A Writer's Review of “The Guardian Duke" by Jamie Carie

I have the Kindle app on my iPhone. But you see, my iPhone’s screen is quite small, so therefore I don’t generally look forward to reading any of the (100+) books I’ve downloaded (mostly for free). Well, that was until I figured out NetGalley (earlier this week) and downloaded The Guardian Duke, the first book in Jamie Carie’s The Forgotten Castles series.
I signed up to review up and coming books for NetGalley back in March. But because of my utter lack of knowledge pertaining to GETTING their ebooks onto my Kindle app, it’s taken nine months for me to actually read one. And boy did I read it. On my iPhone.

Jamie Carie is one of those authors who have a style all her own, no matter what specific genre she might dive into next. If I remember correctly, all of her books generally go from one distinct time in history to the next. With this particular book, I was excited to see the word “duke” in the title. The first book I ever read by Jamie Carie was The Duchess and The Dragon—which was also about a Duke in the Regency Era but was set, for the most part, in Colonial America amidst a Quaker community.

Anyway, I read The Guardian Duke in a matter of days, as I said, on my iPhone. I literally could not put it down. When I had to, I made sure I turned my phone off with the Kindle page I was on ready to go. The Guardian Duke wasn’t quite written like any book I’ve ever read. Every other chapter detailed the life of the Duke St. Easton/Gabriel Ravenwood of London and Lady Alexandria Featherstone of Holy Island, and how their lives were “just about” to intersect. I kept thinking, these two HAVE to meet SOON!!!!!! And yet they didn’t, for the most part, except through their lovely telling letters to one another.

Well, they did meet. And it was awesome. Just as I would have planned out myself, only I’d not gone so far to think of the ball as a masquerade. The Guardian Duke, in general, actually reminded me very much of one of my favorite authors (and master of the Recency Era time period), Georgette Heyer. And if anyone can write a Regency that comes anywhere near being like Georgette Heyer—you know that author has talent.

One of the things that I don’t like about ebooks is that I have no real idea of how far I am in a book. I knew Jamie Carie had written this book as the first in a series of three—but I didn’t realize that all three books were about the same Lady and Duke!!! Until I got to the last page on my Kindle download... and I kept trying to turn the page without any luck.

There HAD TO BE MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom was sitting next to me and I could tell she thought something was terribly amiss. People just don’t usually, frantically keep poking their iPhone saying, “No!!!!!! That can’t be all there is!!!!!”


Well I do, and I did. And five seconds later, I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized I’d also downloaded Jamie Carie’s second book in The Forgotten Castle’s series, The Forgiven Duke from NetGalley. And to my immense delight, it started right up where the first left off. Now, all I have to do is read all the way through it in expectation that I will still have to read the third book in the series, A Duke’s Promise, before I can see this AMAZING couple (who are certainly worth three books, in my opinion!) happily together.

I loved this book for so many reasons. I think the main reason is that I just plain LOVE the way Jamie Carie is able to write a story. Her characters are deep and they stick with you, even years after reading of them.

As I said before, NetGalley (with permission from B&H Publishing Group) supplied me with an electronic version of this book as an Advanced Reader’s Edition (which means it was an uncorrected proof and not the final interior of the novel) in return for my honest opinion of the book. I give The Guardian Duke 5 stars.

All three books in The Forgotten Castles series will be published in 2012. And NetGalley BETTER supply me with A Duke’s Promise soon, or I might have to write my own Regency just to get my fix.

If you would like to watch the video book trailer for The Guardian Duke, click here.  
     
The Guardian Duke, February 1, 2012
The Forgiven Duke, July 1, 2012
A Duke’s Promise, Autumn/Winter 2012

Here are a few sneak peeks at what the cover of the third book might look like.