Mr. Cavendish I Presume (Two Dukes of Wyndham Book 2)

At first I was a tad confused. It took me a good chapter or two before I realized this wasn't a brief recap, and suddenly Grace is single and Thomas is still a Duke. I have to admit I am not thrilled with the way she decided to write this series. A lot of what I read in this book I had already read in the previous book, albeit occasionally from a different perspective, it was still repetitive information. It also took away a lot of the enjoyment of reading as there were little to no surprises and I already knew how it was going to end. Having read the previous book I knew who the true Duke was, knew how it was discovered, etc. 

While the previous book concentrated on the romance between Grace and Jack and his discovery of his family ties. This book concentrates on the same discoveries but from the romantic views of Thomas and Amelia. Two people who have been betrothed since the cradle. 

I think it was an interesting idea to try to have two stories in one series, both taking place at the same time... Had the whole Duke thing not been the center of each story, it may have worked. But what was exciting and mysterious in the last story, just proved much too monotonous in this one. Entire scenes are reused from the first book leaving me in a consistent state of déjà vu while reading. 

Thomas and Amelia are wonderful leads and their relationship was fresh and new, thank goodness, so this book wasn't a total loss as I enjoyed their romantic part of the tale, immensely. With all that said... I can't help but feel a little cheated as the author chose to only write a half story. Had I not read the first book I probably would have rated this one a lot higher. Instead of making two books out of one story she should have combined them making it one book/one story with two perspectives. Would have made a more compelling tale and would have saved a tree or two in the process.

Amelia Willoughby has been engaged to the Duke of Wyndham for as long as she can remember. Literally. A mere six months old when the contracts were signed, she has spent the rest of her life waiting. And waiting. And waiting... for Thomas Cavendish, the oh-so-lofty duke, to finally get around to marrying her. But as she watches him from afar, she has a sneaking suspicion that he never thinks about her at all...

It's true. He doesn't. Thomas rather likes having a fiancée—all the better to keep the husband-hunters at bay—and he does intend to marry her... eventually. But just when he begins to realize that his bride might be something more than convenient, Thomas's world is rocked by the arrival of his long-lost cousin, who may or may not be the true Duke of Wyndham. And if Thomas is not the duke, then he's not engaged to Amelia. Which is the cruelest joke of all, because this arrogant and illustrious duke has made the mistake of falling in love... with his own fiancée!

Julia Quinn is the pseudonym used by Julie Pottinger (born Julie Cotler in 1970), a best-selling American historical romance author. Pottinger grew up in the New England and California. She has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List nine times. Pottinger went to Harvard and majored in Art History. After getting this degree, she decided that she wanted to be a doctor, so she had to complete two more years of college to fulfill her science credits. While studying science, she drafted two romance novels. A few weeks after she was accepted to medical school, she discovered that her first two novels, Splendid and Dancing At Midnight, had been sold at auction, so she postponed medical school for two years while she wrote two more novels. By the time Pottinger finally entered Yale medical school, three of her books had been published. After only a few short months of studying medicine, however, she left medical school and devoted herself full-time to her writing. Pottinger lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Paul Pottinger. She was the recipient of the Romance Writers of America RITA Award in 2007 for "On the Way to the Wedding" and in 2008 for "The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever".