Title: While the Duke Was SleepingSeries: England's Sweethearts #1
Pages: 336
Publication Date: Feb. 25, 2025
Publisher: Forever
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical
Synopsis:
When Adelaide Rosebourne must impersonate her mistress for a few days, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be a difficult task, even if her mistress’s supposed fiancé is in a coma. All she has to do is wait until he wakes up and then convince him to retract the proposal—thereby securing a tidy reward. What she doesn’t count on is the arrival of the duke’s brother and his damned inconvenient interest in her affairs. But does it really matter? She’ll be gone before he finds out the truth.
Rhett Montgomery knows two things—that he is woefully unprepared to take over the dukedom, and that the woman who claims to be his brother’s betrothed is not who she says she is. No debutante swears so fiercely or kisses with such recklessness. Investigating is what any good brother would do, isn’t it? As long as he doesn’t start falling for her charms as well.
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I adore While You Were Sleeping, so I was really looking forward to reading this historical romance retelling of the movie. Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me. I’m not sure why. The premise is great, and I initially liked the main characters. They definitely had a ton of chemistry. But as the story progressed, I lost interest.
Adelaide (Della) is great, and her personality shines from the very first scene. She’s smart and strong, and she’s a bold woman who longs to have a home of her own. Della is a lady’s maid for Cordelia, who has run away from a duke on their wedding day. Her, I did not enjoy, though I thought her character contrasted Della’s well. Cordelia has a spoiled, petulant personality and is so unlikeable, as are several of the other minor characters.
I did like some of Rhett’s siblings and am assuming they will probably be more of a focus in future books in the series. That could be interesting. As for Rhett, he was charming, and he fell hard for Adelaide. However, he’s kind of immature, which frustrated me. The story had some good banter, especially when Rhett was part of the conversation, and there were several comical scenes that I loved. Some of the sibling antics are also great. But, overall, this was just an ok read for me.
- secret identity
- found family
- forbidden romance
Samara Parish is an award-winning author of historical romance. Her debut novel, How To Survive A Scandal, won the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year (RuBY) award in 2022.
How To Deceive A Duke and How To Win A Wallflower both released in 2022. You can download the series epilogue – https://samaraparish.com/rebels-serie…
Her short story, The General’s Daughter, is available for free when you sign up to her newsletter – https://samaraparish.com/newsletter
She is always looking for an excuse to procrastinate, so she’d love it if you asked her a question!
As an Australian army brat in the ‘80s, Samara grew up moving from city to city—always with plenty of book boxes (to the movers’ annoyance). She reads anything that lets her escape – in particular romance, YA fantasy, and epic fantasy, although she has been known to read the occasional blockbuster suspense novel, even though she is a total sook who has a tendency to shriek at anything slightly scary.
When she’s not writing or reading, she’s walking her dogs or trying to tame her out of control harder. She lives in Canberra with her husband (a true romance hero) and her menagerie of pets.
