Eyeball candy. I finished it in one night. Spectacularly good! I really enjoyed the story arc- the fact that the relationship didn’t go from 0-60 immediately. It felt like a natural i.e. real progression. Can’t wait to read more by this author!

More than a Christmas romance!

Professor Daniela Martinez is post-men while waiting for her soon to be ex-husband to sign the divorce papers with of things that she would never give up again for a man. Maximillian von Hansburg called her wanting to take Dani to dinner because their best friends (A Princess for Christmas) were getting married in Eldovia leading to them becoming friends.

I loved Duke, Actually because Max and Dani surprised me because I thought it would be the usual Christmas romance with the couple falling in love quickly but they become friends before any of the romance starts slowly. But as with any good romance there has to be some drama especially with Max’s family.

P.S. Max minimus was adorable!

Duke, Actually is the sequel to A Princess for Christmas but can be read as a standalone. I did like A Princess for Christmas but I loved Duke, Actually!

We met both Dani and Max in the first book, as best friends to the couple. Dani has sworn off men (she’s post-love) and Max is known as the Depraved Duke for his womanizing ways. They form their own friendship but eventually start feeling not-so-friendly feelings for each other.

I really loved their friends to lovers relationship! They had a lot holding them back but they couldn’t resist the pull of each other. Their friendship is so easy and fun, with tons of banter and honesty between them. They push each other to be better and expand the path they each think they are on.

It’s got a little steam, a lot of heart, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! A great holiday read.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy! Oh my word, this book was adorable. I was expecting Hallmark Christmas movie level of cringe, but this was so smart and funny and sexy. This was a very slow burn friends to lovers, and I LOVED watching Dani's and Max's friendship blossom. You could tell that they genuinely cared for each other outside of something romantic. Both were also very well written and given so much depth. I was going to wait and read this during the holidays, but I thought what better time than now. And boy am I glad I did. This is my first novel by Jenny Holiday, and now I'm interested in her other ones. This is definitely going to be a buy for me when it comes out.

GOOD READS REVIEW:
17+
3.5 STARS
1 SPICE

This book was an ARC I received through NetGalley

So when I first started reading this book, I was very confused. The relationship between the characters was established that they knew each other. Which makes sense when you find out this is the second book in the series. I would recommend that those who want to read this book, the first one "A Princess for Christmas" This book isn't marketed as the second book in the series on Goodreads If it was and I had read the first book. I feel as though the relationship would have been more impactful.

Now, once I got into the story. I think that it has some very strong elements. The development of the characters' friendship over the year was great and the tension built was great. I think that it is a cute contemporary romance that will definitely be fun to read in the wintertime.

This book focuses more on the romance and development of the friendship of the characters. I think that for those who are looking for the more spicy contemp romances. This isn't the book for you. This has a couple of scenes but not too much detail. If that is what you are looking for, then this will be the perfect book for you.

Gosh, I absolutely loved this!

Granted, as someone who is marrying a man who lives in Europe, I might be a bit biased based on the plot of this novel, but hey, who cares?!

Duke, Actually is the follow-up to Jenny Holiday's novel, A Princess for Christmas. This time we follow Dani and Max, the best friends of the couple in the original novel. You do not need to read the first one at all to enjoy this as everything is easily explained backstory-wise. Dani is a University professor going through an emotional divorce after her husband leaves her for an ex-student who is far younger than either of them. Dani is trying to put on a brave face at school because she's up for tenure, but having to deal with her ex as well as the judgment of those around her has her a bit on edge. Also, her best friend Leo has moved to Europe to marry the Princess, Marie, as depicted in A Princess for Christmas, so she's a little lonely despite writing off men.

Enter Max, a baron and Marie's initial love interest. Max and Marie are BFF and were planning to marry as friends until she met Leo, so now Max is a bit on the outs as his family is pressuring him to marry. He has no interest in his family, as his father is an abusive alcoholic, but takes much of the burden as possible so his brother, Sebastian, can live a bit more freely. This, of course, does not work the way he wants it to.

