This book was inspired by the movie While You Were Sleeping which I enjoyed. Becuase of that I was looking forward to reading this. I had a hard time with this book.. There was a lot going on with the set up, a runaway bride and her lady’s maid trade places after knocking out a Duke who wanted to marry the runaway bride.

Della is the lady’s maid, and she has a chance encounter with the duke’s brother, Rhett. And they are attracted to each other. When they later meet up, the attraction is still there but the story lost me again with all the discussion of what a rake Rhett is with all that goes with that, and how Della is experienced with other men. I don’t have an issue with closed door romances, I read and enjoy them same as open door romances. But all that spicy talk felt off when the on page spice didn’t happen until the Epilogue.

This book was not for me as I ended up skimming more than half the book. But I can see other people would like this for:

Instant Attraction
Hidden Identity
Found family

3.5 stars

It was fine. I enjoyed the nods to While You Were Sleeping, but I felt like the relationship building between Della and Rhett was lacking. I'm just not a fan of insta-love I guess.

The book has some funny moments, but some of the scenes came off as way too silly. Those attempts of them trying to wake up Peter? A little too much in my opinion. One of the things I really liked was the relationship between Della and Cordelia. I enjoyed the fact that they were able to remain friends and I would really like to see where Cordelia's story goes.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Pub date: 2/25

Have you ever had a whole lot of fun reading a book while also being completely mentally exhausted by it? While the Duke Was Sleeping is fast-paced, fun, and spirited, but it’s also such a dizzying merry-go-round you’ll want to sit down and take a breath after a few chapters. Still, it's a great time.

Adelaide “Della” Rosenborne’s charge, Lady Cordelia Highwater, doesn’t want to marry the man her father has chosen for her, and Adelaide decides to save their mutual skins by putting her on a ship to a place where she can hide out until the drama dies down. Unfortunately, they can’t find a sailor willing to take them (women on ships happen to be bad luck). The two women head to Berwick and rent a room from Peter, a duke who immediately takes a shine to Cordelia, who panics at his marital advances, knocks him over a cat and sends him into a coma. With no other witnesses to the crime, Adelaide is bribed into posing as her mistress, the Duke’s presumptive fiancée. It shouldn’t be any great shakes; she’ll approach Peter when he wakes up and talk him into letting Cordelia out of the marriage.

Journeyman Sir Everett “Rhett” Montgomery is a seductive ladies’ man who meets ugly with Adelaide while she’s trying to talk any boat captain she can on the dock into taking Codelia to France, which results in a failed pass from him and a dunk in the Thames for them both. He finds her space to clean off, they have one forbidden kiss before she disappears, but he can’t stop thinking of her. The temporary duke while his brother, Peter, is in a coma, he’d been previously called back from his gambolings by his brother and looks forward to going back to his carousing once his brother wakens – he’s not been comfortable in England since his fiancée broke his heart years ago. When Adelaide introduces herself to him as Cordelia, Rhett is suspicious; this brawling, beery, cursing girl does not sound like the fearful Cordelia at all.

“Cordellia” settles into the extended Montgomery clan, which includes four lively sisters. As Rhett and Adelaide get closer, her double life threatens to pop – leaving her caught between two brothers.

Rhett is an almost parody of a rake who gets lovestruck and learns his lesson, while Adelaide is a tough, uncompromising and clever lady. Their romance burns slowly and is filled with a lovely and understandable tension. I liked Peter and even Cordelia and the sisters, though the latter aren’t very well defined (but probably will be in their upcoming books).

This is a frenetic, chaotic, wallpapery historical that’s still a hoot. There is a marble phallus and a rogue cat and much Nonsense. If you don’t like highjinks in your romances, you should avoid this one. It might help if you like the romcom it’s based on, While You Were Sleeping, which I love. I had good fun reading While The Duke Was Sleeping, and if you open your heart to its ridiculousness, you might too.

Do you love historical romance AND 90s rom coms? Then I’ve got the perfect mashup book recommendation for you: While the Duke was Sleeping by Samara Parish.

Yep, this is a retelling of the iconic rom com While You Were Sleeping, and I ate it up. I’m a big fan of the film, and I thought the author did a great job of paying homage to it (there’s a whole bit about leaning) while also writing rich characters and plot that diverge enough from the original to feel fresh.

In this book, Della’s lived a life of adventure but is lonely and ready to put down roots. Rhett has wandered the continent, running away from responsibilities and expectations. They meet by chance on the docks as she’s trying to flee England and he’s just returning. The chemistry is immediately electric. Through a series of outrageous circumstances, Della ends up pretending to be the fiancee of an unconscious duke – who happens to be Rhett’s brother. There ensues a lot of silly scenarios and pining – lots of pining!

I loved the tension in this one! It’s a great low-spice historical romance if you want a rom com feel. I’d categorize it as “historical light” because it doesn’t feel deeply rooted in the 1890s, the setting is more for vibes.

