📖 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘋𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥

“𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕕 𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕓𝕖𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕞 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕒 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕝𝕠𝕦𝕤 𝕤𝕖𝕒. ℙ𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕦𝕝, 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕘, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕤𝕠 𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕝𝕪.”

Vesper, as the daughter of a Duke, has always been the diamond of high society. When she came out everyone had such high expectations for her season and who she would ultimately marry. For Vesper, there has only ever been one person she wanted to marry. Her childhood friend, the Duke of Greydon, Aspen. When she sees Aspen at her coming out party for the first time in several years, he looks her in the eye and turns his back on her. Aspen then goes to America to study fossils. Naturally, this effected how she was viewed by society since the most eligible Duke didn’t want her.
Years later, Vepser is still unwed and prides herself as a matchmaker for those around her. After getting trapped in an attic with the one and only Duke of Greydon, he asks her to help his mother’s ward with her first season. From then on, the two become more and more entangled in each other.

The banter in this book was top of the line! I adored every conversation between Aspen and Vesper. He calls her Viper and I freaking love it. The heat and connection between the two is so tangible to everyone around them. Vesper is such a strong FMC and I loved how supportive her family is of her ambitions. It was also really nice to have Aspen’s POV, it explains a lot about his background and what he lived through. The supporting characters in this book were great, and I can’t wait to get more books featuring their stories! The villain is truly despicable and there is some justice but I wanted a little bit more.

Special shoutout to Cat, the real star of this book! 🐈

🚫This book does deal with grief and Aspen’s father is put into an insane asylum so make sure you check the TW at the beginning of the book!

For a historical romance this book was spicy! It’s definitely a slow burn, but once it hits! 🥵🫠🔥 Spice level: 3🌶️

Tropes:
🩶 Friends to Enemies to Lovers
🫶🏼 Matchmaking
💃🏻 Historical Fiction
🔥 Spicy Romance
⭐️ Dual POV
👊🏼 Protective MMC
💪🏼 Independent FMC
💋 Romcom

Thank you NetGalley for access to an ARC of this book so that I could share my honest review! I highly recommend this book to all fans of historical fiction and romance books! This book will be available on November 14!

This is an AMAZING historical romance that is historical but still a book that feels relevant in 2023! The mixture of vibes from Clueless and Emma make this childhood friends to enemies to lovers even more lovable! This great adventure of love gained and lost and gained again throughout a lifetime of knowing each other, Aspen and Vesper give the MOST tension, chemistry, and butterflies that all romance readers crave!
Even though there are miscommunication/misunderstanding tropes wound throughout the plot and some readers can find these disagreeable, I LOVED this book for the plot, for the spice 👀, for the strong and independent FMC even in a historical romance, and the "I've always loved you" aspect of Aspen and Vesper's relationship.
It is definitely a book that will keep you on your toes! Also, even though this is the second book in the Taming of the Dukes series, it can most definitely be read as a standalone (that's what I did) and I ADORED that fact that unlike some other "in a series but can be standalone", I did not enter this book feeling lost or confused or like I missed something! I am definitely interested in the previous book in the series and cannot wait to see the other books that I am hoping follow this one! A great modern historical fiction romance!💖

Amusing, enticing, and adventurous!

Never Met a Duke Like You is a heartwarming, playful romp that sweeps you away to England and into the life of Lady Vesper Lyndhurst, a clever young woman who, although doesn’t believe in a happy ever after for herself, is more than happy to matchmake those around her even the dashingly handsome Duke of Greydon who once spurned her affections and broke her heart and who would much rather spend his day studying bones than wooing potential brides.

The prose is smooth and light. The characters are loyal, supportive, and endearing. And the plot is a delightfully enchanting tale full of friendship, family, societal expectations, tricky situations, tender moments, desire, and romance.

Overall, Never Met a Duke Like You is a fast-paced, passionate, highly entertaining read by Howard that is the second book in the Taming of the Dukes series and a novel that I absolutely adored.

It was my first book from that author (uh oh, I know... blasphemy! She started with book 2) and I loved it. I love when a series has these moments where all friends are together and tease one another and look like a family, and it makes you want to know each character's story, it's simply the best. You definitely get that whole vibe in that one. Loved every character (especially Cat cause.. Well.. She's a cat).