Max is in NYC, Dani is there, and they agree to meet up as they know one another. Max has a reputation for being a playboy, Dani has sworn off all men that don't meet the criteria of her self-made list, and the two decide to become friends. They hit it off well and the chemistry is fantastic between them. From their first meeting, you're rooting for them to get together.

Of course, the novel has its roadblocks and they can't get together right away, but Holiday does a great job at establishing them as friends, confidants, and romantic partners. They both are a bit bitter and hurt from previous relationships and find it hard to show vulnerability, but they're able to open up to one another in very natural ways. I love that Dani is a strong, driven woman of color who has let things she wants fall to the side because of love and is now trying to figure out who she is as a person on her own. It reads incredibly honestly, and she was a character a think a lot of women in their 30s can relate to. Max was hot as hell, witty and fun, while also allowing himself to grow and not assuming he knows everything in all situations.

The couple is very well matched, very equal in terms of life status (yes, Max is royalty but Dani has a doctorate and is a professional), and have such wonderful chemistry you can't stop reading. I absolutely love Christmas romances and this one knocked it out of the park for me. This deserves to be a great Christmas movie, not just a half-assed adaptation for Hallmark. It's really lovely and everything you wished those Prince Christmas movies on Netflix lived up to. A very fun read!

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*Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

If you like the Christmas Prince movies on Netflix, you’re definitely going to like this book! It has a cutesy but realistic love story between a (sort of) recent divorcee who’s sworn off love and a duke (excuse me, baron) who has issues with his title. The reluctant friends to best friends (aka soul mates) to lovers is one of my favorites because Dani and Max bring out the best in each other and do everything to push but also support each other’s endeavors. I love the accuracy in Latinx representation Daniela exhibits, and Max’s growth regarding family dynamic, but most of all I love Maximus Minimus. ⁠
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Spice: 1/5⁠
Stars: 5/5⁠
Trope: “Love, Actually” pages, friends to lovers, aristocracy & peasant love story⁠
Triggers: Alcoholism (Max’s dad)⁠
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Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review and the opportunity to read this work of art.

I was predisposed to like this book. My book club read A Princess for Christmas last year and I really enjoyed it. Like Princess, Duke, Actually is a Hallmark movie without all of the cringe-y elements. Dani and Max are both witty, charming characters and I loved watching them fall in love. I did, however, have a few quibbles.

One, I feel like everything leading up to them maybe starting a relationship took a long time. I liked their back and forth but I would rather have a little less of that and a little more of them considering a relationship.

Two, I feel like the happy ending was a little rushed. There's always obstacles in this book and I feel like they went from impossible to gone in about 5 seconds.

Three, I liked the very last scene but I wish every romance novel didn't end this way. It's fine, it was still very cute in this instance, but it did make me sigh a little.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and I hope Jenny Holiday continues the series! I really like all of these characters.

I liked the dialogue, but the plot was a little predictable. Somewhat less sappy than most Xmas romances. However, I share the concerns of author Alexis Hall (in his Goodreads review) about what happens when one of the side characters who is LGBTQ+ comes out, so I probably won't be personally recommending this to people. Regardless, it has been chosen as a Romance book club pick at the bookstore and should do well.

Duke, Actually is the sequel to A Princess for Christmas where readers can either read them as a series or as standalones. If you choose to read both, which I would recommend, I would start with Princess before moving on to this one as the events in Duke take place after the ones in the first. First things first, the title of this story is adorable and fits extremely well with the story. Not only is the movie Love Actually referenced throughout the story, but the title of Duke is a running joke with one of the main characters. This novel centers on the best friends of the two main characters, Leo and Marie, from A Princess for Christmas.

Daniela (Dani) Martinez is a 32-year-old English Professor in New York, who is Leo’s best friend. She is dealing with the fallout of her marriage to fellow professor Vincent (Vince) Ricci, who is now dating a 20-year-old named Berkeley. Due to her past, she has sworn off dating men and is content to live her life with her dog Max and to try and find her way in her career. While she enjoys her job, she is anxious to try and get tenure and she also struggles with her dream of writing novels. With Leo now living in Eldovia (a fictional country near Luxemburg) and living his new life with his fiancée, Marie, Dani is trying to find to navigate the new dynamic.

