DNF - 80%

Loretta Chase has been writing historical romance for decades, and she crafts an intricate plot and full world. I would recommend this series to readers who want a lot of plot, and who like to know what’s going on in the whole world of the story.

I read the first book in this series a few years ago, but hadn’t read the second yet. I think there were parts that I would have enjoyed more if I knew the other couples a little better.

I am a chatty person and my taste in books tends to lean chatty as well. The way Chase jumped between POVs was popular in older historicals, but isn’t something that I’m used to. I felt like there wasn’t enough time spent on the emotions of the characters, so the whole book felt like it was written at a distance. Again, readers who enjoy lots of action and plot might enjoy this style, but it was not for me.

While I was intrigued in the beginning by the couple’s set-up, the slow burn was missing the “burn” for me. And when it finally did burn, I didn’t feel the emotion, it felt like just another plot point that happened.

I would recommend you start with the first book, A Duke in Shining Armor, and see if the high plot style is for you!

🎧The narration was fantastic, but I needed a little more help to differentiate the POVs.

I didn't love this book or the narrator, but you know I'm always going to give my girl Loretta Chase five stars.

I always love a Loretta Chase book, however I had a hard time paying attention to the narrator. Her voice is so calm and even that I found myself losing large chunks of the story because I had not been able to focus on her voice. The parts of the story that I did hear were great and I purchased the book so I could finish the narrative.

ROMANCE , MYSTERY, AND SO MUCH MORE
I was unfamiliar with this author and my first thought after reading the first chapter was that I had read this plot a hundred times before. Wrong! This plot is unique to me in several ways. Usually authors head for the couple finally getting together and screech to a halt.- The end!
But not so here. As with real life that's when the fun and drama really begin. Also interesting subplots and historical bits.
I highly recommend this book and thank the publisher for this ARC. It was a breath of fresh air for this genre. Good narrater the audiobook.


BookBub review as Chris B.
Barnes and Noble Dot Calm
Goodreads Sunny
Amazon Chris B.

Oh my gosh I adored this book! Alice has grown up watching her brother and his friends the "Dis-Graces" get into scrapes her whole childhood and she is determined not to let their reputations impact hers anymore. I loved watching Blackwood back all of her missions - from getting a street urchin out of legal trouble to saving her brother from a scrape. He was delightfully down bad for Alice. It was so fun to watch him admire her so much while angsting about how he can't be the man she needs. Alice is a bold heroine who works hard to right society's injustices and I fell so hard for her. My favorite part of the book was getting to see how well-suited they are for each other. They are both people who like to follow nontraditional paths and it was so satisfying to see them find someone who will support them in their unusual exploits. It was so clear that they were partners who were well-matched in intelligence and propensity to scheme. I'm so glad I picked up this book and I will definitely be reading the rest of the series because I have to know how the rest of the "Dis-Graces" find love.

This narrator was a delight to listen to. Her voice was so pleasant and I loved the varied accents she brought to the story. I sometimes struggle when one narrator voices all the characters but that was not the case with this story. Kate Reading did a fabulous job with all the characters and I will definitely be reading more from her catalog.

This book is probably best enjoyed when you remember the who and what from the first two in the series. I read books one and two in 2021, hundreds of books ago, so I unfortunately remembered nothing.

There was some A+ banter between the MCs, and great yearning for a best friends sister, but in the end this was about a bunch of bored Dukes who don’t get up to a whole lot, and I was not engaged. It was also surprisingly low heat for the story!

I read via audio, and this was my first Romance narrated by Kate Reading. I absolutely love her narration of historical mystery, but she did not work for me for Romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced listener copy of My Inconvenient Duke!

GENRE
• Difficult Dukes, book 3
• Adult
• Historical romance

SUMMARY
Lady Alice Ancaster can only take so many nights of her brother’s reckless debauchery before reaching her breaking point. When it becomes clear that he is one rash accident away from leaving her future and the dukedom in the hands of their vile cousin, Lady Alice realizes that she needs to wed—and quickly. To do so, she will cram herself into the mold of the perfect society wife. But her brother’s friend, the Duke of Blackwood, takes it upon himself to supervise her season, and if anyone can draw out the fiercely heroic streak that she’s trying so hard to contain, it’s him.

