REVIEW: Her Time Travelling Duke by Bryn Donovan

I have received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review in any way.

Thank you to Berkley for sending me an Advance Reader’s Copy of Her Time Travelling Duke!

Okay, I'm convinced. Berkley loves me. (Or maybe the delulu is just settling in.) However, just because it's Berkley doesn't guarantee it's good.

Bryn Donovan's debut series is a collection of interconnected standalones. I had believed them to be an interconnected series, so I started with the first book "Her Knight at the Museum." In this one, we follow Emily, an art conservator. One page one--the very first page--the author tells us that Emily is sexually attracted to the newest statue in the most bizarre way possible. This remark came completely out of nowhere, and I felt as though it was a bad omen for how my reading of this book was going to be. I managed to finish the first chapter, which was chock full of juvenile writing, cringy unrealistic dialogue, and telling instead of showing. I couldn't bring myself to start chapter two.

You can see why I was so wary to pick up "Her Time Travelling Duke."

After researching to confirm I did not need to finish "Her Knight at the Museum" to read this one, I decided to give it a shot--what more did I have to lose? (My sanity, reader. It was my sanity.) While this installment does catch us up on what happened in the first book, the explanation of the magic system was so baffling. Magic exists, but witches don't? However, our protagonist Rose is a witch? Can just anyone use magic? I was so confused. Not only that, but Rose suffered from what I call "insufferable millennial syndrome" (which, at this point, I'm choosing to believe the author has it too). Rose is a 'quirky' 'not like other girls' type, and the constant pop culture references kept taking me out of the story to roll my eyes. Like the first book in this series, I couldn't bring myself to finish this one either. It's an unfortunate situation; had I been born a millennial maybe I would have enjoyed Donovan's writing a lot more. But as a Gen Z (or late Zillennial) I simply could not truthfully say I liked this story.

Her Time Travelling Duke by Bryn Donovan will be available on December 9th, 2025.

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