistent with the point of view. All we got was Patience's. Hers was in first person. His was in the third. I didn't find it unreadable, but I think it affected the continuity of the story as a whole.

I don't mean this to be a totally negative review, especially since it will appeal to some others, but some of the dialogue was too modern and took away from the genuineness of the book. I do think there were some historical facts that were correct. The author documented it at the end of the book., which is something I appreciate.

I liked Busick. He was a disabled veteran of the Peninsular Wars. He had lost part of his leg and spent a fair amount of time in a wheelchair. I loved his attitude. He was down but not out. He treated everybody, including Lionel, like they were soldiers. He had a little baby on a strict schedule, which included crawling lessons. He wasn't overbearing, though. He had a light attitude and was often humorous. As far as I'm concerned, he saved the story. He was masculine, chivalrous, and just an all-around good guy. I just wish I could've felt his attraction to Patience. I wish I could've felt her moving into his heart. It was obvious he loved Lionel, but I didn't feel him forge any real feelings for Patience. I'd go as far to say that the only person I felt he had a connection with was his friend, Gantry.

I'm also going to comment on the cartoonish cover. I despise it. The author worked hard to produce this novel and to put such a cheesy cover on it is just sad. I don't like any of them, no matter whose book it is. I won't even look at the blurb most of the time because if it has a bad cover, chances are the story is its equal if not worse. The title of this book caught my attention. I like stories with children and animals and I took a chance. One thing I did notice is that man on the cover is missing part of his leg. That deserves a thumbs up.

This book wasn't for me, but that isn't to say that others won't enjoy it. If you like squeaky clean historical romances, this book is for you. If you like babies as a focal point, you'll like this book. If you like a wounded hero, this book will surely be a hit. If you like a mystery with your romances, you will enjoy this.

I probably won't read anymore books in the series.

I was so excited to read this new series. Released from Bedlam and forced to become a spy in her own home, Patience is determined to rescue her infant son and ends up falling for the new Duke.

I enjoyed Patience and the "Widow's Grace" plot and am very interested to read more about future widows. The chemistry between Buswick and Patience felt off, however and I think his character needed a bit more work. Also, the switching between first and third person narration throughout the book was very confusing too.

I received a free copy from NetGalley for my honest review.

This is the first Vanessa Riley novel I've read, and I have to say it didn't grab me. I read just past halfway, but didn't engage with any of the characters enough to finish the book. I don't usually mind a combination of first and third person, but in this case, it didn't work for me.

I won't be reviewing this title.

A Duke, the Lady and a Baby was up there as one of my most anticipated reads for this year. I mean, just read the synopsis! It sounds amazing.

And yet.

And.

Yet.

The best way for me to explain how I felt about this book is this little anecdote. About 30 pages in, maybe less, I came across an… interesting euphemism (to say the least) for sex. A euphemism that left me giggling for hours, and one I still can’t think about without bursting into laughter.

The fleshly congress.

And really, this set the tone for the book as a whole. Granted, I hadn’t particularly liked the writing before now - it felt a little grandiloquent, in all honesty - so I was sort of predisposed not to really enjoy the book. But then the euphemism.

Romance books are good at finding ways to talk about sex through euphemisms, I know this. But this euphemism was so laughable, I just couldn’t cope. I couldn’t read more than a few pages before remembering the fleshly congress. To be perfectly honest, I think I got through the book in the hopes of finding more such euphemisms. Unfortunately, there were none (the sex scene was fade to black…).

As much as it put me off, that euphemism was probably the best thing about the book.

Because there were a number of other aspects of it that irritated me. For one, Busick (not a romantic-sounding name at all) basically browbeats her into marrying him. And I know I have read and liked a lot of romance books that are predicated on something similar (it is quite hard to escape a case of the male character using his societal power over the female character in some way, I am resigned to this), but here it just didn’t work for me.

And they also seem to just decide they are in love without there actually being any evidence for it. They don’t even communicate very well, for crying out loud!

So in the end, this went from being one of my most anticipated reads to one of my most disappointing ones.

As a white reader used to reading a white-only world of regency novels, I deeply approve of the increase in multicultural heros and heroines in regency romances these days. In this case, the main character is the daughter of a West Indian planter dealing with being a newly widowed single mother. Her son's guardian is recently ex-military as a result of losing a limb, and dealing with that as well as the loss of perceived worth that his job had given him. Not a fluffy little romance! But very good and not artificially deep--the characters were dealing with real problems that made their lives complicated, and learning to live with the changes that these things required.

From the premise, this book sounded right up my alley. From the first page, however, it was a disappointment. The quality of the writing was much lower than I expected, with short, choppy sentences and odd phrasing (man-talk? lass-talk?) Also the mc referred to her breasts as her 'charms' within the first couple of pages which was weird. She was talking to her baby while also listening to men talking on the other side of the door - men she was trying to remain hidden from. If she could hear them, stands to reason they could hear her talking about how she couldn't be discovered.

All in all, a pretty quick dnf for me.