The Runaway Duchess is book 2 in the Duke Undone series but for the life of me I couldn't remember too much about Lavinia so I had to go back and skim. I think you could read this book as a standalone although there are parts of this book that do refer back to characters / situations from book 1. Nothing too big but just calling it out.

Lavinia is our main character and she is facing a situation she never thought she would need to worry about. Marriage to an old Lord to save her mother. I was definitely feeling for Lavinia at the beginning of this book regardless of any feelings I had toward her in book 1. She is basically sacrificed to a creepy old guy in marriage so that her mother can keep living the lifestyle she is used to and I really disliked her mother for this. With that said, Lavinia goes through with the wedding but immediately realizes she can't (and doesn't want to) be married to this man. When she finds herself at a train station separated from her new husband, she happens across a man who appears to be the solution she was looking for...all she needs to do is pretend to be someone else.

Neal Traymayne is a plant hunter and has been running a nursery for a while now. He has plans though to settle down with a like minded women and he thinks Muriel Pendrake is that women...even though he has never met her. When he crosses paths with Lavinia and mistakenly thinks she is Muriel, Lavinia jumps at this chance. Neal just can't figure out why she seems so different from her letters.

I found this story interesting and to be honest, I wasn't sure how Lavinia was going to pull this off but she did...for a little while. I enjoyed how the relationship built and when Neal eventually figured things out, he was a little vindictive (rightfully so) but he still showed some compassion for Lavinia and the situation she was in.

In the end, I enjoyed this story. There were times early on that I felt the story dragged a little bit but I have to admit that once Neal figured things out, the story picked up and I found myself turning the pages to see how this was going to work out. If you liked book 1 of this series, consider picking this one up too!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.