Second chances / friends to lovers are always a hit or miss with me, but this one was a hit. I think that I'm okay with it when it happened at a younger age, it makes it easier to understand for me. When they are both adults and it goes wrong, I'm like: that's it, I'm out. In this one, the relationship between our MCs was precious. They had known each other from a very young age and actually knew the other pretty well. They were friends, then enemies, but enemies that still care about each other deep down, and that, I can definitely enjoy! I loved their banter (and nicknames), I loved the tension, it was delicious! I loved even the scenes where it all went wrong and they said something they regretted... Even that was satisfying to me and got me looking forward to how they'd have to admit their feelings and all. Loved their banter even during spicy scenes and how Vesper was so impatient and wanted to command everything.

This book, even though quite entertaining also approached deeper subjects, such as ADHD at such a time period. It was quite interesting and made me love Aspen even more because of how he loved Vesper when she was being her true self. Vesper's friends and family were also quite understanding and so nice, which I really liked, because let's be honest, it sure wasn't easy for Vesper. There was also this whole part about Aspen's father being wrongly admitted in an asylum. As heartbreaking as it all was, it was still an engaging part of the story.

I did wish the old b**** had a worse ending (yes, I'm talking about you Aspen's mom). There is also a part of me that wished our main characters would have talked together of their own will and solved things together, but it all ended beautifully and their interactions were always interesting so I'll survive.

Let's not forget about the Clueless/Emma vibe of this book which was simply fantastic! I'm really looking forward to reading more from that author now because this one was really nice!

P.s. The way I need a book with Lushing and Briar is not funny guys. Give it to me!

Thanks to the author and Forever for my copy. All opinions are my own.

4/5 Stars

Thank you to Forever Publishing, Amalie Howard, and Netgalley for the ARC to read and review.

Last year I read Always be my Duchess which I absolutely adored and was actually my first ever arc from Forever Publishing. I definitely had my eye out for Never Met a duke like you because I loved the world Amalie Howard has created and I highly suspect there will be at least on more book if not 2 and I can’t wait. This one is inspired by Clueless, I can’t actually say how similar it is as I have never seen Clueless and I met to watch it before reading this but I forgot. This book also featured a lot of discussion about mental health and how horrible it was in this period but also shows the MMC working towards making amendments in the House of Lords to protect people from those who would accuse others of being mentally ill and incompetent just to get their way.

Vesper has all but given up on love after her childhood best friend destroyed her heart. She still loves love but instead tries to help others find it instead of finding it for herself. The Duke of Greydon is forced to return to London to help his ward and try to get justice for his father but he didn’t expect his childhood best friend to have become someone who he can’t get out of his head. But when they end up in an arrangement after an accident landing them locked in an attic alone, their goal is to get Judith, Greydon’s ward, married off but things don’t go as planned.

One of my favorite things in this was how much mental health discussion there is in this book. Vesper has ADHD, and while that diagnosis didn’t exist at this point the author makes it clear in the beginning that she has ADHD and you can see it throughout the book. She really reminded me of myself mostly before I was diagnosed and got medicated but there were a few moments where she just blurted stuff out which I really relate to. Greydon aka Aspen is trying to amend the Lunacy Acts to try to prevent what happened to his father from happening again. Aspen just wants to fix what led to his father’s death as well as get justice for him and do his duty to Judith in finding her a husband.

While I did very much enjoy this book, the sex scenes were so not for me. They were super vague describing body parts but also it seemed like they were supposed to be pretty steamy instead I was just like uhh what??? Very minimal changes could have been made to fix this but also i think it just sometimes is a part of the historical romance genre. Also we don’t really seem to learn more about why Judith ended up becoming Aspen’s mother’s ward in the first place which seemed kind of important. Aspen honestly doesn’t grovel enough for how much he hurt Vesper when she first came into society which massively changed her view of the world and I feel like it barely gets addressed and gets brushed off as he had a lot going on.

I do still recommend this book if you enjoy historical romance and are looking for a fun book that discusses mental health in this era with a cute romance.

While I really appreciated that the third act drama was external to Aspen and Vesper’s relationship, I couldn’t help but feel that the miscommunication trope was a little heavy in this book.

Vesper had a lot of growth in this book, and some of her antics were a tad cringey, having her learn the cause and effect of her actions felt rather satisfying.

I was very intrigued with the underlying plot of Aspen’s mother. I was invested in seeing how that all played out, along with how Judith’s background and further was going to be shared.

Perfectly agreeable read. I tend to find couples that refuse to admit that they like someone a bit frustrating to read, but I'm trying to give this one a pass because of time period courting conventions. I'm trying really hard. This is a hard review to write, because I can absolutely see that this would appeal to people who love reading angsty pining and regency settings. I'm just not an angsty piner. The sex scenes were also not my cup of tea, just, logistically, I could not figure out where the bodies were located, and public sex in Regency era stuff just feels off.