REVIEW
This book makes a strong argument that romances are more fun with a side of action! I’ve picked up a couple historicals lately that have really benefited from action-packed subplots, and I’m loving the trend. Nothing juxtaposes a sweet love story like a thrilling fight sequence or a high-stakes mystery! I’ll admit that I disconnected a little from the story in the slower-paced scenes, but overall, this was an enjoyable and engaging read.
3/5

This is the first book I’ve read by Loretta Chase and I want more. The brother’s best friend trope is one of my favorites and I really enjoyed how Alice and Blackwood’s relationship changed over the years. He made a decision when he was younger that meant him putting his feelings aside and essentially ignoring her for years.

Alice was such a strong MC and I really enjoyed her tenacity and the way she fought for what she believes in. She wasn’t scared to do things that put her in danger if she thought it needed to be done.

Kate Reader was the perfect narrator for this story and I really enjoyed her performance. I look forward to listening to more of her.

I am a sucker for a "brother's best friend" trope so of course I had to read this one! Alice was by far the best part of this book. Her attitude and journey alone kept me listening. I enjoyed the ups and downs it took to get the couple together in this book. It's dry wit was fun to listen to and Kate Reading delivered it perfectly. The last quarter of the book felt too drawn out and a bit unnecessary to me and I wish it was wrapped up more quickly. But overall I enjoyed the characters and was happy with where everyone landed.

As always, Loretta Chase fills her books with adventure, banter, and swoon. This one isn’t what I expected it to be, but I still loved it. I think we are led to believe their marriage is in crisis by the last two books, but in fact they have a very sweet relationship and I loved seeing them get to know each other better. I recommend beginning the Difficult Dukes series with this book, THEN reading the other two. As always, Kate Reading does an amazing audio for listening fans.

Loretta Chase has been turning out enchanting historical romances for years (decades, in fact), delighting readers young and old. My Inconvenient Duke is the third in her "Difficult Duke" series, and I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't yet read the first two books even though I've loved many of her earlier titles. Perhaps this unfamiliarity contributed to my difficulties in settling into the story, but it shouldn't. The beginning seemed far too complicated to me--too many names and too many subplots. Worse still, the author both showed and told too many reasons why the likely hero, Blackwood, was not a good match for the heroine, Alice. Their opening scene together has him drunk, disheveled and disorderly--a state we're informed is typical. Not unkind, never rude, but for far too many pages not the kind of hero one expects in a historical romance. When his "true colors" finally begin to appear, and the two come together, the romance is believable and their passion well-depicted. But the subplots then go on and on. I loved the character of Maggie (?) the female crime lord, and I admired the young street boy Alison was determined to chase down over and over. But the ongoing issues with the villainous cousin and the entirely different subplot concerning a harsh school for the poor where Alison had been temporarily abandoned as a child were too much. The author seemed compelled to show far too much of her historical research into the time period: explaining the workings of an early version of an elevator, describing outfits worn in exhausting detail, the horrible conditions for the poor, particularly the children, the necessity of sending wash outside of London to avoid soot, and the different versions of carriages. I guess these details are important for some readers, but they took me away from the story and the characters. There’s a fine line between setting the scene and immersing the reader in the time and place and making the reader feel like he or she is reading a history textbook. Kate Reading's narration of the audiobook was, as always, terrific, but I won't be sharing this review on social media or recommending this book outside of NetGalley.

This was not my favorite of the series, but it was good to get the story we have been hearing about in the previous 2 books. It was not the story I expected with the hints that were dropped about their relationship in the other stories, and it was a bit strange to be going back in time for this latest book. Their relationship did not have the tension I thought it would have. I am glad she chose him and realized that their relationship would give her more of the life she really wanted and give her the freedom to be herself. I am glad he didn't let her slip through his fingers for fear of a choice made years ago. But the relationship itself was a bit less intense than I expected, I think.

This book was, well fine. A lot was going on and the book would have been a bit better for cutting one of the several storylines. I enjoyed reading this book but have no interest in reading the rest of the series. I think the book was just a bit busy and not really focused.

I don't normally do historical, period piece romances, but this was so fun! It's a great story with very relatable characters. The budding romance is just *chefs kiss*. I will always be down for a good "brother's best friend" forbidden romance and this story delivers!

