I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is one of the first Historial Romance novels I think I've read.

From the moment I picked up the book I rather enjoyed it. It was very different from the romance novels I read on daily bases. I was intrigued by reading a novel that was set in the 1800s in England during the war. I also rather enjoyed the book because it focuses on a widow who is trying to right the wrongs that were done to her and she doesn't allow the fact that she is a woman stop her from doing what is write.

The book is about Patience, a widow whose husband committed suicide. Shortly after the death of her husband Patience is kicked out of her home, and her son is taking away from her. She had to choices to leave quietly or to fight for her son.

And fight she did, she would sneak back into her previous home to ensure that her son was well fed. During one of her trips, she met the duke, while she was disguised as a footman. Patience later returns seeking a job as the baby's nanny. During her time as a nanny, she and the duke fall in love and he makes her his wife.

A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby was an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading the other books in what I feel will be a good series. This book made me more interested in reading historical romance novels. I am glad to have had the opportunity to review it.

Vanessa Riley is an exquisite author and her attention to historical details is wonderful. I often feel that historical romances can be homogeneous often focusing on lords and ladies and mostly white lords and ladies. The reality that there were people of color and prominent people of color at that are often ignored or erased altogether.

That being said her romance writing is often a hit or miss for me. Then hero and heroine rarely do it for me in her books and I just can’t figure out why. I also have to admit that the beginning of the books can be difficult to understand if you don’t read the synopsis for the book.

The story itself encompasses a trope that I usually avoid like the plague and that is one of the main characters pretending to be someone else usually for revenge on the other main character or to try and get close to someone else. Because I love her writing I decided to go ahead and request this one thinking maybe I’ll enjoy what she does with the trope but it just didn’t do what I wanted it to do.

Patience is a woman on a mission. She has been thrown out of her home and separated from her son - she just needs to find certain documents that will help her regain her freedom. The man standing in her way? The Duke of Repington, a former rake with a penchant for rules and schedules.

I admit I was sucked in by the cover. It's quite good. But I just couldn't love the contents of this book. I liked the lead characters - particularly since it's difficult to find diverse Regency romance - but they didn't seem to have any real chemistry and their relationship went from A to B without much development. And I was distracted by the switch between first person and third person POVs. This looks to be the start of an interesting series, though I won't be continuing with it.

After having gone on a recent historical romance spree, I was thrilled to be approved for an early review copy of Vanessa Riley's forthcoming A DUKE, THE LADY, AND A BABY. I loved the description/synopsis that hinted at a West Indies mother pressed to the point of desperation, fighting against the unfair machinations of Colonialist England's racism, prejudice, and sexism in the early-nineteenth-century. While I cared about the main characters and felt for them, I ultimately struggled to locate chemistry between the Duke or Patience, and I also found the storytelling's pacing as well as writing style to fall short of my expectations.

What I struggled with:
- The female protagonist, Patience's perspective in the book is written exclusively in the first-person: "I talked to her; we went outside." But the Duke's is always (and typical to historical romance) in third-person: "Busick took a tentative step; he watched her leave." I can honestly say in my entire life of reading I have never encountered dual points of view being written from different "person" perspectives in a single story. It was incredibly distracting and I have absolutely *no* idea why an editor or anyone reading this pre-publication didn't stop and say, "wow, that's insanely distracting to be constantly jarred from "I" to "he/she". This made for deeply disruptive reading experience.
- The chemistry....wasn't chemistry. It was descriptions about each other's physicality, but there was so much back and forth bickering and what felt like empty conversations, it seemed like there was never a moment for tension to build--no pregnant pause, no longing glance, no moments of silence. I think the suspense plot in this warred with the romantic one, resulting in a lot of abrupt dialogues and few moments to build tension and desire.
- As the point above mentions, I think the romance of the story and the suspense were at war and didn't arrive at a satisfactory detente before this story went to publication. It could have benefitted from tightening up all page time spent on vanquishing Markham's agenda, and more solid moments shared between Busick and Patience.

What I liked:
- References to huge inequities and injustices in 19th-century England: Bedlam's corruption, the dismissal, and racialized hatred of POC, the deep financial deprivation of women (the entailing of estates, naming of children, male control of assets)
- The portrayal of an empowered, determined WOC, a strong core female friendship, and a gritty depiction of how hard it must have been back then to survive and battle injustice.
- The portrayal of war-wounds, costs, and the resulting disabilities; Busick was depicted as dealing with pain and challenges, but he was never a pitied character and was quite empowered.
- I loved the baby, and how he was the fulcrum for the Duke and Patience's budding romance.

