Review:The Duke is Mine (Fairy Tales # 3) by Eloisa James

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The Duke is Mine is the third book in the Fairy Tales series by Eloisa James. This particular one is based in the story of The Princess and the Pea.
Olivia and Georgina are twins out of which Olivia is older by a grand total of 7 minutes. She has been betrothed to the heir of the Duke of Canterwick. She and her twin have been trained, pruned and plucked to perfection in order to become the perfect duchess. While Georgina is a ideal candidate for a Duchess, Olivia is the rebel. She has not desire of becoming one and would rather have a good time chatting with the maids and cracking bawdy jokes. Her betrothed, Rupert, is 5 years younger than her and slightly simple in the mind. He was born with some mental problems but Oilivia is resigned to her future and is ready to marry him for her family.

In order to get a suitable husband for her sister, she goes to the country house of the Duke of Sconce, Tarquin or Quinn is still recovering from his broken family and broken heart. He has decided it's time to be married and is looking for a bride and who is bride better than Georgina? But fate had other plans and he meets Olivia instead and no matter how inappropriate she is to be a wife, he cannot stop thinking about her.

I loved Olivia. She had so much spunk in her. She was funny, fearless and her love for bawdy jokes was endearing. She was a girl anyone would love to be friends with. She even made Quinn laugh, which I think was nothing short of an acheivement. Even if this story was set about 200 years ago she, in her way, representeted any modern girl. She knew what she was wanted and was not afraid to get it. The fact she did not have a perfect body was really nicely done. We read books with a plain jane sbut how many times do we come across a girl in a romance who can do with losing a few stone. She was loyal, intelligent and witty. That alone made her a great heroine.

Quinn, on the other hand was the exact opposite of Olivia. In my mind he was boring ands stoic. Some people may like him as he was rather broody and had an air of no nonsense around him. He had a torturous past and most likely was autistic. He was a mathematician and would rather be locked up in his room and ponder over this mathematical problems than even select a wife for himself. Personally, I did not find him exciting as for me he was too stiff. If he would have been more fun loving I would have perhaps liked him better.

I hated his mother. She was controlling and ram-rod straight. I was glad that Quinn chose Olivia and showed his mother that he was still the Duke not someone whose life she can run.

The story kept a lot of the original story line form the beginning but I wished the pea in the bed scene could have been integrated a bit more. As far as the romance is concernedI felt that Quinn and Olivia fell in love too quickly. The sexual tension was there but it seemed the love came out instantly. I was slightly bored towards the ending but the rest if the book I really enjoyed. James has a writing style which reminded me of Julia Quinn, which was light hearted and funny. She handled series past situations like Quinn’s first wife and his pain quite well. She also made an imperfect heroine who was ‘real’ in the true sense and I liked how Olivia learned to love herself the way she was and not be ashamed of how her body was.

Over all a good historical romance for readers who like a light hearted historical romance with a great heroine.

P.S:  As the U.S cover is so pretty I couldn't help myself from putting it up even if I read the U.K edition.