"Ne'er Duke Well" by Alexandra Vasti is an engaging regency romance that brings a fresh perspective to the genre. The American Duke, Peter, provides a twist to the traditional English setting, and Selina is a delightful match with her feminist ideals and strong will. The book's lighthearted humor and the warm dynamic of the Duke's family add to its charm. However, the story's brisk pace and the countless side plots can be overwhelming, at times overshadowing character development. While the novel is a commendable debut, those looking for a more in-depth character exploration might find it lacking. Nonetheless, Vasti shows promise, and I'm curious to see her future works.

This was without a doubt a beautiful 4-star read! I had so much fun reading about all of these characters from the haunted ninth Duke of Stanhope who knows little to nothing of the politics, given that he’s grown up in Louisiana, to the Feminist Sexual Health Educator Selina, who fights for what is right.

It was a bit too fast-paced for me, but I loved that there was no miscommunication, no third-act breakup, and such a fantastic set of side characters that made sure the book was never boring.

What a breath of fresh air in historical romance. Can’t wait to check out the rest of Alexandra Vasti’s work!

This book is such a delight. It's funny, tender, warmhearted, and sexy. I loved the tension that built even as characters made good choices and were honest with each other. Definitely recommend!

In this story we follow Peter, an American Duke who unexpectedly inherits a Dukedom back in England. He returns to discover he has two younger half-siblings and decides to get custody of them in court. Worried about his reputation amongst the ton, his friend Selina comes up with a plan to help rehab his image by marrying a nice English girl to be his Duchess and help smooth over any rough edges. (His American childhood, general awkwardness, and his abolitionist political views aren't winning him many friends.) As Selina's matchmaking scheme begins, the two friends begin to realize there might something more than just friendship between them.

This is my first book by this author and I'm looking forward to checking out more! I thought the characters were very likable and sweet, and I thought the family dynamics were incredibly warm and sweet. I really loved the ideas about family presented in this book. The Ravenscrofts were adorable and I enjoyed seeing their loyalty and acceptance of one another.

I really loved Peter and felt like we got a really great understanding of his difficult childhood and how that helped shape him to be the man he's become. He was a dreamy romantic hero!

The book contains a lot of themes about equality and feminism and that was handled well and certainly refreshing to see in an historical romance.

While the book was sweet, I do wonder if there was a little bit too much packed into it. I found some of the side characters a little tricky to keep track of. It also felt like characters were introduced without serving a huge impact on the story (ie Faizah and Will). I kept expecting Will to show up, for example, and he didn't aside from a letter at the beginning of one of the chapters. I actually checked Goodreads to confirm this was either a standalone or the first in a series as I felt like I got dropped into the middle of something and I was missing information that was previously revealed.

I also wish there was more about Belvoir in the first part of the book. I felt like Selina's storyline (the library) got sidelined for the matchmaking, to the point where I actually forgot entirely about the library until it was reintroduced at the 50% mark and then it became the primary plot.

Having said that, it was a very sweet family and I loved the characters. If this is intended to be a series (it very much felt like it did) I would definitely check out subsequent books.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti

Naturally, the second I saw this book was Read Now I abandoned my library books so I could unhinge my brain and dump Alexandra Vasti goodness into it immediately! From her Halifax Hellions (Winnie, I'm saving you for my next day off so I can read in one sitting!), I knew with my logical mind that Vasti was a talented writer. I'd been genuinely afraid to read a full length book by this woman because she's already LETHALLY ROMANTIC in novella format!

I'm here to say I was right. I'm dead now, writing this rave review as a ghost.

Selina is a Minnie Lane, Jessica Trent-style heroine and watching Peter chaos-tornado his way through her path at every step of her matchmaking journey was a sheer delight. Then things took a turn I didn't expect!!! I won't spoil it because y'all, you MUST ingest this book, but I loved it.

Liked:
😀Selina and Lydia's friendship
😀Ass man rep

Loved:
❤️GAY AUNTS!
❤️Found family and healing family and all the family 😭
❤️GEORGIANA GODDAMN CLEEVE
❤️Third act conflict that you won't want to stop reading

Lol'd:
😂Lu, immediately and throughout

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I love Alexandra Vasti's novellas and was excited to read this full-length book! This was overall a good read, I think this is perfect for fans of Bridgerton or other historical romances.

I love the women empowerment theme throughout theme throughout the book. This is rom-com, but also has a lot of deeper topics throughout as well and tons of character development.

