CBR17 Book 6: "My Inconvenient Duke" by Loretta Chase

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 25: A book that takes place entirely outside the US

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. My views are my own. 

Spoiler warning! Because some of the issues I have with this book can't really be addressed without me spoiling some parts of the plot, skip the parts of the review I've marked with spoiler tags until you've actually finished the book.

While this is the third book in the series, most of the action takes place before the events in A Duke in Shining Armor and Ten Things I Hate About the Duke. You don't need to have read either of the two other books to enjoy this one, in fact, I would say you might enjoy this one more without prior knowledge of those stories. 

Lady Alice Ancaster has known Giles Lyon, the eighth Duke of Blackwood, since long before he was a duke. They first met when she was eleven and he was thirteen, and he was one of her brother's best friends and partners in crime. By the time she was seventeen and he was nineteen, there was a clear infatuation between them, and they shared one very memorable kiss. Knowing that Alice deserved someone better, and fully aware that he wasn't ready to give up his wild and reckless ways with his two bosom buddies, Blackwood chose to leave it with that one kiss and studiously avoided Alice thereafter. 

Eight years later, their drunken antics take an almost fatal turn, after they play with a loaded pistol and the duke of Ripley, Alice's brother only barely escapes a shot to the head. Alice is furious with Blackwood for letting things go so far (of the three Dis-graces, he is reckoned as the most sensible one). She declares that she hates him, and only a few days later, she sets off to London determined to find a husband. The idiotic stunt proves to Alice just how likely is that her brother will die unfortunately young and their loathsome cousin, Lord Worbury will inherit both the title and the estate. Worbory hates Alice because she and her best friend Cassandra beat him up for torturing a kitten when they were younger, and he hates Ripley and his friends for looking on. Worbury is already living beyond his means, promising his creditors money once he becomes the next Duke of Ripley.

Alice's aunt, Lady Julia, orders Ripley, Blackwood and Ashmont to stay far away from London while Alice tries to find a suitable husband. While Alice has lived a perfectly respectable life, the presence of her dissolute brother and his best friends will make it more difficult for her. Ripley and Ashmont dutifully agree, but Blackwood is unhappy with the idea of leaving Alice alone in London with Worbury still lurking about, so he stays behind to sort out some financial affairs (or so he claims).

Of course, after a series of chaotic events, involving the odious Worbury, a scruffy street urchin in need (whom readers will recognise from the previous two books in the series, not to mention in a slightly cleaner guise in The Dressmakers series), dealings with the criminal underworld, and then Ripley's sudden and unexplained disappearance, Blackwood and Alice have spent so much time travelling about unchaperoned with one another that Alice is likely to be at the centre of a terrible scandal, unless she and Blackwood marry. So they decide to do so (it doesn't hurt that deep down they have loved each other for over a decade) and for a blissful six months, their marriage seems like it will always be harmonious. That is, until the Duke of Ashmont gets himself into even more trouble than usual, and Blackwood has to go off to save him from himself. 

SPOILERS START HERE:

For two books now, Loretta Chase has been dropping hints about the marriage of Lady Alice Ancaster and the Duke of Blackwood, a union which so shocked polite society. In A Duke in Shining Armor, they appear to be estranged, but having gone back and looked at all the mentions of Alice, some of those hints may have been a bit misleading. Having also gone back and looked at Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, I don't understand why Cassandra, Alice's very best friend in the whole world, a person she refers to as a sister not in blood, wouldn't know the truth about Alice and Blackwood's marriage. Alice and Cassandra correspond regularly, and I don't understand why Alice wouldn't have told her friend that she and Blackwood had to spend more time apart because Ashmont was so out of control he had to have someone sensible accompanying him. Everyone who knew the three dukes would have understood why such a thing would be necessary. That most of society didn't know the truth about the Duke and Duchess of Blackwood's supposed estrangement doesn't seem strange at all, but why would Alice have kept the truth about her actually really happy marriage from her friend?

Obviously, it's because Chase wrote this book last, and can't really go back and rewrite her previous book for the details to fit in better. It is just frustrating that after two books setting up the strange and sudden marriage of Alice and Blackwood, and then their estrangement and supposed enmity, it turns out that nope, there's nothing. It feels deeply anti-climactic to have waited since 2017(!) to find out the truth about Alice and Blackwood, only to discover that their marriage was fine. They married because they loved each other, somewhat suddenly to avoid a scandal, and got along splendidly, with the exception of a few rows, where they realised their mistake and apologised to one another before it could ever become a big deal. I shouldn't be disappointed in a book because there isn't enough drama, and two very enjoyable characters have a happy marriage. But I was led to believe that there would be drama - and now I feel short-changed. 