In a convoluted setup, Lady's maid Adelaide is posing as her employer Lady Cordelia after Cordelia knocked the Duke, Peter, unconscious during a marriage proposal. Adelaide winds up staying in Peter's home while she and his family try to revive the Duke. His brother Rhett is highly suspicious of Adelaide's claim but finds himself in a pickle when he's attracted to his brother's supposed fiancé. This is a retelling of the movie "While you were sleeping" and has some fun antics as they try out many ideas to wake the unconscious duke. Don't look for historical accuracy here. Profanity spouting Adelaide and irresponsible rake Rhett both come to realize what they want in life. I think I needed more details. It's hard to care too much about Peter when we'd never heard of him until he was unconscious. I received an ARC of this title from the Publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

When Adelaide Rosebourne must impersonate her mistress for a few days, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a difficult task, even if her mistress’s supposed fiancé is in a coma. All she has to do is wait until he wakes up and then convince him to retract the proposal, thereby securing a tidy reward. What she doesn’t count on is the arrival of the duke’s brother and his inconvenient interest in her affairs. Rhett Montgomery knows two things that he is woefully unprepared to take over the dukedom, and that the woman who claims to be his brother’s betrothed is not who she says she is. No debutante swears so fiercely or kisses with such recklessness.
A retelling of the famous film set in late Victorian times, which had its own spin on the movie. A well written book which I enjoyed but I did have to suspend belief at times. I didn’t warm to Della but did like Rhett. At times hilarious, a light hearted romp if you don’t mind a female who lied
I voluntarily read and reviewed a special copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions are my own

Tropes: class difference; fake betrothal
Steam level: 1
Language: fairly salty, if that offends you.

3.25 stars that I couldn't quite round up. This book was unfortunately a swing and a miss for me. I'm good with humor in HR's, and I'm OK with suspending disbelief for the most part, but the humor (and the anachronisms) were a bit overdone here, with too many characters in the mix. I did like the MC's and the writing style. But things got too OTT, especially toward the end. I kept picking the book up but then putting it back down, and finally ended up skimming. I think maybe if I were a big fan of the movie on which this was based, While You Were Sleeping, I might have liked it more? (I vaguely remember watching the movie when it first came out.)

What bugged me in particular was that, although there is a nice slow burn between the MC's, the steam level is low, with closed-door sex. But the MFC's foul language, which I personally found funny and refreshing at times, sets the reader up for something a little...friskier, I guess. I hate to admit to being one of those women who reads a book just for the spice, but I think this had been more daring I might have rated it a little higher. I mostly wanted the MC's to be more of the focus, and not the hectic plot and secondary characters.

Overall: cute but falls a bit short for me.

I really enjoyed Samara Parish's Rebels with a Cause series, so I was excited to get a NetGalley request to review While the Duke Was Sleeping, the first in a new series. However, now as I sit here trying to put my feelings into words, I can best describe it as disappointed.

Now don't get me wrong, While the Duke Was Sleeping isn't a bad book. Far from it. But I didn't find it as humorous as I think it was trying to be. I had a hard time liking the situation that Della found herself in. I think the whole story could have been shorter instead of introducing new and even more ridiculous ways of trying to wake the duke from his coma. And then when the duke does wake... I was just shaking my head.

I did like the romance between Della and Rhett, but I felt it got overshadowed with everything else going on. And since it's a romance, I knew things would work out for them, but honestly, I found myself not caring how they got there and hoped it would happen sooner rather than later.

In the end, I walked away from this book wishing it had been better as I really did high hopes. And maybe that is part of the problem... I really had high expectations and I didn't feel the book lived up. I'm not entirely sure if I'll continue this series, but seeing as I'm not clear on how the series will connect to the book, I'll just have to wait and see...

This was so cute, sweet & fun!

I fell in love with the characters. Adelaide and Rhett were adorable. I really loved them. Adelaide was so resourceful and competent. She was a great match for Rhett. The chemistry between the characters is great. Their meet-cute is fantastic. I had a lot of fun reading their romance.

This is inspired by the movie While You Were Sleeping which made the story really nostalgic but at the same time new. The story beats are similar but Parish gives her own twist on them. I liked not being able to expect everything that was going to happen but still got the same feelings I did while watching the film. The humor works and certainly made me laugh out loud a few times.

If you enjoy fast-paced, historical romcoms or the movie While You Were Sleeping, you'll love this! Definitely for fans of quirky and fun books.

Dnf'd at 25%. I simply couldn't keep track of people or what was happening. I found myself just skimming pages. It couldn't hold my attention.

A fun and well written retelling of one of my favourite rom-com movies. Della and Rhett have an irresistible connection, they really are a perfect match and their journey has wonderful possibilities written all over it. A happily ever after that's full of adventure and a forever love.

3.75 stars rounded up

This historical romance (1890s) retelling of While You Were Sleeping was such a fun romp! It had some fun callbacks to the original (Peter, sister named Jac, references to leaning, she's mistaken for the guy in a coma's fiancee) but also some new aspects that I liked a lot and made the story its own (she meets the love interest before the fiancee situation, she's covering for someone else, etc.).

The romance was great and they were so sweet together but also the situation was hilariously tricky because she was "engaged" to his brother. I liked that she had no emotional connection to his brother.

