"I dream of the hours when you and I can finally be alone.
Softly sharing whispered words of love."
The Favourite Heiress…
Once engaged to the future Duke of Strathmore, the beautiful Lady Clarice Langham now finds herself in the humiliating position of celebrating his marriage – to another woman. As a result of the scandal, it seems her reign as London's most eligible debutante has come to an end. But things begin to look up when handsome and charming rake David Radley makes it clear that, at least as far as he's concerned, she's still the catch of the season.
The Illegitimate Son…
The eldest son of the Duke of Strathmore, David Radley has been raised alongside his father's legitimate children. But while he is generally received as part of the family, not everyone thinks he should be, and especially not Clarice's father, the Earl of Langham, who forbids her from having anything to do with him.
An Unsuitable Match…
David's been in love with Clarice for years, and it isn't long before the attraction between them develops into something deeper. Yet he senses Clarice is hiding something and until she reveals her secret, she won't be free to follow her heart. Despite everything, David will not give up on Clarice, not even when another seems set to claim her…
Overview from Goodreads
See an Unsuitable Match by Sasha Cottman (Duke of Strathmore #2) in:
ARC received via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review but it didn’t affect my opinion about this book.
This turned out to be one of those slow burn stories where the characters didn't interact that much but they were doing things that could lead to them to seeing more of each other or ending up together.
Unlike most regency stories where it was all about romance, the story was largely influenced by how society would view their union or their love.
It was amazing how the London society at that time was portrayed. How one failed engagement could make you look pathetic, how illegitimate children were treated as though they were plague, how a female could be ashamed that she had womanly curves instead of those "petite bodies Englishmen loved", how marriage was usually the solution once a woman was involved in a scandal. However, seeing as Clarice was already twenty-three, I thought that she was already someone the ton would consider a spinster. But it wasn't mentioned at all or that she was too old or anything so I'm thinking it was overlooked or something.
What was annoying, however, was Clarice as a character. Her indecisiveness with her life and love and her dislike to cheerful people was baffling. As though people around her shouldn't be all smiley because she was mourning? It was really confusion why her reaction was like that.Though she did make it up when she fought for her love once she realized she really loved David.
David also had his flaws which what made him human. He also had his doubts about fighting their love and I was a little disappointed with him because with Clarice being pessimistic about their relationship, they didn't need another one who had skepticisms with their love.
There were also points in the story that would have been better if it was elaborated. It might confuse those readers who didn't read the first story. Like, how Clarice knew that it was David and not Alex who wrote it. And I would have loved to read the contents of David's love letter since the snippets were really romantic.
An Unsuitable Match might have not been that great for me but somehow it managed to touch my heart in its own way.