END SPOILERS

The release of a new Loretta Chase book is always a treat, and it's difficult to describe my delight when I was granted a NetGalley ARC for this back in November. Obviously, I read the book almost instantly and had to re-read it now to remind myself of the plot details before I wrote my review.

Loretta Chase has written some absolute classics, including Lord of Scoundrels, which is 30 years old this year. It's a book I have read multiple times, but never actually reviewed (must absolutely rectify that later this year). I happen to think two other books in the series are better, and I've re-read them more often, but that does not take away from the fact that it's a great book, with a stupendous heroine. Chase has also written a lot of books that are fine when you read them, but a bit more forgettable once you put them down. This, sadly, is one of the latter ones. There's nothing wrong with it, as such, but having first read it right after my re-read of Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, which is a full five-star read and so very perfect, this paled in comparison. There's the issue that I mentioned in my spoiler section, and there's the fact that Alice and Blackwood running around after a street urchin seems to take up far too much of the plot, both in the first and last quarter of the book. 

It should be noted, that Loretta Chase is a queen of the romance genre for a reason, and even a not-perfect book by her is worth your time. Some of the things that annoy me about this book won't matter at all if this is the first book in the series you read. While writing this review and finding books to link to, I also discovered that there's a short story, featuring Lord Lovedon (who is Alice's main suitor in this, before it becomes obvious to everyone, including her, that Blackwood is the only man she could possibly be happy with). So now I've got more Loretta Chase to read. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover differs from the other two in the series, in that on those books, there is a woman seen from the back, apparently running away or towards something. Here, the woman on the cover, who I guess is supposed to be Alice, is happily wandering about the garden, wearing a dress looking nothing like 1830s fashion (which to be fair, was awful, so well done cover designers). She's probably a lot happier, dreamily drifting along since her marriage came about in a much less dramatic way than that of Olivia Hightower or her best friend Cassandra. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR12 Book 88: "Ten Things I Hate About the Duke" by Loretta Chase

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Official book description:

Cassandra Pomfret holds strong opinions she isn’t shy about voicing. But her extremely plain speaking has caused an uproar, and her exasperated father, hoping a husband will rein her in, has ruled that her beloved sister can’t marry until Cassandra does.

Now, thanks to a certain wild-living nobleman, the last shreds of Cassandra’s reputation are about to disintegrate, taking her sister’s future and her family’s good name along with them.

The Duke of Ashmont’s looks make women swoon. His character flaws are beyond counting. He’s lost a perfectly good bride through his own carelessness. He nearly killed one of his two best friends. Still, troublemaker that he is, he knows that damaging a lady’s good name isn’t sporting.

The only way to right the wrong is to marry her…and hope she doesn’t smother him in his sleep on their wedding night. 

It's been nearly three years since Ms Chase's last historical novel was published, but thankfully, she's proven herself worth the wait once again. I think that if I rate them against each other, A Duke in Shining Armor still has the edge, but once this book got going and the heroine and hero started bantering, I was very charmed by Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, which follows on almost immediately from the final scenes of the previous novel in the series (I suspect this would still work as a stand-alone, but why would you want to deprive yourself of the joy of reading a really good historical romance?). It also takes inspiration from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, not to mention the excellent high school comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. One of the three Dis-graces, the Duke of Ashmont was too drunk at his own wedding to keep his bride, who ran off and ended up married to one of his best friends instead. Ashmont and Ripley fight a duel to settle things, but having been such a shambles that he first lost the regard of a nice woman, followed by almost killing his friend, forces a man to start taking a closer look at his life choices.

Before Ashmont really has too much of a chance to repent and change, however, his pity drinking causes not only an accident but nearly a high society scandal. Ashmont fires his gun in the air to break up a fight, which causes Miss Cassandra Pomfret's carriage to run off the road. Her personal manservant Keefe (a retired jockey of great renown) is injured, Cassandra's maidservant runs off, and leaves Cassandra entirely unchaperoned at a country inn with one of the most scandalous rakes in England. If anyone discovers what has happened, Cassandra's already patchy reputation will be utterly ruined. 

Cassandra and Ashmont knew each other as children, and Cassandra once felt infatuated with the beautiful boy that he was. Now, however, she is simply disgusted with how much he wastes his privilege and refuses to take his life and position seriously. It doesn't help that she's already angry, as after Cassandra publicly dared to voice her opinions in a most critical manner, her father has declared that her beautiful younger sister Hyacinth will have her season canceled, and won't be allowed to go out or receive callers until Cassandra is married. Cassandra was on her way to visit her aunt when she was waylaid outside of London. Even with scandal looming, she refuses to leave until she knows Keefe will be well again. 

