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A review by sherwoodreads
The Wicked Duke by Madeline Hunter
Copy provided by NetGalley.
This book, which reads as if it was part of a series, slides over to the cosplay end of the spectrum of Regency romances. The readership who will love it wants an alpha male with a high title, tons of dough, and an expert in bed because he and the passionate, modern-thinking heroine are headed for the silken sheets as soon as the story can get them there.
We’re introduced to our hero, Lance, the new duke, having sex with a stranger. We follow him in his crapulous, hungover state home. He’s been prowling and scowling around his estate, hiding out until the whispering settles about the mysterious death of his elder brother. He comes off like the generic dukebag, except that his brothers seem like decent guys, and they like him, so . . . appearances deceive?
Our heroine is Marianne, who is the champion of her frail cousin Nora, to whom something horrible happened when she was fifteen that has nearly unhinged her mind.
Marianne’s uncle is going to force either Nora or Marianne to marry the new duke out of a sense of revenge; meanwhile Marianne’s mother is ambitious for her daughter. (Marianne is said to be on the shelf, though her mother is only thirty-six. I have to admit that puzzled me; for everyone to consider Marianne “on the shelf” her mother would have had to marry at, what, ten?)
But the readers who like sexy regencies will finesse that pretty much the same way the rules of English society are finessed, as the narrative hustles Marianne and Lance to make a marriage of convenience.
Once they do get married, the story really takes off, as Marianne overcomes her dislike of the wicked duke and throws herself into solving the mystery surrounding the previous duke’s death. Lance’s happily married brothers (indicating this was part of a series) are there to tease him and cheer him until the mystery is solved in a surprising way. I did not guess the outcome in the least, but the tracks were nicely laid.
There’s a lot of energy to the story, with some flashes of wit, and of course plentiful descriptions of hot passion; comedy-of-manners purists might wince at bobbles with titles, customs, and language, but readers who don’t care about those things should thoroughly enjoy this story.
This book, which reads as if it was part of a series, slides over to the cosplay end of the spectrum of Regency romances. The readership who will love it wants an alpha male with a high title, tons of dough, and an expert in bed because he and the passionate, modern-thinking heroine are headed for the silken sheets as soon as the story can get them there.
We’re introduced to our hero, Lance, the new duke, having sex with a stranger. We follow him in his crapulous, hungover state home. He’s been prowling and scowling around his estate, hiding out until the whispering settles about the mysterious death of his elder brother. He comes off like the generic dukebag, except that his brothers seem like decent guys, and they like him, so . . . appearances deceive?
Our heroine is Marianne, who is the champion of her frail cousin Nora, to whom something horrible happened when she was fifteen that has nearly unhinged her mind.
Marianne’s uncle is going to force either Nora or Marianne to marry the new duke out of a sense of revenge; meanwhile Marianne’s mother is ambitious for her daughter. (Marianne is said to be on the shelf, though her mother is only thirty-six. I have to admit that puzzled me; for everyone to consider Marianne “on the shelf” her mother would have had to marry at, what, ten?)
But the readers who like sexy regencies will finesse that pretty much the same way the rules of English society are finessed, as the narrative hustles Marianne and Lance to make a marriage of convenience.
Once they do get married, the story really takes off, as Marianne overcomes her dislike of the wicked duke and throws herself into solving the mystery surrounding the previous duke’s death. Lance’s happily married brothers (indicating this was part of a series) are there to tease him and cheer him until the mystery is solved in a surprising way. I did not guess the outcome in the least, but the tracks were nicely laid.
There’s a lot of energy to the story, with some flashes of wit, and of course plentiful descriptions of hot passion; comedy-of-manners purists might wince at bobbles with titles, customs, and language, but readers who don’t care about those things should thoroughly enjoy this story.