Wow, The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran was so powerful, memorable, and heart breaking.

The first half takes place in India, where The British are struggling with their hold on the country. The second half brings us to London.

The hero is half British, half Indian. Currently a marquis and in line for a dukedom. The heroine is engaged to his cousin and miserable with him.

The first half of this book had me completely spell bound. I loved every moment of it. It was exciting and exotic. I usually don’t like action plots in my romance because I feel like I’m almost reading two books (okay let’s solve a mystery, okay now let’s fall in love) They usually really take me out of the book with that but I didn’t find that with this one at all. I was totally captivated.

The second half is wonderful too, raw, emotional, a journey of forgiving yourself and each other and loving again.

This book lost a star for me for a few reasons:
I didn’t love how the hero changed his tactics to an almost condescending manner when he was trying to win the heroine back. Of course they were both rather unlikable at these times but totally understandable after everything they went through.

I wanted more time in the hero’s head! Way more time.

Lastly I felt the ending was extremely abrupt. I was actually flipping all around the last 20 pages totally confused that I missed something lol.

But such a good book! I highly recommend.