I do wish the pacing of this book was a little slower, for the first half of the book.

Overall an excellent read!

I absolutely love historical romances and this one felt like a breath of fresh air! I adored the romance aspect and wish I had a lot more of it.
Selina is a very strong heroine and Peter is a funny and charming duke. Together they make for an entertaining read. I would’ve loved to have met the MC when they first met each other instead of having the book start 3 years into their acquaintance. There also were maybe too many extraneous details… does it matter that Peter is from America?
Overall I loved this book and can’t wait to read more from Alexandra Vasti!
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Peter Kent is an unexpected Duke, son of a third son, born and raised in the US, he is the outsider Duke if ever there was one. Lady Selina is the daughter of a Duke who died when she was six and she was raised by her older brother (the current Duke). Upon coming to England, Peter learns that his father had two "natural" children and Peter seeks to adopt them. However, his outsider status makes this hard even for a Duke. But Selina sees something of herself and her brother in the Duke's troubles and seeks to help him through marrying him off to a respectable lady and therefore making him respectable himself.

What I liked about this book:
- I'm a sucker for the unexpected gentry trope
- I've read quite a few historoms featuring Dollar Princesses, but this is my first American Duke
- Lady Selina is proper in the streets but has a secret s3x bookshop!
- I found Peter's siblings incredibly charming, and the rest of the extended cast as well.

This is a fun book with a lot of plot points so I can imagine a lot of people will like it. However, overall, I didn't resonate much with the characters or the romantic arc in this book. The first half of the books had a lot of hijinks which just felt like too many and too forced, but then they didn't follow through with fun hijinks in the rest of the story, so then they felt out of place. In general I felt the book was more driven by the external plot than the internal growth of the characters as individuals and also as a couple, and I prefer the latter in my romance novels.

I really enjoyed the Halifax novellas by Vasti, so I will continue to read her work, I think this one was just a one off for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review to come after the St. Martin's Press boycott. St. Martin's Press, please do right by your readers.

ALexandra Vasti has knocked it out of the park. I wasn't too sure I would like a duke from Louisiana but I definitely fell in love with Peter. His heart is huge and he is determined not to lose his father's illegitimate siblings and views them as his true brother and sister. He is so loveable and the scraps and scandals he gets himself into are hilarious. He is true to his American roots in that he doesn't understand all the stuffiness of the Ton nor does he care about any of the things that make up the rules of those days. Selina is wonderful. She is a fixer and goes above and beyond to help others. She has a secret goal in love and I love how this is intertwined within the book. The plot is intricate and it moves along nicely. Once I started reading it, I was not able to put it down. I love how they grow together and also how they come together to help and support one another. I absolutely thought the little snippets at the beginning of each chapter were brilliant. They give you insights into how characters think and feel with pieces of letters they wrote to a variety of characters in this book. I received an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I discovered Vasti last year with a few novellas that she debuted with. I absolutely love her writing style, whit, and romance w/o all the stuffiness of the Ton. They are light and fun and are not your typical stories. She has quickly become one of my favorite authors.

Synopsis: Peter Kent never expected to inherit his estranged father’s duchy, or to find two orphaned, half-siblings awaiting him in England. The “American Duke” is making a name for himself and collecting adversaries both in parliament and around the Ton, due to his progressive attitude.

Lady Selina Ravenscroft has never met a problem she couldn’t resolve. So, when the new Duke needs to secure a wife in order to obtain guardianship over his young siblings, Lady Selina sees it as her duty to help. Her own scandalous affairs make it impossible for her to step into the role of duchess, so she sets about helping the Duke to woo the eligible, and virtuous, ladies of the ton. But as so often happens, the heart soon wants what the mind knows it cannot have.

Review: Ne’er Duke We’ll is a highly enjoyable (and spicy!) regency romance. The Duke of Stanhope and Lady Selina are memorable characters and their chemistry is off the charts! The children, Lu and Freddie, are a fun addition to the story. I often do not like children in romances, but these two are entertaining!
This book has a lot of plot to offer. The Duke wants to be granted guardianship over his siblings, so there is some Emma-esque match making. Lady Selina has been keeping a secret from her family for years and now she may be found out which could lead to scandal. And a few other dramas take place to torment our characters. In the end, family and love prevail.

Thank you to St Martin's Press & Netgalley for giving me the chance to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review 💕

This book was so much fun. I had the BEST time.

It was maybe the most enjoyable romance book I've read, ever. Definitely in my top three.

