For all my love of historical romance I’ve never read a Loretta Chase book. Lord of Scoundrels has been in my TBR forever.

But I just could not get into this. It feels like you need to read the other two books in this series, which is out of the norm for historical romance. Alice and Giles have good banter, but the story was all over the place and their romance felt underdeveloped. I was so bored. Maybe that’s because I didn’t read the other books where they were side characters. The time jump and letters and chaotic scrapes took away from getting to see why these two should be together.

This is not the book that would make me a Loretta Chase fan, but maybe I’d go back and try an old one.

I was looking forward to this having liked the first two in the series, but I ended up dnf-ing it at about 20%. The books in the trilogy take place at about the same time, so even thought this is book 3, it begins before the events in book 1. As a result, the plot felt disjointed and introduced a lot of characters too fast to keep track of them all. The plot is also flimsy. The Duke of Blackwood has been in love with Alice (and vice versa) since childhood. He doesn't tell her or do anything about it -- though -- because he chooses to be a profligate with her brother instead. I might buy this if he somehow was like, "I don't deserve her, I'm not good enough for her," but no he's just choosing to be dissolute instead of communicating. Alice is a do-gooder that spends the first bit of the book looking for a street urchin who is being looked for by the villain of the piece for a very flimsy reason. The Duke supports Alice in this, not because he's like "yes, let's use our status to help the less fortunate" but because it's her and he spends most of the time complaining? IDK. It was hard to understand why these two liked each other? The romance took a back seat to too many side quests that I had little interest in. A rare and surprising disappointment from Loretta Chase, who I consider a doyenne of the historical romance genre.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a bit confusing to say the least. Maybe it should have been book 1 in the series instead of book 3??

The saving grace of this book was Blackwoods pining and love. But I found it a little unbelievable that he chooses to be the way he is even after many years of giving his lady love up. I mean fight for her man.

Okay banter, okay passion, just overall okay book.

#netgalley #MyInconvinientDuke

My library will likely buy this as Loretta Chase is a talented historical romance author. Unfortunately, this novel was too chaotic to keep my attention. It fell into the DNF category. I made it halfway before I succumbed to boredom. It takes a lot to convince me to leave a book unfinished. In this case the dialogue and storyline quickly became a scrambled mess and made it impossible to invest in the characters. Without any incentive to care for a HEA, I got bored and gave up.

Loretta Chase has struck Regency gold again, this time with a best friend’s little sister romance. He’s one of the Dis-Graces, three naughty dukes who stir up a ruckus in proper London. She’s one of the duke’s younger sister & fears her brother’s reckless friends will get her brother killed, leaving her in the clutches of his villainous distant heir. Determined to marry quickly to secure her future, she ends up on the road with one of the Dis-Graces who is not quite as block-headed as she’d believed. Perhaps a marriage of convenience to him will do.… until she begins to develop inconvenient feelings for the Dis-Grace. Chase’s heroines are always clever, sensible, & strong, creating a fun foil to the often clueless hero and this book is no exception. A steamy, fun romp of a romance!

3.5 ⭐️
This was a good read and I really wanted to love it more but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

Giles and Alice were perfect together but it was the surrounding characters and backstory that I was lost in. Giles and Alice’s story was easy to follow but I wish we had more banter and tension leading up to their union.

I got lost in the letters. Maybe they were too long and I wasn’t a fan of the other characters. It was a bit of a thriller vibe which I enjoyed but it seemed never ending. The structure seemed off in regard to the next chapter. Maybe it was the pacing with the long letters and side quests like the rescue missions, search’s for the boy or random POVs of side characters.

I enjoyed the following tropes that I would to be in the book:
Forced Proximity
Brothers Best Friend
Forbidden Romance
One bed at the inn
Friends to Lovers

Loretta cannot do anything wrong and her writing is very smooth but I just wanted more of Giles and Alice.

This is the long-awaited conclusion to Chase’s Difficult Dukes Series.
Ripely ( A Duke in Shining Armor),
Ashmont ( Ten Things I Hate About The Duke)
Now it’s Blackwood turn.
( My Inconvenient Duke ) is the story of Lady Alice Ancaster, Ripely’s sister and Blackwood one of the three Difficult Dukes who have been raising hell for so long that they are no longer welcome among good society.
We got glimpses of Alice and Blackwood in the first two books and they were married. So now we get to know how their love story began.
Alice and Blackwood's story takes place both before and after the other two books, the first 60% or so before and the last 40% after.