I got this book as an ARC. It is the 3rd book in an interconnected series, and it started wonderfully. Unfortunately, at about the halfway point, I think the author intended to use it to close out a larger story, and it devolved into a very random assortment of stories of side characters having drama off page. It felt veey much as though these books were all meant to be read together concurrently or perhaps in a better order. The main couple are married but live mostly apart, and 3 random side quests are wrapped up dramatically and quite messily in the end.

Overall this was just okay. The second chance aspect of the relationship seemed very one sided and something just felt missing. I'm very sad by this because Loretta Chase's books are always so amazing but the relationship just didn't work for me.

I’m not always a fan of best friend’s sibling as a trope but this is an exception that proves the rule. That trope moves to marriage in trouble towards the end of the book but at no time do these two stop loving each other. This is the first book in the series that I have read and I plan on rectifying that immediately. An excellent story about a strong and fearless, or reckless in some cases, heroine who is trying to secure her future due to her disGraceful brother’s reckless behavior and the hero, another disGraceful Duke, who has loved her since they were children but was not the man she needed or deserved until he couldn’t stay away anymore. A great and romantic read.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This sadly did not work very well for me which is a huge bummer because I love Loretta! But the pacing of this book was wild - I was into it until about 60% and then I just got so bored. I ended up speeding up the audio to finish it because I just wanted it to be over.

I do think my experience with this book was better than it could have been, partially because I didn't remember anything from the first two books!

The narration was done by Kate Reading who is my absolute favorite narrator and I enjoyed this book a teensy bit more just because I got to listen to her voice. Excellent job per usual

We start with Alice being terrified that her idiot brother will be killed sometime soon, so she sets off to find a husband this season, to make sure she’s never at the mercy of her cruel cousin. Her brother’s best friend, the Duke of Blackwood, is all sorts of distressed at the thought of Alice marrying anyone else, even though he has no claim to her. He clearly is nursing a long time affection for her, despite having chosen a lifetime of debauchery with his friends instead of the upstanding life he could have had with her. And when Blackwood hears that Alice’s terrible cousin is in town, he tries his best to protect her. We end up with a wild goose chase in the middle of the book that have Blackwood and Alice in a compromising circumstance and needing to marry. While this seems like the beginning of a happily ever after for them, they get pulled in different directions due to their competing responsibilities. As a standalone read, this book was fine. As a follow-up after the first two books, it fell a little flat because all the hints from the first two books suggest that these two are officially estranged. We learn more about this so-called estrangement in this book and do eventually end up with a happily ever after, but it was much less dramatic than I expected.

Loretta Chase’s writing is so amazing frankly we are lucky to be living in her timeline.

This book was fun and slightly second chance for the majority, despite being a marriage in crisis. It largely took place before the first two books in the series, aka before the two were married. I remembered the marriage was ~in trouble from reading those two books, but this book didn’t really care about that honestly.

I don’t quite know if Chase pitched this as book one but it was push to three or if it was always three, but it felt a bit odd? The whole first half was centered around the Duke of Ripley being missing and a street urchin who was targeted by Alice’s sticky cousin. Blackwood and Alice basically teamed up (albeit begrudgingly) to find the duke and protect the young boy.

These were technically plots but felt random when you were waiting to see why their marriage was in trouble. They almost felt like side characters in their own book I spent a lot of the book waiting for the other show to drop, and I just don’t know if it even really did? Like there was a bit of fighting and marital drama, but it felt rather dramatic to center a whole book around getting to that point when it was all rather mild.

However, it’s a book written by Loretta Chase and I still had a grand time reading the story, even when the romance was waylaid by several other plots. My favorite moment was when she agreed to marry him. That was peak Loretta Chase characterization on his part. It felt like I was HOME.

I listened to the audiobook and while I love Kate Reading—truly there’s no one better to narrate Loretta Chase—I was confused on the timeline of things. I thought we would be getting a book more in the present than in the past, so it came as a surprise (literally) to find that we were in the past so presently. There were moments when I simply didn’t know what timeline we were in. Some chapters had dates but I unfortunately didn’t remember the first date so they consequently meant nothing to me lol. I don’t know if this would’ve kept my attention as well if I’d had read it in print, so I’ll take the confusion (but I’d probably benefit from a reread).

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5 🌶️🌶️*/5

*There was truly like one main scene I remember and pieces of some others. I definitely think we could’ve used a bit higher heat when all was said and done because she made us WAIT for a lot of things.