Never Met a Duke Like You is low angst, medium heat, and lots of fun. Vesper (Lady) and Aspen (Duke) were childhood friends until he went to school and got embarrassed that a girl could kick his ass... and then, a few years later, gave her the cut direct at her first ball. Then, he disappeared from London to become a paleontologist. But now he's back to save the dukedom from his evil mother's machinations. Vesper is the perfect Society lady on the outside and a chaotic softie on the inside. She might seem like she's got it all together, but it's an act. She's determined never to marry and to devote all of her energy to charity work. Too bad she's decided to partner with Aspen's mother for the biggest charity ball of all time.

It's unusual these days to have such an obvious - and truly evil - villainess in a historical romance, but Howard goes all in. Perhaps because it's not in every book, but we had a great time hating Aspen's mother. At the same time, we were a little frustrated with Vesper for falling for the duchess's schemes so easily. Once Aspen and Vesper finally come to an understanding, we had a great time. Also, there is some nice heat to the book, including a semi-public hookup in the natural history exhibit at the Crystal Palace. Honestly that might make the whole novel worth reading right there!

Although this is the second in a series, we think it's fine to read on its own. We had a fun time, although the book doesn't break any new ground.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

I received an EARC from Netgalley and the publisher but hadn't read book 1! So I quickly bought book 1 and devoured it in a day.
Lady Vesper and her friends were in the book and couldn't wait for her story. She is quote the character, although she really doesn't know her own mind.
Although this book has another Duke with a sad back story, I still empathized with him. Vesper takes a while to gather some empathy because he hurt her. They were childhood friends and she felt abandoned.
They remeet cute by being locked in an attic room, then spend much of the book ignoring their attraction.
I recommend reading book 1, then immediately grabbing this book. It is a fun series that also shows the unfairness of life, and how people overcome difficulties.

Never Met A Duke Like You. My fellow readers. Hang on to your wet whistles as Aspen and Vespers love story will leave you with your jaws drop while you say to yourself did he/she really say that? I know that I did. The sharp tongues nearly had the cat claws coming out at the dinner table and at a ball or two. Friends and family members ofVesper and Aspen new when to turn and walk away. They definitely didn’t want a curse word or two thrown at them. I just couldn’t understand it. How can two people who seem to hate one another through their strong words of dislike still find a way to stand side by side in a room. Truthfully though all that aggression of futile rage towards one another hid how Vesper and Aspen felt towards one another. All the unbridled passion and sensual desire burns so far down deep into that part of you that completes you. Aspen looked at Vesper as the better half of him and through shear force of will he made it his mission to make her see it and him. Vesper realized Aspen’s plans for her, but Aspen had no clue what Vesper had for him. It would seem readers that Vesper wanted to make Aspen offer his feelings as a true gentleman and not as the young man when they were children. She wanted to see her as the woman that pulls on his desires for her. The two ring the bell and battle each other through colorful wording and humorous innuendos. The romance is a firecracker for sure with these two. This love story is so entertaining and fun to read. I chuckled during the fun parts and left stunned during the entertaining moments. I so look forward to another great read from this writer. I give this book two snaps and a, Aspen before we marry “you will send your mother away to Liverpool immediately”. Until next time my fellow readers. Read on! I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
#NeverMetADukeLikeYou #AmalieHoward #Netgally #Goodreads #Bookbub

This is a fun, entertaining read. Vesper and Aspen are interesting, relatable, entertaining characters. Their time on page together is always fun to read as they spark and you just never know if it will end in a kiss or a slap. The romance fits these characters and was enjoyable to read. I really enjoyed these characters and their journey through this story. I would have liked more from a couple of the subplots. The secondary characters added so much to the fabric of the story, especially Cat.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After loving @amaliehoward’s first book in her Taming of the Dukes series, Always Be My Duchess, I was so excited to have received an arc of her next novel from @readforeverpub!! This book was so much fun to read and the tension was so so good! This book has a great balance of focus on the main love story, both main characters different passions, and friendships. Vesper is a strong and caring main character, I really admired her and how she went out of her way to help others less fortunate than her. Her scenes with Aspen were so much fun, had palpable chemistry, and I just loved how their relationship evolved. My heart hurt for Aspen as we learn more about his past, his dedication for exposing the truth and determination for societal changes added another layer to his character that I appreciated.

