Book Review - Mr. Cavendish, I Presume

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn is the story of Thomas Cavendish, the Duke of Wyndham and Lady Amelia Willoughby. Thomas and Amelia have been engaged for nearly all of their lives. As children their eventual marriage was arranged by their parents and neither had a say in the matter.
Amelia is growing weary - and irritated, truth be told - with the Duke’s seeming refusal to set a date for their wedding. Sure, he knows exactly who she is and that they are to be wed but he treats Amelia as a duty and nothing more. He certainly doesn’t act as if he truly means to get to know her and this is quite unacceptable to Amelia. She decided that she is done responding with gentility to the pitifully small amount of attention he pays her - in the name of duty only, of course.
Thomas, although tired of his constant duty and lack of privacy as the Duke of Wyndham, is quite irritated when he is shunned at the local dance hall - by his fiancée, of all people. Intent on giving Lady Amelia a piece of his mind and a lesson on her duties as the future Duchess, he finally sees her for the woman she has become and his interest is captured.
Naturally, their courtship is far from smooth. Just as Thomas realizes he is quite attracted to his future wife, and as Amelia decides not to appear so docile; they learn that they may not be allowed to wed at all. It is brought to light that Thomas may not be the true heir of Wyndham. Now that Amelia and Thomas are discovering - and even accepting - their feelings for one another - will they hold firm in the face of scandal and perhaps a loss of every thing they had thought was rightfully theirs?

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume is Julia Quinn’s follow up novel to The Lost Duke of Wyndham. It is immediately apparent that Ms. Quinn is following the same time line in this story as she did the previous. While at first I thought I would like that - I didn’t. It grew a bit annoying reading scene after scene that I’d already read in the first book. And while Amelia and Thomas’ relationship does develop in this book - I felt Amelia deserved better. It seemed to me that Thomas only wanted once he thought he was ‘entitled’ to her. As much as I love and adore Julia Quinn’s writing (and am in fact about to read her latest novel) this was not one of my favorites.