Review: The Perks of Being A Beauty

by Manda Collins
Rating: 2/5

The beautiful Miss Amelia Snow is not accustomed to being snubbed by the gentlemen of the ton. But when her mother dies unexpectedly, forcing Amelia to take employment as companion to a wealthy cit’s daughter, she quickly learns to play down her looks or risk losing her position. When her employers, the Smithsons, decide to throw a country house party, she is determined to fade into the background. But how can she when the Smithson’s guest of honor is Lord Quentin Fortescue, the childhood friend who stole her heart? Younger son, Lord Quentin Fortescue, is far more interested in his host’s cotton mills in the north than he is in courting the man’s dim-witted daughter. But it’s the girl’s companion who makes him look twice. Years ago, Miss Amelia Snowe rejected his proposal without a backward glance. Quentin has molded himself into just the sort of man she’d have wanted back then, but is Amelia still the smug beauty who broke his heart? And can either of them risk their newfound positions to indulge the fiery attraction that burns between them?

This is book 3.5 in the Ugly Ducklings series by Manda Collins. This novella follows Amelia Snowe, antagonist of the previous three books. Amelia also fuelled the Ugly Ducklings series through her dance card which Cecilia, Juliet and Maddie used to find their husbands.

I may have said in my How to Entice an Earl review that I thought Amelia Snowe was more interesting than Maddie and I rooted for her more than Maddie but this is NOT what I had in mind. Amelia is boring. How you can take a character that screeches angrily she's the one who should be married and make her BORING? Now restrained I can understand, but apart from one man who explains that Amelia used to be rather shrewish, nobody regrets that she lost her passion and inner fire. I mean no-one liked her for who she really is tempered with a little consideration? All her personality had to go?

Lord Quentin Fortescue was kinda just there. He wasn’t flat but he was no more interesting that Amelia in this. Despite him shedding light on Amelia’s earlier years and explaining how she became so cruel to other girls, Quentin sorta just existed. He arrives, falls into Amelia’s orbit again and then they run away to Scotland to marry. WTF?

And the "Ugly Ducklings" tie-in was repetitive and silly. Amelia is now friends, she's sorry, blah, blah. At no point does Amelia feel guilty over any other victim but the Ugly Ducklings, she now admires and loves them like nobody else before.

In short, if you were interested in Amelia Snowe's story after the Ugly Ducklings trilogy you will be disappointed. If you hated Amelia, you will not see her get deserts because this character hardly resembles Amelia. For a book with a seriously flawed heroine who is still likable and gets her man? Love Letters From a Duke.

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