The Tattooed Duke by Maya Rodale (The Writing Girls #3)
Historical Romance
February 28, 2012
Avon

Reviewed by May

“A brooding, tattooed, recluse duke,” Annabelle said breathlessly. “The housemaid with a double life. It’s a Minerva Press novel come to life.”
Eliza laughed and said, “Except for all the scrubbing of floors, which is not anyone’s idea of romance.”

Back from exploring the world, Sebastian, Duke of Wycliff, has returned home and needs desperately to raise funds to pay off his late father’s debts, and for an expedition into the heart of Africa. With his long hair, tan muscular body, and earrings he is nobody’s vision of what an English Duke is or should be.

Eliza Fielding writes for a London paper that specializes in scandal and gossip, and her latest assignment is to get the dirt on the newly returned duke. The stories and rumors about him, and the legacy of wicked Wycliffs in general, make female employee applications very sparse at the house. This is to Eliza’s benefit as she applies and is hired as a maid immediately. On her first day she sees him in his bath (she was bringing in towels):

The water lapped at his waist, his chest a wide, exposed expanse of taut skin over sculpted muscle. As Eliza stepped toward him and saw more of the man illuminated by the burning embers in the grate and the flickering of candles, she noticed that his chest was covered in inky blue-black lines. Tattoos, like the drawing….

The tattooing covered the broad expanse of his muscled chest, wrapping up over the shoulders and generously covering his upper arms, even inching onto his forearms.

Eliza’s very job depends on her digging up dirt on the duke and reporting it to her bosses. From the first installment, her new column “the tattooed duke” captures the attention of all of London from high society to servants. The suggestive details and scandalous notes about the duke hurt him socially and in his efforts to get funding for an expedition, all while making Eliza better respected and her place at the newspaper more secure.

Despite that she’s perhaps the all-time worst maid ever, and that she listens in obviously on every conversation he has, the duke never really suspects her of being the writer or of giving information about him to the paper. He is busy lusting after his maid, thinking about how his ancestors have a history of sexing up the help, and she is busy feeling bad about how she’s digging up dirt on the man she’s falling for.

There are plotlines bringing supporting characters into the mix, there are obstacles to be overcome for sure, yet I couldn’t help but feel like in this novel nothing really happened. Despite their lusty glances and stolen kisses the physical relationship goes no further until the final pages (and then, oh what a disappointment!), so what are these two doing?

As I said before, he’s lusty but needs money and doesn’t want to be worthless like his dad. She’s torn between her heart and her job and her own secret. Almost magically, the obstacles will be removed and they can just be together.

I cannot think of more to say about this book. It wasn’t that it was bad – I rather enjoyed the writer’s style and some of the elements were intriguing. It was that it bored me. We never really were shown why these two people are so in love with each other, what made them fall so hard? Because her ass looks good when she’s scrubbing floors? Because he has sexy Tahitian tattoos?

I couldn’t buy into the love story, the road blocks they encounter annoyed me more than anything, and I felt like with these adventurous characters they could have gone out and done something – really made the story more compelling of a read.

Grade: C

Recent Reviews:
Goodreads

Author’s Website l Series Listing

Amazon l B&N