Enter Max von Hansburg, a 28-year-old Baron and heir to the Duke of Duke of Aquilla, who is Princess Marie’s best friend and also her ex-fiancé (a marriage of convenience). Max is in New York to meet Lavinia von Bachenheim, who his father wants him to marry now that Marie is taken. Max remembers Dani from her past visit to Eldovia and decides to text her to hang out. The two of them begin a friendship where they get to lean on each other. The two of them share a lot about their lives and I loved how they connect with each other throughout the story. Dani shares a lot about her marriage and her dreams while she waits for the day for her divorce to be final. Max shares his lack of direction in life and his private family life, including some secrets about his abusive family members and his father’s alcoholism.

Overall, I love the Hallmark feel that this series continues to have as Eldovia and New York are both excellent holiday backdrops for the stories. While the two characters had attraction for each other, it was not the only thought that occupied their inner thoughts. With the story including both of their perspectives, I appreciated that there was a lot of focus on building a connection between the characters rather than either of them only focusing on being attracted to the other. This novel was a slow burn romance that felt natural in its progression. Each character was going through a lot in their own journeys, so their build up to a potential romance made a lot of sense. For me, I hope that the author continues to expand the series as I really would love a story with Max’s brother, Seb, as a main character since he was a delight when he was on the page!

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Avon and Harper Voyager, Avon, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

This was my first book by Jenny Holiday and it will not be my last! I really enjoyed this friends to lovers story set against a royal wedding. It was unexpectedly a very sweet and spicy romance!

4 stars! And I plan on looking up the one before this one and reading it next!

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I was looking forward to read this book, only to realized that this is the second book, so I had to buy the first one, which didn't help for my expectations.
The first one, A Princess for Christmas, is about Leo and Marie, and although it sounds good as a Hallmark movie, it quite didn't work for me, as I didn't like how the characters were going at the second half of the book.
This second book is about Dani and Max, and there's little I could say about it. I like their chemestry but I'm not sure with what happens at the end.

This was such a delightful story, that takes place in NYC and in Europe. It was extra delightful as some of the story takes place during the holiday season. Since my favorite holiday movie is Love Actually, and there’s so many references in the book, I found the story between Daniela and Max charming. I loved how both struggled with crossing the line from semi enemies, to then becoming best friends, to potentially more than BFFs and how they kept their true feelings for each other under wraps. Thank goodness neither of their flights made them miss the other towards the end. I highly recommend everyone add Duke, Actually to the holiday tbr.

Many thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the advanced eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Adorable sweet, sort of Christmas romance! It was a combination of all of my favorite things! Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

What’s the worst that could happen between a woman who is “post love divorce” and the bachelor Baron, one day Duke?

We all know falling in love isn’t easy and everyone you fall I love, you risk a heartbreak. So when Daniela Martinez is finally divorced from her husband Vince, Max seems like the perfect match. He’s not interested in live or relationships, and they create an incredibly deep friendship and she considers him one of her best friends. But what neither of them expected was to fall in love, but yet neither one of them can admit it, to themselves or each other.

It’s all fun and games until sex is involved and emotions are running high!

Dani and Max are so lovable! It’s impossible not to fall head over heels in love with this books.

Daniela is in the process of a messy divorce and she’s trying to get her life on track after her husband leaves her. Max is an infamous royal who is known for his loose ways and nonchalant attitude.

This is a friends to lovers rom-com with alll the goey goodness of a hallmark story with a hint of spice.

I loved the blooming relationship between Dani and Max. This book was written really well and the build up was beautiful. Both of the characters had great character development and really grew throughout the book. This was a feel good read and perfect for the cozy holiday season.