All in all, this was a lovely concept of a story that to me fell short in a few critical areas that would have made it well-executed: unified "person" perspective (first or third--please just pick one), tightening the storyline's pacing to better develop their romance or at least more succinctly handle the suspense plot, and a finer, more nuanced hand at building character tension and connection.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington for this advance complimentary review copy. All opinions are my own.

I liked Patience and her absolute determination to protect her child, and her being torn away from her very young son was heart wrenching. The set-up with the Widows Grace is great , but I wanted Patience and Jemina to be fully in on the plans; it felt instead that the Duchess was keeping things from them for unexplained reasons. I would love to see more of the operation of the Widows Grace and how they discover their information and what their operatives are doing (and the danger involved in that.)

I could not get on board with the hero here. His insistence on a totally unreasonable schedule for a baby, his refusal to really listen to Patience, and his bringing said baby to a gaming hell to...prove a point to the baby's mother made him a jerk to me. And I'm not quite clear on why Patience's POV was in first person, while Busick's was in third; it was distracting and kept him at arms' length from the reader so that it was difficult to understand his motivations. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Thanks to NetGalley and Zebra/Kensington for the ARC.

*** I”ve received this ARC in exchange for an honest review ***

I’m typically not a romance reader, but this story tickled my fancy. The story is interesting, where you’re trying to figure out the whole mystery around what happened to the late husband while our widow attempts to just live her life.

I enjoyed the additional bits that set this apart from what I expected to read. The inclusion of racial issues and disability was welcoming, even if I had to look up some information about some things in the writing.

The downsides for me were sometimes around the writing and how it felt like it dragged at times, though I definitely did enjoy this more than not.

I was really confused at the opening of this book. It took a few chapters to settle into the story and than I did enjoy it. It felt quite different.to the standard historical romances I usually read but not in a bad way. It would have been quite easy to give up after the first chapter to be honest as it felt quite mixed up. Some explanation of the ‘Widows Grace’, early on would have been useful. I felt it was a strange name to give the group and little real clarification was ever given. Maybe all will be clearer as the series develops?
I did like the storyline. As I put earlier it was a bit different to the normal romances and the interaction between Patience and Busick was well. written. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advance copy.

**Disclaimer: I was given a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.**

Title A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby

Author Vanessa Riley

Description from Amazon

When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband’s mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune—and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child—until The Widow’s Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor—and unexpected passion . . .

A wounded military hero, Busick is determined to resolve his dead cousin’s dangerous financial dealings for Lionel’s sake. But his investigation is a minor skirmish compared to dealing with the forthright, courageous, and alluring Patience. Somehow, she’s breaking his rules, and sweeping past his defenses. Soon, between formidable enemies and obstacles, they form a fragile trust—but will it be enough to save the future they long to dare together?

Release Date June 30, 2020

Initial Thoughts

This book sounded like so much fun. I love recency historical fiction and there isn’t a ton of that in the romance category that’s not gushing with graphic romance (if you know what I mean). I liked that this seemed like a good murder mystery mixed with a sweet romance story.

Some Things I Liked

Patience Jordan as a West Indian heiress. I loved that. Her character was super unique and the problems she faced were some that I hadn’t really seen explored in recency novels before.
The Duke with a handicap. I really loved the Duke’s struggle with his leg. He didn’t want anyone to know about it or think less of him but I loved seeing the way Patience didn’t think that at all and how she encouraged him not to be afraid because he was still the strong leader his men needed him to be.
Lionel in the bread basket. I totally had Baby Yoda in the floating bassinet vibes from the scenes where they carried the baby around in a bread basket and I loved that.
Jemina. I really hope one of the sequels is about her story. She seems fascinating. I loved her no-nonsense, voice of reason ways and I hope we get to see more of her.

Series Value

I love the idea of sequels for this book. I can’t wait to see what else The Widow’s Grace ladies get up to in the next installment.

Final Thoughts

I really loved this book. I thought the characters were dynamic and interesting and they had tons of sequel potential. I loved the setting as well – not enough books are set during the lesser known wars of the 1800s. I would absolutely continue with this series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore – if you liked the setting and the idea of a league of exciting women taking back what’s theirs, definitely try this series.
A Brazen Curiosity by Lynn Messina – if you liked the themes of a lady who will stop at nothing for justice, the time period, and a duke trying to get her attention, try this series.

