USA Today bestselling author Loretta Chase continues her Difficult Dukes series with this delightful spin on Shakespeare's classic, The Taming of the Shrew .
Loretta Chase continues to prove her reputation as a queen of Regency romances with the second title in her Difficult Dukes series, Ten Things I Hate About the Duke ... This is a rom-com lovers’ delight, complete with period clothing and sneaky flirting around the rules of propriety. Chase effortlessly weaves those allusions in without making the romance feel derivative ... Though this is the second book in a series, it stands fine on its own. If you’re new to Chase’s work, I encourage you to jump in with both feet. Ten Things I Hate About the Duke is magical, romantic and simply wonderful.
It’s classic Chase, featuring a pair of well-rounded, likeable protagonists, oodles of sexual tension and prose filled with insight, a generous helping of snark and the author’s customary razor-sharp wit. It’s the best historical romance of the year, hands down ... Ashmont and Cassandra are superbly drawn characters who simply light up the pages when they’re together, and the author has done a splendid job of making Ashmont – who could have been hard to like – an endearing character, even when he’s making bad decisions. Cassandra is intelligent, independent, outspoken, and deeply compassionate, and I was impressed with the way she’s shown to be a woman pushing at the boundaries of the conventions that constrain her and trying to make a difference in the world, while still being very much a woman of her time. The author’s subtle but pertinent commentary on the position of women in society is beautifully observed and quite low-key but no less scathing for that.
Her style of writing makes you feel like you are watching a play while sitting in the front row. They catch your attention in the beginning and keep it until you get to the end and then you wonder how you were able to finish the book so fast. Her stories are full of witty dialogue, heroes needing redemption, and feisty, opinionated heroines! I absolutely loved this book and I enjoyed seeing Lucius’s character grow and become more aware of the struggles women and the poor face every day. He became a better person just like Cassandra knew he could. The author gave us some hints about the next book which leads us into the Duke and Duchess of Blackwood’s story, which I can’t wait to read.