There are brief moments when you think the miscommunication/keeping a secret/getting found trope is about to be played out, but then there are twists to it.

Vashti does an amazing job of keeping readers rooting for Selina and Peter the entire time, but it's not just rooting for them to get together.

I'm constantly impressed by the romance books I read, the extremely developed individual lives of the characters apart from romance is what keeps you reading.

I can't gush about this book enough!

Thank you so much for giving me an Arc. I have been a fan of Vasti’s for a minute and these are always such tender and heartfelt stories. I did enjoy this one but I wish there was more of a third act break up so the ending fell flat for me. I thoroughly enjoyed Selina as a character and I’ll always adore VastiMs work but I needed that third act break up.

I have been eagerly waiting for Alexandra Vasti's traditional publishing debut and this did not disappoint!

What makes this book stand out is Vasti's writing. Everything flows well, it's fun, funny, and romantic!! Many people compare her to Tessa Dare and I would agree! They both have a lighter tone than many HR authors with some quirky moments, but things are never silly and the romance is great. I wasn't really a fan of this cover before reading this book, but this book really works with an illustrated cover (something I do not think of most historicals).

Selena and Peter were both great characters that stood on their own. I rarely like the trope of one characters setting up another character with a partner, but it worked for me here since it did not take up too much of the plot. Plus then we were introduced to other characters more in depth.

Kids in romance is always hit or miss and here you can tell Vasti has young kids because these kids were chaos! We love to see it.

My only minor complaint was I had a hard time following all the side characters and who they were at times. I am not sure if this is a series, but it definitely has first book in a series vibes. Lots of intros. And at the end when they all came together it really worked for me.

Ne’er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti is a fun historical romance with a charming duke and a clever, problem-solving heroine. Readers looking for dark and broody heroes should keep searching. Peter, an English duke raised in Louisiana, maintains his good spirits even as he fights to gain custody of his two half-siblings. Selina is determined to help him, and her first strategy is a scheme to see Peter married to a suitable lady. But Peter only has eyes for Selina.

I think this novel’s strengths are its characters, especially Selina. I love her determination to educate the ladies of the ton with her lending library. Peter’s supportive nature is a nice counterpoint to Selina’s catastrophizing. The secondary characters are also charming. I hope all of Peter’s other “dates” get their own novels at some point.

I recommend this book for fans of Tessa Dare and Kate Bateman.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

This was adorable, such a refreshing and heartwarming read!!!! I love Peter, he was such a sweet MMC. I really appreciate a regency romance where the MMC isn’t afraid to share his true feelings. Selina was brave and outspoken and I loved her character. This was a great read

I was sooo excited when I got approved for this ARC. I think Alexandra Vasti is a fresh voice in historical romance. She did not disappoint with her debut novel.
I completely fell in love with Peter and Selina. It is definitely a case of two characters completing each other. I loved that Selina opens up to Peter about her secret and Peter takes everything in stride. He is a champion for her, and let's be honest, that is just the type of hero we all need. The side characters were amazing, I couldn't pick a favorite one.

The ending was *chef's kiss*!!

I wonder if Vasti will make this into a series, and if so, I would love to read her twin brother's story and her best friend's.

Lady Selina is a delightful and determined character we first meet while she’s sneaking out of her publisher’s office, where she’s responsible for running a lending library with a secret collection of racy and informative books for women. She collides with Peter Kent, now a Duke, who is trying to convince his much younger half-siblings to make their home with him through coercive kittens and tiny rapiers. Selina and Peter are both a bit chaotic, and I loved reading their romance that leapt off the page from the start. Vasti’s writing is rich and engaging and I hope for more books in this world are to come. Fans of Vasti’s novellas about the Halifax siblings will be delighted with this debut novel.

This is the story of Peter Kent, an American abolitionist who inherits a Dukedom and Lady Selina Ravenscroft. Selina secretly runs a bookshop with a Venus catalog containing erotic reading material available to women with membership. This leads to some funny situations and plenty of heat. The peripheral characters are engaging. Peter is sweet, Selina is feisty. It's a cute, enjoyable story. 3.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin's Griffin for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

It feels like it’s trying to be the “social class issues” sort of historical fiction, except it feels sort of modern in the prose and context and jokes, and some of the jokes–due to the context–aren’t hitting the way they are supposed to, at least not for me. I stopped after chapter 2 (5%). I’d guess a solid three to four stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.