When they were young, Alice and Blackwood shared a connection, they shared a kiss one time and then he left.
At 25, and after witnessing the latest escapade of the ducal trio which results in her brother almost being shot, Lady Alice Ancaster is in dire need of a husband before her brother, the Duke of Ripley, gets himself killed with his reckless ways, and she is left to the mercy of her wastrel and vicious cousin, Lord Worbury.
She decides to attend the Season and requests the trio Dis-Graces to stay out of London so she can build her respectability.
Blackwood has always had an interest in Alice. He decides to return to London to watch out for her and gets involved with her do-good adventures.
Alice and Blackwood’s story is a slow burn, full of longing, unspoken desires past regrets. With each encounter, they get to know each other better.
After they get married, they struggle to balance conflicting priorities between family, friends and responsibilities. I was rooting for them to find their HEA. 

Once again, Loretta Chase pairs a charming hero and a feisty, determined heroine and, as usual, the combination is most compelling. She has created in-depth characters with witty dialogue, and a well-rounded cast of secondary characters.
I recommend “ My Inconvenient Duke” to all fan of Loretta Chase’s witty, humorous Historical Romance.

While I loved the premise of this book and absolutely adore the character of Alice Ancaster, some of the execution fell flat for me. I didn't feel enough tension around the character of Jonesy, and some of the allusion to different characters' stories playing out at the same time was somewhat distracting. On the upside, Alice and Giles were well written, and their "affinity" for one another was clear. Recommended for fans of the strong, smart heroines who don't mind a bit of meandering in their plots.

What a wonderful read!! A Classic Loretta Chase book with witty dialogue, humorous banter between Hero and heroine, a societal awareness involving children and a swoon-ending where problems are realistically solved – no fantasy here. Even the villain(s) have not been punished atrociously.

The first couple of chapters were kinda chaotic and slow due to the introduction of several secondary characters (I got confused who is who!) and convoluted plots. But as the story went on, it became more interesting. My favorite character, my favorite in fact among the 3 Dis-Graces, is Giles, Duke of Blackwood. Despite being classed as a rake, he is polite, generous, kind and tender. I also loved that his POV, more than Alice’s, is prominent in every chapter and that he has cared for her from the beginning and that never wavered. I found Alice, though, to be a bit standoffish and a bit lacking in emotion. But you won’t find a Mary Sue here – she is stubborn, feisty and strong. I also like the ex-fiance – you won’t find a vengeful one here but a mature and gracious man.

This is my best read in this series of Difficult Dukes. Not much angst but I like that. Some sex scenes but not graphic nor porn-like. The story flew smoothly. My only gripe is the Hero’s too much worry on Ashmont more than his worry about the effect on his wife. 4.5* but rounded off to 5* because I love Loretta Chase.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC and Avon/Harper-Voyager. As always this is my honest review of the book.

The romance sort of just happens, it doesn't feel like the focus of the book, and I didn't care about the focus of the book--because it's all ALREADY HAPPENED in the prior two books. Once they get married, there aren't many chapters left. The rift, that caused Alice to completely avoid Blackwood in the prior two books, is just sort of a fizzling of their marriage. There was no blow up, no big argument. And to solve this, they just decide to be close. It tied up very quickly and didn't really explore any of the things that can be interesting about a second chance romance.

This book is the final one in the series of the Difficult Dukes. Before reading this new book, I read the first two and enjoyed them well enough. I felt like they both were a bit longer than they needed to be, but this book had better pacing.

One thing that makes this series interesting/harder to keep track of is the fact that some or most of each book happen at the same time. The timeline is the beginning of Book 3, then during Book 3 Books 1 and 2 happen, then the end of Book 3. Starting this one even in order made me a bit confused as to what was going on.

In this book, Alice and Giles, Duke of Blackwood, meet up again after having met as children and sharing a kiss. Since then, Blackwood and his two friends (main charaacters in the other books) were "The disGraces", three Dukes that are always playing pranks and not taking anything seriously. When Blackwood just started noticing Alice her brother (the Duke of) Ripley told him to not get involved with his sister, and the three of them basically decided they would not be serious about any woman because they would rather spend their youth causing trouble and being oft drunk pranksters. Alice was then sent off to a school for "wayward girls' where she was mistreated and started her on the direction of trying to help those less fortunate.

Meanwhile Blackwood has to help out his friend Ashmont (Book 2) after he falls for a woman and then their firend Ripley marries her after all. (Book 1). The first 3/4 of My Inconvenient Duke is Blackwood and Alice becoming a couple and her marrying him after he has been helping her try to find/save a boy that she tried to help and she was compromised. Then they are separated as Blackwood needs to help out Ashmont, and Alice is called away to work on her charity projects.