Ashmont is fully aware that he's screwed up badly, and offers to marry Cassandra to save her reputation. She, however, utterly refuses to hear his ludicrous suggestion, and he has to actually use his brain to try to fix the situation so Cassandra can return to London, with her reputation hopefully unbesmirched. While most other men are put off and intimidated by Cassandra, who's not only intelligent, outspoken, and combative, she's also taller than average, Ashmont is utterly smitten, especially because she refuses to in any way be charmed by him. He totally understands why she rejected his offer of marriage just to get out of a possible scandal but decides that no other woman will do for him, and if she's currently appalled by him and thinks him exactly the dis-grace he's worked for years with his best friends to appear, then he'll just have to do the work to prove himself worthy of her.

Ashmont is very much in the mold of a number of former Chase heroes, a big, handsome lug who appears more stupid than he actually is, mainly because that makes his surroundings underestimate him. Of course, Ashmont, along with his fellow dukes, have used their wealth and position in society to truly live a life of excess, pranks, decadence, and debauchery. He's not exactly particularly likable at the start of the book, but one of the reasons the romance works so well is that Ashmont himself chooses to change and better himself. He understands why Cassandra wants nothing to do with him, and why even their casual encounters can hurt not just her reputation, but the marriage chances of her younger sister. He also knows that while he's a duke and very wealthy, a discerning and intelligent father, like Lord de Griffith, who actually cares about his daughter, not just status, won't want him as a son-in-law unless he cleans up his act rather a lot.

I'm always going to be partial to romances featuring smart, capable, and dedicated women, paired with big, strong men who love them exactly as they are and have no need or wish for them to change anything about themselves. One of the arguments that Ashmont uses when trying to persuade Cassandra to be his wife is how much of a difference she could make, and how much could she can do as a duchess. He has his work cut out for him, however, as Cassandra has observed Ashmont for years, and doesn't really dare believe he has changed, at first. 

One of the reasons this doesn't get a higher rating from me is that I didn't really like the subplot involving the two "villains", who create a number of obstacles for our couple (but in some ways of course end up forcing them together even more). 

Because I really prefer to try to end on a positive note, two of the supporting characters I really liked were Cassandra's mother and sister. Hyacinth has all of her fun taken away (temporarily) because of her father's rash threat towards Cassandra, yet doesn't complain or blame her at all. While she is soft-spoken, demure, kind, and much more the image of proper Victorian womanhood, she is clearly also very clever and observant, if a lot more subtle about it than her older sister. Cassandra's mother is another example of the power women could wield within their assigned spheres. Lord and Lady deGriffith seem to have a very strong marriage, based on love and mutual respect, and while Lord deGriffith is the head of the household, he clearly consults with his wife on important matters - she's his partner and support behind the scenes.

I'm guessing that in the next Loretta Chase novel, we'll finally discover what's the cause of the tensions in the marriage of Lord and Lady Blackmoor. I'm hoping I won't have to wait three more years to read it.

Judging a book by its cover: A Duke in Shining Armor had a woman in a white wedding dress running, facing away from the camera, which while an anachronistic dress colour at the time (wedding dresses didn't tend to be white), at least fit with the plot of the book. Here we have a lovely redhead with long flowing hair, in a purple gown, running away from the camera - and while I see that the book covers complement each other, I think they could have chosen a better cover image for this one. 

Crossposted by Cannonball Read.  

#CBR9 Book 114: "A Duke in Shining Armor" by Loretta Chase

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Hugh Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, is well-known in society (or possibly rather infamous) as one of the three dis-graces. He has returned from an extended trip to the continent just in time for his fellow dis-graces stag do. His best friend, the angel-faced Duke of Ashmont, has managed to find a bride and one from a respectable and upstanding family at that. Lady Olympia Hightower, only daughter of the Earl of Gonerby, is the lucky lady. Although she seems to be having second thoughts, as Hugh finds her about to climb out the window just moments before the ceremony. Having accepted the duties of best man, Ripley can't very well let the bride run off.

Lady Olympia Hightower should be deliriously happy. After seven seasons, during which she's been dubbed "Most Boring" and not received a single suitable marriage proposal, she is about to become a duchess. The fact that her absent-minded father is bad with money will no longer be a problem, and her many brothers will be more than amply provided for. Her future husband is wealthy, handsome and can be very charming (when he's not in his cups). Of course, he's a rake of the highest order, and Olympia isn't exactly expecting him to stay faithful, but she'll be a duchess and her wedding day should be a joyous one. Instead she's getting drunk on stolen brandy in the library and contemplating eloping. Alone.

