Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Lest you be deceived, this is not a rompy, light-hearted English historical like we see so often. This is a real, gritty story of love during wartime.
In 1857, Emmaline Martin's parents are escorting her to India to marry her lifelong fiancé, but their ship is lost at sea and Emma is the only survivor. Continuing on to Delhi alone, Emma, an artist, begins to see the cracks in the English society she's always known, and also entertains the doubts she's held for years about her fiancé. Adding fuel to her new introspection is Julian Sinclair, her fiancé's cousin who is somewhat marginalized by society because he's one quarter Indian.
Julian is a playboy straddling two worlds. Heir to an English Duke, he struggles to reconcile his two cultures. When an Indian uprising turns the English colonial world upside down Julian helps Emma escape and they take a rough journey toward safety.
This book was magnificent. It has been so long since I enjoyed a new historical this much. It has so much going for it I don't know where to begin. First, the setting: the first half of the book takes place in India, which I love. Duran's India is raw and real and exhilarating. She has a grasp of action and battle scenes rarely seen in Romance, my heart was honestly pounding during one scene. Her grasp on not only colonial India, but on Victorian London society make the book more like an experience than a read. Clearly she knows her stuff.
But the best part of this book--oh my gosh--is the characters. Emma is a complicated, genuine woman. She's independent for her time, but not a transplanted twenty-first century woman either. Her character development is the best I've seen in a heroine for longer than I can remember. She's a real artist: she feels her feelings, lets her heart overwhelm her, and doesn't fear passion.
Julian takes a bit of a backseat to Emma's internal journey, but he's still a compelling hero in his own right. I love his struggle with his English and Indian identities, it's very well done. He's had a pretty hard luck life, but he doesn't have a lot of ridiculous hang-ups or anything. Really, he's the perfect hero for this book, he has depth and shadows, but they're not overwhelming.
My only small quibble is that later in the book Emma gets emotionally hung up on something she did during the uprising that doesn't feel right to me. What she did, and why she did it was perfectly understandable, and it's hard for me to imagine the Emma from the first half of the book letting something like that get to her, and it feels like something forced to keep some suspense in the plot. But even still, it's a minor irritation in an amazing book.
I give The Duke of Shadows 5 stars out of 5, which I've never done. It's a good thing I didn't check the Amazon reviews before I bought this (it was an impulse buy at Borders after I read the first couple of pages) or I may never have found it as it has only excellent reviews, but in this case I have to say I heartily agree with them. Imagine my surprise, though, when I see on Amazon that this was a debut novel! Wow. Can't wait to see what Duran does next.
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In a debut romance as passionate and sweeping as the British Empire, Meredith Duran paints a powerful picture of an aristocrat torn between two worlds, an heiress who dares to risk everything...and the love born in fire and darkness that nearly destroys them. From exotic sandstone palaces... Sick of tragedy, done with rebellion, Emmaline Martin vows to settle quietly into British Indian society. But when the pillars of privilege topple, her fiancé's betrayal leaves Emma no choice. She must turn for help to the one man whom she should not trust, but cannot resist: Julian Sinclair, the dangerous and dazzling heir to the Duke of Auburn. To the marble halls of London... In London, they toast Sinclair with champagne. In India, they call him a traitor. Cynical and impatient with both worlds, Julian has never imagined that the place he might belong is in the embrace of a woman with a reluctant laugh and haunted eyes. But in a time of terrible darkness, he and Emma will discover that love itself can be perilous -- and that a single decision can alter one's life forever. Destiny follows wherever you run. A lifetime of grief later, in a cold London spring, Emma and Julian must finally confront the truth: no matter how hard one tries to deny it, some pasts cannot be disowned...and some passions never die.
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