When they are finally back together, for the last 1/4 of the book, they help who they can and work to improve their relationship. The series' time order makes it almost desirable to re-read Book 1 and 2 *after* Book 3 in trying to remember the comments that were made about Blackwood and Alice's relationship in the previous 2 books even though I literally just read them. That being said, I have enjoyed the entire series. "His disGraces" were childish and late bloomers, but ultimately became good men who were working with their wives to do good deeds.

If you don't read Books 1 and 2 before reading 3, you will be just as confused if you had read them first, so this book can be read as a standalone ;), but the others are just as enjoyable.

I received and advanced copy and am giving an honest review.

I enjoyed this story. I liked the characters and the setting. It caught my interest from the start and I didn't want to put it down until I finished.

I liked the dry humor of this, the dialogue between the hero and heroine made the story very enjoyable. But I had a hard time with reconciling the romance aspect of the book with the action part. The romance took so long to develop that when it did, I was no longer that interested.
There were a lot of multiple points of view that were not needed (we don't need an entire part from a secondary character that falls for the heroine as soon as he sees her. I had to do a double take because I did not understand why this was needed. If this is a set up for a future book, I don't want my hero to be lusting after another woman that is not the heroine)

The book was OK, not the best in the series, a pleasant read. The characters were rather flat with boring dialogue, not much passion

I've always loved Loretta Chase's writing style, and I don't think there's any other author with quite her talent for banter and half-humorous/half-romantic turns of phrase. I really enjoyed 10 Things I Hate About the Duke (Ashmont and Cassandra's love story), which had tantalizing hints of Alice and Blackwood's relationship and their marital troubles. Therefore, I've been looking forward to My Inconvenient Duke for a while, and I devoured within a day after receiving an ARC from Netgalley.

After finishing the book, I found myself conflicted. On one hand, Loretta Chase's inimitable wittiness is still on point. However, the plot of the book was just rather thin and didn't have the weight hinted in the previous books. In Duke in Shining Armor (Ripley and Olympia's story) and 10 Things I Hate About The Duke, Blackwood and Alice were presented as already married but with clouds in their horizon, with Alice often away and Blackwood seeming to try to make amends with her. I was looking forward to seeing how a married couple who love but can't truly understand each other find harmony and a happily ever after. However, most of the book was focused on Alice's decision to enter the marriage mart after her ducal brother, Ripley, keeps on risking his life for stupid reasons, leaving the dukedom (and Alice's fate) in the hands of a loathsome cousin who is openly planning on making her life hell.

Blackwood, who had had feelings for Alice but decided that he would rather live a life of unscrupulous fun and disgrace rather than a life with her, is still in love with Alice but decides to protect her from the cousin while she tries to find a fiance. One thing I did like was that Blackwood's love is very obviously given to Alice from the very beginning, and he is never in doubt about his feelings, although he is unwilling to leave his reckless life behind for her.

Where the book falls flat is creating a logical progression for Alice's feelings regarding Blackwood, and Blackwood's feelings regarding a life of duty and propriety. Alice's main suitor in the book is a good, moral Duke who appears to truly appreciate her and supports her endeavors in reform, and I would have liked to see her be more conflicted of her choice and spend more time with Blackwood's rival for her affections. Blackwood, on the other hand, does not understand Alice's need to help others, especially children, and her drive to make society better. He only really aids her because it is she who asks, rather than understanding the cause and wanting to improve society. Contrast this to Ashmont, who also led a life of dissipation, but grows to appreciate and love Cassandra's reform efforts. Ashmont makes an effort to learn about Cassandra's reform society and genuinely grows to care about the people she helps. He becomes a better person over the course of the book and decides to use his talents and privilege to help others.

Meanwhile, Blackwood does not change greatly in his stance that Alice should not be risking herself for beggars. He impulsively asks her to marry him, but his character in itself does not develop. Even after they are married, he only really helps Alice with her reform efforts for her sake and later on, abandons her to protect Ashmont as he continues in his dissipated path before he meets Cassandra. I found myself extremely annoyed at this because it appears that the main conflict in Blackwood and Alice's marriage is that Alice is always away using her influence to help the lower classes and improve society, while Blackwood is whiling his time away on racing courses and gambling halls with Ashmont. The contrast is remarkable. I was especially annoyed because it seemed like we were supposed to place equal blame on Alice as on Blackwood for not being present for each other.

