Book Review: Saving Her Duke by Leah Conolly

Leah Conolly is a regency romance author with 15 books and counting. While she studied psychology and criminology in New York, she ended up in the regency romance genre of literature when she returned from college. Conolly writes Regency romance novels with a twist. According to her bio, they encompass real-life moments she sets in the regency era. It lends to an exciting reading experience, like in Saving her Duke.

Summary of Saving Her Duke, A Regency Romance

Page Count: 526

Release Date: May 7, 2022

Publisher: Starfall Publications

Saving her Duke is a regency romance novel. It could also be classified among the Christian historical romance novels as it is squeaky clean with nary a kiss scene to be had. The plotline of this book consists of childhood friends who have fallen in love with one another. However, they are from vastly different societal standings.

Set in England in the early 1800s, the hero, Alex, becomes a duke after his father dies. He wasn’t always destined to be a duke. However, being born a second son, he has a string of deaths in his family, from his mother to his elder brother and then finally his father. He lays claim to the unwanted title.

When he inherits the dukedom, he also gets all of his father’s secret gambling debts, threatening to bankrupt the estate.

As creditors are knocking on his door and those from high society looking to be friends with a duke, he has one place to turn for solace and comfort: Hannah.

Hannah is the daughter of his long-time family housekeeper. He grew up with Hannah from birth and learned alongside her in the school room. Which would have been unconventional for the regency period, to say the least. But a duke can do what a duke wants, and apparently, Alex’s father had a generous streak.

Hannah had fiery red hair and freckles. She was outspoken and about the farthest thing from duchess material that the ton could even comprehend.

Over half of the book, the two love each other from afar, acting like friends. Hannah helps Alex with his estate, while her mother, the housekeeper, convinces her that she cannot marry a duke. Still, the duke will marry someday, and every day after that, she will have to watch his duchess and take orders from her if she stays.

Hannah thinks Alex has become engaged, so she takes an older man up on his marriage proposal. Essentially breaking Alex’s heart.

The scenes continue to play out in more betrayal from a childhood friend. Eventually, they regain footing with their finances, and Hannah and Alex get their happily ever after. If Saving Her Duke sounds like a book you would like, go ahead and read the first four chapters for free!

Noteworthy Moments

My heart ultimately clinched when Alex overheard the proposal that Leopard, the older man, gave to Hannah. It sent me to the book’s description and the reviews to see if this was a happily ever after book or some devastating, heart-wrenching Romeo and Juliet tale. I am happy to report that even though there is some heartbreak within the book, it has redeeming qualities, and the hero and the heroine end up together.

Furthermore, Saving her Duke is long. Over 500 pages, so it will take a good bit of time to read. I think I clocked around ten hours with this one.

Two-Star Regency Romance

I hate rating a book with an interesting plot line with lower stars. But there were some flaws with this book that I could not overlook. I had to place it in the two-star category to hold more faithful to my rating scale. First off, the book needed a little copyediting and proofreading. One consistent problem with the ebook version of this book was that the apostrophes were replaced with quotation marks. Furthermore, quotation marks were added around where people thought and spoke in some areas.

Finally, Alex, the duke, was spelled in various ways. For example, in the book’s description, his name is Alex, short for Alexander, I believe. However, he is referred to as Lord Alec, Lord Alek, or just Alec or Alek.

The spelling and grammar were not the only issues within the text. One problem was that the book had some discrepancies in what a duke should be called, Your Grace.

This book, however, referred to him as a lord. It should have at least been his surname or title, which is more customary than using his first name. He was referred to my lord on more than one occasion and your grace on two occasions. 

There was no consistency in this regard.

Since the book was so long, I felt it also took on some repetitive qualities in the middle portion—in the second and third quarter of the book, to be more specific.

Typo pages to note from the ebook include: 10, 74, 75, 79, 80, 82, 83, 86, 98, 99. I stopped marking pages for typos after these, but there were more.

Clean and Wholesome Novel

Saving her Duke is a clean and wholesome Regency romance. It doesn’t include kissing scenes or any sort of steam. It gets one flaming heart for being a wholesome romance without all the intimacy involved. While it doesn’t directly refer to God within the text, it could be considered a Christian historical romance since it is very pious.

Where Can You Buy This Book?

You can get this book on Amazon in paperback or ebook format. When writing this post, it was available through the Kindle Unlimited program. It also occasionally is available for free during promotional periods. However, if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can check out up to 20 books at a time to read and enjoy. If you are new to Kindle Unlimited, check out these great deals:

• 5% off a 6 month pre-paid plan
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