I don't know why I left this on my TBR pile for so long. This is a charming and delightful holiday romance. Max von Hansburg, Baron of Laudon comes to NYC for a party to meet a potential bride. He isn't really interested but makes contact with Dani Martinez. They are both going to be in the wedding party for their best friends in Eldovia. Dani is a professor of and on the cusp of applying for tenure. On an impulse she invites him to be her plus one at a college holiday social. He is the perfect date building her up to colleagues and outshining her soon to be ex husband.

This starts them on a path to friendship where they text and call almost daily. I will say for me there was a slow 20 percent when they aren't even on the same continent. But things get moving again when he invites her to Eldovia to work on her writing and spend time together. I like that this is as much about Max's struggles with feeling adrift and not knowing what to do with his life till he become the Duke as it is about Dani figuring what she wants to do with her life. They eventually get to hot and passionate and the timeline fits. There are lots of fun literary references and picking apart the movie Love Actually. I'm definitely going to go back and read the first book in the series A Princess for Christmas and look at other books from the author. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute story! It was easy to fall in love with both characters (and side characters). I didn’t read the first book in this series so I didn’t understand some of the references, but I could definitely still read this as a stand alone.

The only part of the story that left me a bit confused was happened with Max’s father at the end. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be comedic or karmic, but it was definitely unexpected and even took me out of the story for a minute.

But that said, I had such a good time reading this book that I would definitely recommend it! And even though this may not technically be a holiday story because it takes place over the course of a year, I still got the heartwarming, cozy vibes of a holiday story from this book!

CW: physical and emotional abuse

i read this book in one sitting!!
read this if you love: a fuck boy redemption arc, slow burn, royal/commoner trope, and rom coms.

Dani is a professor in New York going through a divorce so she makes some rules for herself regarding men. Max is an Eldovian baron with not a lot of purpose in life and the nickname “Depraved Duke” from the tabloids .
This is such a charming book and I love how well the characters were written.

Jenny Holiday calls Duke Actually and its predecessor, A Princess for Christmas, her “Hallmark Christmas movie in book form except with sex and swearing" series. It’s quite apt: like a Hallmark movie, this book has plenty of cheer.

Dani, an English professor in New York, would rather be a writer. She would also rather be divorced from Vince, who cheated on her with a student, demanded her share of their joint research in exchange for not taking the dog, and refuses to sign the paperwork. Her best friend Leo recently ended up engaged to Marie, the Crown Princess of Eldovia, which means she has to do yet another thing she’d rather not: as Leo’s “best man”, she has to collaborate with Maximillian von Hansburg, Baron of Laudon, who is Marie’s “man of honor” - and who Marie jilted to marry Leo in the previous book.

But Max isn’t quite as entitled or superficial as Dani expects, and Dani, to Max’s surprise, sees potential in a jobless playboy. Soon, they’re finding more excuses to spend time together - if they can overcome Max’s traumatic childhood and the literal ocean that keeps them apart.

Holiday can be genuinely funny:

Dani: Any chance you want to be my plus-one to my work holiday party, and which my soon-to-be ex-husband, Vince, will be in attendance, as will his new girlfriend, who is a former student of both of ours and who is twenty years younger than he is?

Max: Is your soon-to-be-ex-husband the main character in a Philip Roth novel?

Max is more engaging than many ‘wealthy aristocrat’ heroes. I liked his relationship with his younger brother Sebastien. He’s aware of his good fortune and financial privilege, wanting to find a way to be purposeful, while still enjoying staying at the Four Seasons and wearing designer suits. As Dani observes, wealthy people “were always trying to pretend to be middle class. ‘The cost of living in New York, am I right?’ they’d say, like they had something in common with her. Not Max, though.”  The details of departmental politics at Dani’s college are well-drawn, from the tenure portfolio process to the need to put on a good show at departmental parties. Still, it felt contrived that Dani would get so far into this world and then decide oops, she’d rather have a different job - and gosh, it could be done anywhere! Gosh, could this play any kind of role in resolving the big geographical conflict in this relationship?

