A Duke in Time by Jenna MacGregor

What happens when a recently widowed woman discovers she wasn’t her husband’s only wife? She falls for his brother, of course. There’s a lot going in Janna MacGregor’s latest historical romance. Keeping reading to discover more about A Duke in Time…

Katherine Vareck is in for the shock of her life when she learns upon her husband Meri's accidental death that he had married two other women. Her entire business, along with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a royal supplier, is everything she's been working for and now could be destroyed if word leaks about the three wives.

Meri's far more upstanding brother, Christian, Duke of Randford has no earthly clue how to be of assistance. He spent the better part of his adult years avoiding Meri and the rest of his good-for-nothing family, so to be dragged back into the fold is…problematic. Even more so is the intrepid and beautiful Katherine, whom he cannot be falling for because she's Meri's widow. Or can he?

With a textile business to run and a strong friendship forming with Meri's two other wives, Katherine doesn't have time for much else. But there's something about the warm, but compellingly taciturn Christian that draws her to him. When an opportunity to partner in a business venture brings them even closer, they'll have to face their pasts if they want to share each other's hearts and futures.

Series: The Widow Rules #1 | Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks | Genre: Historical Romance | Source:  Publisher | Rating: 2.5 Cups 

I’ve always found Jenna MacGregor’s romances to be unique but this one definitely takes the cake.

When Katherine shows up for the reading of her late husband’s will, she’s surprised to discover her husband has two other wives, one of whom that’s pregnant. Shocked and betrayed, Katherine needs to figure out a way to keep her husband’s bigamy a secret to keep her textile business and save her chance at becoming a royal supplier. Christian has been cleaning up his younger brother’s messes for as long as he can remember and while he was determined to wash his hands of his brother’s mistakes, he can’t allow three women to be ruined. There’s also something about Katherine that’s calling to him and Katherine’s feeling the same tug. The only thing left to do is sort out past secrets.

I can’t remember reading a historical romance where the husband had three wives, so I was intrigued to see how this was going to play out and how things would be handled.

Katherine and Christian were good together. He’s dealing with some things after returning from war, she has some secrets from her past that could destroy her future. They are also sorting out the mess Meri (his brother, her husband) left behind, and it was a right proper mess. Then there’s their joint business venture they went in to, so they have a lot going on and it allows them to slowly grow closer. I also liked their charitable work and how it was portrayed in the book.

It’s obvious from their first meeting they have an attraction and chemistry but, at times, Christian ran hot and cold and Katherine just ran. This was not an instalove story or a slow burn but somewhere in the middle. What I found a little odd was the sex aspect. Katherine is portrayed as having very little knowledge in this area yet when the sexy fun times rolled around she was very forward and very knowledgeable, which came across as out of place given the way she acted through most of the book.

This book was different—very different—from what I was expecting. I found the interaction between the three wives to be a little off. I guess I was expecting some cattiness amongst the women but they got on swimmingly and were instantly best friends. Then there’s the random bequests Meri left his brother that shows up at odd times throwing the timing of the book off and offering no context.

The thing that annoyed me the most with this one was Katherine’s secret. The entire book is built around the secret that she deems life shattering, yet when the big reveal came about it was so minor it wouldn’t even have been a blip on the radar. I was expecting something major and was letdown.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad book but it wasn’t one that wowed me. I liked the relationship between Christian and Katherine. I like the work Christian did for veterans as well as Katherine’s work ethic. The rest of the book just didn’t work for me. There were a lot of odd interruptions that caused pacing issues.

This is the first in the series, and it does set up the next book (I think each wife is getting their own book), but, sadly, I don’t really have the desire to continue this series. 

Have you read this book? If so let me know your thoughts.