Not only is she caught in the act by the groom's best friend, the infuriating Duke of Ripley, but he insists on following her, and trying to persuade her to return to the ceremony. Olympia is determined to go to her aunt's house in Twickenham, and persuades Ripley to take her there. It's become obvious to Ripley that Ashmont could probably benefit from properly wooing his bride a bit more before they actually tie the knot, so he reluctantly agrees to accompany Olympia, knowing that them disappearing together for a few hours will just be written off as one of the many pranks the dis-graces have played on each other and others throughout the years. What is supposed to be a simple journey of a few hours, turns complicated rather fast and Ripley is in for a much more time-consuming and complicated task than he ever suspected when he agreed to stand up for his best friend.

Dukes Prefer Blondes was one of my favourite romances last year, and I revisited it in audio book earlier this year. While some of Loretta Chase's Dressmakers series was so-so, she seems to be firmly back on form again now (possibly because she's taking a bit more time between each book). It's not been a super strong year for romances in general, I think, but this book is likely to end up of my romance top 10 and I was very entertained by it.

One of the remarkable things that Ms. Chase does in this book is make a story that takes place over less than a week not feel like the couple descend into insta-love. It's very correctly highlighted early in the book that Olympia has only had a few encounters with Ashmont before agreeing to be his wife, and that this really is perfectly normal in the higher levels of society. Husbands and wives of the upper classes didn't really need to know one another well, or even like each other much for a match to be a prosperous one. So while Olympia and Ripley only spend a few days together, those days really are packed with incident, and allow them to see the other in any number of stressful and unusual situations, probably getting a much clearer picture of each other's characters than any couple who have danced together at a few balls or chatted politely during a few drawing room encounters. It's also made clear that through the years Olympia has been out in society, she has certainly noticed and been attracted to Ripley (although never daring to dream she'd ever have a chance to even speak to him) and he has seen her and thought about her every so often, but clearly never felt that as a notorious rake he could ever speak to such a paragon of virtue.

Being tall, bespectacled and passionately interested in books and library organisation, Olympia won my heart even before she drunkenly tried to escape her own wedding in one of the first chapters. She's shocked to realise that Ripley isn't just being polite when she goes on about her love of ancient books and new ways to organise a library and amused that he's speaks to her as he would one of his male friends, rather than constantly consider her delicate sensibilities.

One of the flaws of the book is that we get a much clearer picture of who Olympia is than Hugh/Ripley. Apparently his father had some sort of mental episode while Hugh was still young and treated both his children and servants appallingly. Ripley's sister (who only appears briefly) is married to the third of the dis-graces, the Duke of Blackwood, and appears to be estranged from him. From what I can gather from Ms. Chase's blog, their book will be the third in the series, while Ashwood who (SPOILER) does not end up marrying Olympia, is the hero of the next book. Ripley is clearly a very loyal friend, even though it seems obvious from his nearly year-long holiday away from his cronies that he was growing a bit sick of their excessive and scandalous lifestyle. Much of the book he is agonising because he is falling for Olympia, but refuses to even contemplate betraying the trust of his friend. I wish Ms. Chase had included more back story on him, because while I feel I got to know Olympia well (and want to be besties with her), Ripley remained more of a cipher.

As well as the promise of future books featuring the Duke of Ashmont (who will no doubt be forced to mature and reconsider his life choices somewhat after the events of this book) and the Duke of Blackwood (who needs to reunite with his wife), there are hints of some sort of back story between Ripley's now widowed aunt and Ashwood's uncle, who is the main person responsible for him ever securing the hand of Lady Olympia. I hope that over the course of the next few books, we find out what went on in their mutual past and get to see if they can find some sort of happy future together too.

TL,DR: This book is fun and romantic and I highly recommend it.

Judging a book by its cover: So it seem like a new trend in romance covers isn't to do the traditional drawn covers, but just featuring a photograph, in this case of a bride running through the grounds of a stately home. Of course, the wedding dress looks way too contemporary to be anything Lady Olympia wears over the course of the book (and Loretta Chase can really be trusted to have researched her character's garments down to the last stitch), the woman in the picture is not wearing a ridiculous headdress, plus she appears to be running TOWARDS a big house, not AWAY from one. I appreciate the efforts here, people, but a little more could have gone a long way.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.