I had such high hopes for The Duke, the Lady, and a Baby, especially because the title was catching! The book’s summary plot is composed of a mixed race (West Indies) widowed heroine fleeing Bedlam, hatching a plan to take back her baby by pretending to be his wet-nurse, all while falling in love with her deceased husband’s dashing and honorable cousin whilst also sometimes pretending to be a man. See, this book had all the makings for a fun, adventurous and also diverse story (finally, we have characters in a book that aren’t all staunchly, boring white characters!), but after the initial intrigue of the stories beginning, the plot plummeted to nowhere slow. The Duke was a numbskull; I couldn’t stand behind a male lead that was just too stupid to compute what was staring directly in front of him. (Patience, the heroine, tells Busick directly to his face that she is not the nanny, but his cousins widow and he still does not believe it to be so.) There are ample moments that allude and directly point to Patience being the widowed wife of his cousin, not to mention the obvious fact that she is a woman of a completely different heritage, the same heritage as her charge— his ward— and there are no other people of that ethnicity around for many many miles… am I explaining this well enough for you? The ‘hero’ is dumb. I didn’t like or believe that Wellington’s major war strategist could not figure this out before Patience told him after 6 weeks of this nonsense! This still bothers me if you couldn’t tell. Patience deserved someone smarter and who knew his mind. I also didn’t learn much about the main characters as their development was stunted, so I didn’t know what it was exactly that made the two fall in love with each other.
Weirdly, I was still intrigued by supporting character Jemina’s storyline of being let out of Bedlam while still suffering from amnesia, however the plodding story made it hard for me to finish.


I received an ARC from the author and publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really enjoyable book! Patience was a little different than the typical heroine with a bit of an outsiders view. But more so than the actual romance in the book, I really liked the concept of the Widows Grace which added another unique spin on the Regency time period. As far as the romance portion, this was how I like them, there’s actual plot to go along with the romance! I definitely look forward to reading more!

Full review to come.

I found myself on a bit of a historical romance binge, so when I saw this on NetGalley I jumped at the chance and I was lucky enough to be approved for it. Unfortunately, as much as I wish I could say that I fell in love with this story, with Patience and with Busick (also lowkey, the name Busick just didn't click with me...). Don't get me wrong, there were moments in the book where I truly did enjoy it, but then ogther parts just fell flat. I loved the concept of the Widows Grace and I have no doubt that it definitely has the potential to make a great series, but this book wasn't it for me.

One of the reasons where this began to not be, you know, amazing for me - was when I was plopped right into a scene which I failed to truly comprehend until a few chapters later. Whilst I appreciate that it was a 'hook' - dropping your reader into the action and all, a little bit more contextualising or perhaps even explanation may have done more to truly draw readers into the action - for a while I just felt confused. As for the final 'reveal' towards the end, I just found it quite jarring and didn't connect with it as an explanation for all of the occurrences - again, that's just my personal opinion. Like I mentioned earlier, the concept of the Widows Grace was intriguing but seeing as this was the beginning of the series - a bit more explanation surrounding the characters introduced would have been wonderful to see - for example, I was left wondering throughout the book if I was supposed to know more about Jemina than I did - her character (I'm guessing has more to say - perhaps in a sequel) could have done with a lot more fleshing out and I almost felt as if she could have been removed from the story.

On the topic of characters - I found Patience to be an intriguing lead heroine - as a 'foreigner' within English society, bringing race to the conversation and I really did enjoy having that representation. So, snaps all round on that aspect. Busick was your kind of typical alpha male hero and he was okay. Seeing him with Lionel was cute though.

The story concept itself was, don't get me wrong, quite intriguing and the theme of motherhood was great to see explored. Riley has a manner of writing that is poetic and this, at times, worked wonderfully. Whether it was always necessary to describe things in the most poetic way possible? A different matter, entirely. If I were being truly nit-picky, some of the dialogue felt a bit....awkward. But - then again, each to their own. I have no doubt in my mind that this story would suit many others and would be a joy to read - for me, I just didn't really connect with it.

Overall - a nice read, but perhaps not one that I connected with. Definitely give it a go if you're interested. I know that I *am* intrigued by where the story of the Widows Grace will go next.

Note: I was very generously gifted an ARC of this novel by the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This was a fast read and an interesting read. The ending was predictable like all romances but this was a clean reading. Different for those looking for reads that aren't dripping with sex. Very good