I was also disappointed because there was so little passion in their relationship after they got married. There were some really sweet lines in the beginning half of the book when Blackwood was pining over Alice, but after they were married, we didn't get to see further development in their relationship, other than that they had great honeymoon sex and Blackwood eventually gets bored of doing his duty with Alice and fucks off to Ashmont. They don't really do any emotional or inter-relationship work to solve the conflicts in their relationship either. Rather, external factors do that for them, with Ashmont marrying Cassandra and Alice's traumatic former schoolmasters being outmaneuvered by Alice and Blackwood. Blackwood then says he understands Alice's reform efforts and then they have their HEA. Credits roll.

The problem is that they never really addressed the core issues that drove them apart initially before and after they were married. Alice agrees to Blackwood's marriage proposal mostly because her brother goes missing and she recognizes that she will be ruined if she continues to search for him in Blackwood's company. She doesn't do much soul-searching of her feelings for Blackwood; rather, she almost prosaically accepts that she doesn't want a boring or dutiful marriage. The rapidity in which she has this realization feels especially unrealistic considering her previous determination in the Marriage Mart.

In all, I am giving this book 3 stars for the sake of Loretta Chase's writing style and funny banter. Otherwise, lack of emotional development and conflict resolution pull the plot of this book down.

Loretta Chase is a romance author that I can dependably count on to deliver. However, there was something about this book that felt a little off. I do think that it might be the pacing--it was a bit too slow even for her standards--and there wasn't enough romance. While I'm all for a slow burn, I usually love slow burns to build at that promise of something, to layer in some tension. But that just wasn't present for me.

Dependably great prose from Chase, but the pacing is a little off and there’s a lot going on plot-wise that’s only ever really explored in the surface level and the romance plot is nearly nonexistent for the majority of the book.

After reading the 1st two in the series, I couldn’t wait to hear about Alice and Giles’(Blackwood)story. If you read the first two, you’ll see this one starts in the past and then catches up to the current time. I really enjoyed the 1st two but my favorite of the series was Ashmont and Cassandra’s story. Alice, like Cassandra, is a strong willed, never take no for an answer, heroine. These women in all three are able to use their formidable ways to get the disgraceful dukes to do their bidding and take on societal issues. I loved the side characters of the series too with Aunt Julia and Lord Frederick taking the cake. This third installment was a bit anticlimactic but I understood the spin it took. Overall, a very fun series full of great banter and antics!

Waaah you guys. I really wanted to LOVE *My Inconvenient Duke* by Loretta Chase. Loretta Chase has never failed me, and I did enjoy the first two books in the series. But this one... well, idk just didn’t quote hit the mark for me.

Don’t get me wrong—there are things to enjoy. LC brings her signature witty banter, and Alice and Giles have some genuinely fun and charming moments. I’ve always been a fan of the best friend’s sister trope, and childhood friends-to-lovers can be so satisfying when done right. Their dynamic is playful, with just the right amount of tension simmering beneath the surface, which made for some cute, if brief, romantic scenes.

But, here’s where it fell flat: the romance feels like it’s constantly getting sidelined by everything else happening in the story. There’s a lot of focus on side quests—rescue missions, animal saving, and even long stretches of letter-writing between Alice and Giles. The villain of the story came off as a fool, making the stakes not seem quote as high as the characters were making them out to be. Idk if that makes sense?

Also, as much as I appreciate Alice’s passion for helping those in need, it just took away from the time they spent on their actual relationship. By the time they finally got together, I found myself wondering if they even *really* liked each other or if it was more out of convenience (lol get it?😏).

The pacing, especially in the second half, was a little slow and with the romance kind of taking the backseat, I felt like I was struggling to get through. But then of nowhere, there’s a sudden time jump and we’re dropped into a "marriage in trouble" situation. It was jarring and didn’t feel like it fit the flow of the story. I wanted more of Alice and Giles actually *together*, working through their issues, rather than so much time spent apart.

If you’re already a LC fan, there’s still plenty to enjoy —her writing is sharp, and Alice and Giles are very likable characters. I personally am still a die-hard Loretta Chase reader and just going to chalk this up as a one-off in my pristine LC library. If she continues to write, I will still be jumping over people (virtually speaking) to get a copy.

Thank you to Loretta Chase, NetGalley, and Avon/Harper Voyager for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Loretta Chase is a pillar of the historical romance world and it’s such a treat to get more of her reckless dukes and sharp wonderful women.