As mentioned, Duke, Actually is the sequel to A Princess for Christmas, but suffers less than usual from sequel-itis, especially given that it is set across the wedding of that book’s leads. Usually the author fills an entire swimming pool with the treacle of previous protagonists’ superlative joy and then holds our heads under the surface until we choke it down, but this book displays more restraint. It even comments occasionally about how Dani and Leo can’t remain the friends they were now that he has found his true love. It did feel a bit stilted at times (with character recapping, or when Dani describes Leo’s love story as “a gender-swapped Cinderella story” - thanks for the marketing blurb, Dani!). However, it’s not terrible.

What are some other challenges? My ARC had one strange editing error, where Max refers to having earned “two degrees from Oxford” but also having Cambridge as his “alma mater.” At one point, Max is eyebrow-raisingly oblivious to his brother’s true relationship status. Max and Dani have their obligatory crisis, which Dani responds to immaturely, and which is resolved by a single conversation Max has with his brother in which Max has a Grand Realization, when a Grand Decade of Therapy seems more likely to be successful. And, while I would like to avoid spoilers, a scene towards the end is confusingly written to land halfway between slapstick comedy and serious issue.

Overall, Duke, Actually is an enjoyable, relaxing read. If it is a bit formulaic and occasionally flawed, it’s still a modern Christmas fairy tale that captures the magic of the season.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

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Source of book: NetGalley (thank you!)
Relevant disclaimers: this author and I share an agent, but otherwise unconnected. I don’t feel it influenced my comments on the book but you may conclude differently
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author

This heroine has, like, unacknowledged core strength. I mean, literally. She and the hero keep doing the Dirty Dancing lift and quite how this quite tall, academic lady who does do any explicit exercise over the course of the book is able to, y’know, allow a hot guy to lift her into the air by her pelvic bones and not collapse over him like a damp tea towel is a fucking holiday miracle. Or possibly I’m just ashamed of my inferior core strength.

In any case this book is both incredibly charming and incredibly thoughtful, as well it ought to be because it’s Jenny Holiday and only Jenny Holiday could make me read a holiday (no pun intended) romance. I think it helps that the Xmas theme is present but not *over* present: the book takes place over the course of a year—between two Xmases—which allows for a lovely slow burn romance, and gives the protagonists opportunity to have more going on in their lives than, y’know, thinking about and living around bloody Christmas.

Duke Actually is kind of follow-up to A Princess for Christmas (the heroine is Leo’s best friend, and the hero the dude Marie jilts) but it stands alone perfectly well and, honestly, while I enjoyed A Princess for Christmas, I liked this one a whole lot more. Though I suspect that’s mostly a personal taste thing. The series is pitched as “Hallmark with steam” but, for my money, that’s actually slightly reductive: yes there’s steam, yes there’s a gentle sense of optimism pervading the story as whole, but there’s also real depth and dimensionality to the characters.

Max (the duke, or rather the baron, of the title) in particular I adored: partly I think it was because he’s from a fantasy European country, so he spoke with an almost-British formality that I, naturally, related to, but also I just have a soft spot for a damaged hero who hides his pain beneath a façade of lightness and attentiveness. He has an exaggerated but still earned reputation for being a playboy, but he’s also witty, clever, and kind. Dani, too, I should say is great. She’s a literature professor struggling for tenure and dealing with the recent dissolution of her marriage. Like Max, she’s concealing her vulnerability, but in her case it’s beneath a façade of wariness and pragmaticism. They have great chemistry (along with ye trademark Holiday banter, and yes there’s a grilled cheese sandwich) and it’s genuinely lovely to watch the way their friendship helps them grow into themselves, into the people they have the capacity to be, and the lives they have the power to choose. Utterly swoony stuff.

Like its hero and its heroine, this is supremely self-aware book. From its little dig at The Great Gatsby, to its attempt to redeem the notorious “Having been an absolute wanker to you, I’m now going to non-consensually tell you my feelings by holding them up on hand-written cards” scene in Love Actually, to its willingness to celebrate all the naff and whimsical pleasures of life. But more seriously—and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this—it’s willing to carefully unpick the privilege of its hero. Not just what it means for him and his life, but for the lives of the people dependent upon him. The degree to which wealth derives from exploitation and power is often a fluke of circumstance, especially when we’re talking about hereditary aristocracy.

