{"id":6193,"date":"2026-01-27T12:06:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=6193"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:06:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:06:52","slug":"miss-ridley-and-the-duke-by-c-n-jarrett-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/miss-ridley-and-the-duke-by-c-n-jarrett-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Ridley and the Duke by C N Jarrett (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"A curious little book with so little substance that it feels as light as thistledown. If I don\u2019t write a review on the spot, I shall have forgotten the whole thing by tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Annabel Ridley, the daughter of a baron, is betrothed to Richard Balfour, who seems a pleasant sort of fellow, right up until the point where Annabel finds him rolling in the hay with one of the maids. She wants to call it off, but neither he nor her father will hear of it. Of course, legally she can\u2019t be forced to marry against her will, but let that pass. In desperation, she seeks the help of Richard\u2019s cousin, the Duke of Halmesbury, riding to his estate at night (astride, wearing breeches, natch), where he offers her a way out of her dilemma – he\u2019ll marry her himself, a marriage of convenience. She\u2019s surprised, having only hoped he\u2019d use his influence, but he\u2019s extremely good looking and seems nice enough, so why not?<\/p>\n

Of course, he has reasons for his seemingly altruistic offer, which gradually seep out over the course of the book, although not without a whole heap of soul-searching and not a few temper tantrums from the principals. Frankly, it all got a bit tiring after a while, and I confess to skipping over the angsty parts of later chapters to get to the places where something actually happens. To be honest, everybody seemed a bit emotional for the Regency era, which is generally defined by its restraint. Still, for those who enjoy that sort of thing, there\u2019s plenty of it here.<\/p>\n

There are numerous Americanisms, such as gotten and passed (instead of died), and Annabel at one point rides into \u2018Wiltshire County\u2019 (a shire is a county, so it would just be Wiltshire). And there\u2019s this evil concoction of a title: Lord Josiah Ridley, Baron of Filminster. Let\u2019s deconstruct that a bit, shall we? Lord Josiah Ridley would be the younger son of a marquess or duke, and no, Lord Ridley won\u2019t do, either. Barons are never \u2018of\u2019 anything. They will be either Baron Name or Baron Name of Somewhere, except that the \u2018baron\u2019 part is never used except in the most formal of legal documents. He\u2019d just be Lord Filminster in all social situations. Although, amusingly, his daughter just calls him \u2018the baron\u2019, which is perfectly acceptable (if a bit rude of her own father!).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing much wrong with this book, it just wasn\u2019t my cup of tea, that\u2019s all. It\u2019s a clean read, although with references to sex, but if you prefer your Regency with a bit of heat, the steamy version is published under the author name Nina Jarrett and title \u2018The Duke Wins A Bride\u2019. Three stars.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A curious little book with so little substance that it feels as light as thistledown. If I don\u2019t write a review on the spot, I shall have forgotten the whole thing by tomorrow. Here\u2019s the premise: Annabel Ridley, the daughter of a baron, is betrothed to Richard Balfour, who seems a pleasant sort of fellow, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[297],"class_list":["post-6193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-jarrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6195,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions\/6195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}