If you're a fan of While You Were Sleeping and are looking for a fun read, definitely pick this up!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Remember the 90's Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman movie "While you were sleeping"? Yes this book is definitely based on that with some added twists along the way! One of my favourite rom com movies of all time, I was very excited when I was offered a chance to read the ARC and continue this series. It has a very loose connection to the rest of the series, which I didn't mind at all, but I figured is good to call out here. Samara Parish had a lot of fun with this one as it is high on the comedy side. The meet cute/disaster is strong here, and the mistaken identity part is cleverly done. I loved Adelaide's character. She had a unique background and had a spirit that matched Rhett's. What I didn't make sense to me about Rhett was why he felt, in 1870, that he only had the clergy and military as an option for work and that he could do that... It didn't quite match the time period as it seems like the Industrial Revolution was well underway and there would have been more opportunities for work... It was also a bit weird to all of a sudden introduce a motor vehicle during this time. It didn't add to the story and is wrong for the time period. I'm usually not a stickler for these but it was a bit jarring and I actually had to look back to see what the time period was when there was no mention of railways or anything when that would have been the common transportation method. Okay back to Della and Rhett. I loved their chemistry, and his struggle with the fact that she is his brother's fiancee despite the circumstances. He also does end up growing a lot, especially with Della's support of him. Della is so competent. Her travels has made her resourceful, and it's a wonderful foil to Rhett since he has also had similar experiences but we aren't sure what he is doing with all his knowledge. I was a bit disappointed in him but he won me over eventually. I really enjoyed the story, their banter, yearning, and how the HEA came about. The pacing was great and I read it all in one sitting. I can't wait to read the next installment.

Steam: 🔥
Heart Flutters: ❤️❤️

3.5 Stars. When Lady Cordelia accidentally knocks out a Duke, lady’s maid Adelaide poses as her, and would have gotten away with it, but the Duke’s family arrives, including Rhett, the man Adelaide encountered a few weeks prior. Adelaide must avoid being found out to protect Cordelia, but her continued attraction to Rhett makes things complicated as she is supposed to be in engaged to the duke.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I have ever watched While You Were Sleeping, so I can’t speak to how much this book follows the movie. I love the cover for this book and i liked both Adelaide and Rhett (especially Rhett). I struggled quite a bit with the time period and the setting. The writing was not very descriptive and the language was so modern that there were times where genuinely questioned if we were still in a historical romance. I thought making the book fade to black was an odd choice given how explicit some elements were. I’ll read the next book in the series, but this book just didn’t capture me like I hoped it would.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you’re a fan of historical romance and the movie While You Were Sleeping, you’ll definitely enjoy this book.

There is a lot of romantic tension in this book, between Rhett and Della, and it definitely had that slow burn feel to it.

Rhett’s family was a delight, bringing so much chaos and love to the story. I do hope we get additional books in this series to see the HEA of Rhett’s sisters and Cordelia!

Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. It's a Victorian retelling of While You Were Sleeping. I get that the whole premise of the book (and movie) is that the FMC is lying about being a comatose man's fiancee, but that you (as the reader/viewer) are supposed to feel sympathy for her for getting in over her head after an initial lie. But there were a lot of elements added here that just didn't tickle my fancy. Parish goes to such great efforts to make Della (the FMC) likable that it felt like I could see the plot strings she was trying to pull. I'd have preferred a more complex, unlikable heroine who slowly begins to appreciate her fake family. There was the addition of a villain that I felt completely unnecessary (why add another plot element?). The ending took everything to an extreme (although I may simply have been over it completely by that point). Also it's closed door, which I understand as a plot element, but which didn't add to my enjoyment.

2.5 stars rounded to 3. This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

I was on the edge of my seat. Is it weird that I want to see the Duke's story now? He just wants what is best for thefamily. Although he did pull a 'Marry me anyways' that is kind of mad.

While the Duke Was Sleeping is a sweet, fun retelling of the movie “While He Was Sleeping.” Adelaide is a very capable FMC who is juggling a lot of balls at all times. Rhett is a well-worn rake returned from the Continent against his will. Shenanigans of various sorts ensue, leading to much pining and yearning. The basis of both the book and the novel is a lie of identity which some may find very uncomfortable, even when it can be justified or at least resolved with amends. Love scenes are on the mild side with only a couple towards the end.

I enjoyed the story a lot (and I am a longtime fan of the movie) and can see future books with Rhett’s siblings.

Thank you to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

A turn of the usual fan fiction - it's a Regency retelling of While You Were Sleeping. Know that it might be more enjoyable if you forget about the movie and just go with this as a romance between Adelaide and Rhett, Yes the story is a little convoluted because Parish is trying to fit her characters into the movie and yes there are times when it doesn't quite work for the period, but all of that aside, I liked the characters and the dialogue sparkled. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A fun one.

I loved this book! The story was a perfect combo of nostalgia for the beloved movie and a new twist. I loved how hard the FMC and the MMC tried to resist each other but were unable to. The struggle of both characters trying to figure out who they were and trying to live up to the expectations of those around them was really relatable.