Mostly the charisma of the characters, both the protagonists and the supporting cast, carried me through the story, although it perhaps has one too many plot threads (both Max and Dani make significant changes to their lives over the course of a year, there’s the issue of Max’s family mining business, there’s his relationship with his brother, there’s his abusive father, there’s Dani’s divorce, there’s her lack of satisfaction in her career, there’s the history of one of Max’s relatives they’re researching—ye gods, I’m exhausted just listing them). The ending was possibly a little rushed—Max botches declaring his feelings, Dani goes back to NYC, Max deals with his family, Dani deals with her job all in the space of about 10% of the manuscript—but the final scene at the airport was so gorgeously romantic that I didn’t care.

My only serious qualm concerned a subplot involved Max’s gay brother Sebastian. Sebastian is very gay-by-numbers (gender non-conforming behaviour in childhood, faint air of vulnerability, taste for beefy security guards) but, for me, it mostly works: I mean it’s a tropey book, he’s a tropey character among tropey characters, and he has agency, and a personality, and gets a happy ending of his own.

Where I kind of winced a bit, and I emphasise (as ever) that this is personal, plus it will stray towards spoiler territory concerns the resolution to the Max family plot. The old duke (Max and Seb’s father) is, of course, a terrible human being, because I think there’s a law that no father of a hero duke can be a good person: he’s an alcoholic, as well as emotionally and occasionally physically abusive. Towards the end of the book Max and Seb independently decide that they’re going to choose to live their own lives beyond his tyrannical attempts to control them, Max by moving to NYC where he’s been offered a job doing some kind of consultancy work, Seb by coming out (so he can officially be with his beefy security guard boyfriend). Max does his thing, the old duke says he’ll disown him, Seb retorts that it might not be a good idea because he’s a gay … and the old duke immediately corks it. Because shock and the impact of years of alcohol abuse on his heart.

So this is complicated. I mean, I have to admit that I was rather invested in Max throwing off his heritage and settling down in NYC with Dani but … that’s me. It’s not where the book was going and that’s fine. I also have zero problem with the old Duke dying plot-usefully, because he was clearly awful, and I know in theory it was probably the combined impact of both sons defying him simultaneously (plus heart issue) that led to the, y’know, the sudden death. But you still kind of had a situation here where a queer character came out to their parent and their parent immediately snuffed it.

Like … that is the stuff queer nightmares are made of. And it was super weird that the book was tying itself up neatly into an HEA when … I mean. I know rationally there were mitigating circumstances around the old duke’s death but from Seb’s POV? But this is the happy fluffy end to a story about two straight people. It also feels like the beginning of an incredibly dark story about some poor queer guy whose life is about to go massively off the rails because it probably feels to him like he came out and it killed his dad. That would fuck you the fuck up. Especially having spent twenty-something years of your life in a world where being queer simply wasn’t permissible and surviving a childhood in which acts of gender non-conformity led to direct punishment from your father. (I mean, I had that childhood and I’ve had a lot of fucking therapy).

I think what kind of confuses me about the whole “I killed my father with my gay” angle is that it didn’t feel … necessary? Max’s declaration of independence could just as well have caused the old duke’s heart to explode. I mean, I think it was probably meant to be some kind of act of positive self-something for Seb? Coming out to his abusive father? But why? What does Seb get out of that? We owe nothing to our abusers.

And coming out is … coming out is frankly one of the worst things you ever have to do. And you have to do it repeatedly. For your entire life. It is bad enough to have to do it—to accept the sick premise that some part of you that is integral and immutable requires explanation and declaration—for people you love and trust. I can’t for the life of me see why, under some spurious implication of empowerment, the book forces Seb to give that to father who has taught him nothing but shame and treated him nothing but badly.

But. Uh. Yeah. Apart from that horrendously dark twist subjected on the secondary queer character … genuinely a lovely holiday story?