The third in Chase’s Difficult Dukes series. This book is so quintessentially Chase that if you fed it to AI (and someone probably has), it could probably produce a roughly believable original story just based on this book.
Plot: Lady Alice is the sister of the Duke of Ripley, which readers may recall from A Duke in Shining Armor. Ripley’s recklessness has now been tamed by an intelligent, headstrong woman, but this was not always the case. At one point, Alice felt that Ripley would inevitably get himself killed and she would be made destitute by the new Duke. After one particularly close call, Alice had had enough. She was going to find her own security, the only way available to the sister of a Duke. She would marry, and urgently. Unfortunately, the Duke of Blackwood, who is not at all secretly in love with his best friend’s sister, and who was not warned off of pursuing her some years ago because him being a disgraceful loser meant that he didn’t deserve Alice, has decided to protect Alice during her matrimonial hunt. Shenanigans ensue.
There is something about Chase’s characters. I dislike “alpha” heroes with a fiery passion, or at least, until I found Chase’s writing, I thought I did. As it turned out, I love alpha men, because that makes them a match for the alpha heroines Chase writes. Because when you create intense, passionate, volatile heroines, the men in their life need a strong constitution. This is never more true that when you’re writing about a time of extreme sexism, because a headstrong woman in such a setting is not just out of place, the way I feel such women still are even in the modern world, but they were a danger to themselves and those around them. Pursuing their aims was inevitably not done and upon discovery, would ruin their whole families’ reputation. In many ways, the only kind of match for such women are men that have the full power of the state to protect them, immunity to scandal, and a love of turning conventions on their heads.
The story is split in two, the first being years before the events of A Duke in Shining Armor, and then picking up again in the present. Some reviewers seemed to find the second part weaker than the first, and I’m not sure I agree. Chase’s writing is as crisp and witty as ever, and events proceed in ways that make sense, and lead to a believable, satisfying ending. If there is anything to those comments, at least in my view, is that it is now beginning to feel a bit stale. All three couples in the Difficult Dukes series are so similar I sometimes mix them up in my head. Was it Cassandra that did that or Alice? Was it Ripley or Blackwood that said that?
It’s a good read whether you’ve read the rest of the series or not, but honestly, it may be better if you haven’t.