Gosh, so much to love about this novel! Great mental health representation and really fun characters. If you are a fan of Bridgerton, this is a series you should check out!! Thank you again to Forever Pub for the free arc copy of this novel. Pub Day is November 14th! 😍

Vesper has liked Greydon since childhood and becomes furious with him when he snubs her on her debut and heads to the Americas. When he comes home to rain in his evil mother, he and Vesper can’t stop swiping at each other. A known matchmaker, will Vesper be able to see her match which is right under her nose? I received an ARC from NetGalley and Forever for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of Never Met a Duke Like You by Amalie Howard!

The was an Emma/Clueless retelling in the general story line, as well as some Pride and Prejudice points, plus spice! This story added a lot more depth to the FMC than just her matchmaking skills, which I appreciated. She is not as naive, and holds her own in a world of men, but still needs to grow and realize what she really wants. The MMC is guarded after being away for several years and has to reckon with past traumas while dealing with the aftermath today.

I loved the childhood friends to enemies to lovers trope. Though they are drawn to each other from the beginning, it takes them awhile to get past their shared history and get to know each other again as adults. The development felt natural and I enjoyed their journey. There was no big third act break up and the epilogue was satisfying.

Overall this was a quick, fun read and drew me in. It is told in alternating POV within the chapters and was easy to follow. Some of the chapters jumped forward without any transition and I found myself lost for a few pages, trying to figure out where they were and get back into the flow again. I have not read the first book in the series and not sure if it would have added anymore depth to the friendship dynamics, but there were a lot of references to two of the past couples so I feel like I caught up quickly. I can see where the next book may be going too and would read the first and next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever/Grand Central Publishing for providing an eARC for my honest opinion.

Gosh I love Amalie Howard’s books! After loving Always Be My Duchess, I was very excited to read this one. And it did not let me down! It was funny, the banter was so good, and it had me swooning many times.

The way that these two had so much dislike towards each other but were still attracted to one another was such a good mix and had me furiously flipping the pages. Their chemistry was instant and I was dying for them to get together.

I loved the development of their relationship. They could push each other’s buttons and irritate each other, but they also cared and would do anything for the other.

My one wish for this book was that Aspen’s mother was properly punished for her behaviour. She was deplorable and thought she could get away with her manipulations, but what she got was not enough to me.

I highly recommend this book if you like spicy historical romances!

I loved the story of Lady Vesper, who had many charitable causes and the Duke of Greydon, who was a paleontologist, who had just returned to England.
They had been friends as children until an incident happened.
There was a lot of banter and sarcasm between the two.
There were also some other very interesting characters in the story, including one evil mother.
I loved the fact that Lady Vesper's father treated her with respect and allowed her to be her own person.
This was such a fun, entertaining read.

This was a fine regency romance, with characters I quite liked. Unfortunately it started to drag in places and I was a little bored before we got to the good stuff. A lovely way to spend an afternoon, but not a favorite.

I’m loving this series so much! I truly enjoyed this book and the characters. I really want Briar to be next but I understand that Effie gets to go next which is fine. I want her to find someone that will love her and her animals as much as I do.
I enjoyed getting to know Vesper better and Aspen’s backstory was really interesting. I kind of loved how Aspen batted Vesper and she came after him every time. I also appreciated that there was no 3rd act break up!
Oh! And Cat was one of my favorite characters! So much energy and drama in one small animal

Never Met a Duke Like You
Amalie Howard
4⭐️

The Hellfire Kitties are back at it again in the second installment of the Taming of the Dukes. Never Met a Duke was described as Clueless meets Bridgerton and I adored it!

Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and Amalie stepped it up another notch with childhood friends to enemies to lovers in this historical romp! Vesper and Aspen were strong dynamic characters full of so much passion. I adored them both as a (sparring) couple and as individuals fighting for their causes. They were so much fun to read.

This was such an entertaining story full of top notch witty banter, tension, and absolutely undeniable chemistry. Howard’s stories pack a surprising level of 🔥 and I am here for it! I flew throuh this one in a day.

Mental health played a large role in this book, and I thought Howard handled it all with authenticity and grace. Her research shined through in her words. Don't miss her author’s notes at the end.

Read if you like:
🩷Childhood Friends to Enemies to Lovers
🩷Regency Romance
🩷Forced Proximity
🩷Opposites Attract
🩷Mental Health Rep
🩷Clueless Retelling

Pub date: 11/14/23. I cannot wait for more from this tight-knit group of friends. Pretty Woman, then Cluless. What retelling will be next? 🤔

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever for my gifted digital and physical copies!