Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase

Tracy’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Difficult Dukes, #2

Release Date: December 1, 2020

After a confrontation with Mr. Titus Owsley, a member of the House of Commons, Miss Cassandra Pomfret’s father lays down the law – he forbids Cassandra’s younger sister Hyacinth to marry or even participate in a season until the outspoken, opinionated Cassandra is wed.

Needing to get away, Cassandra sets out with her groom and maid to visit her former governess, but she never anticipated that the recently jilted Lucius Beckingham, the Duke of Ashmont would be at the coaching inn getting drunk after dueling with the Duke of Ripley, his former best friend turned bride thief! Nor did she think he would try to quiet a restless crowd by shooting into the air and spooking her horse, causing an accident that injured her groom and threatened to ruin her reputation. Nor did she ever expect or want him to insist that she marry him!

Cassandrea will never admit it – but Lucius was her first love and her hero, but over the years she realized that he never noticed her and she closed off her heart. She is content to be a spinster and refuses to wed Lucius, but when they are caught alone together a second time, she hatches a plan, she still won’t marry him but does agree to pretend to agree to marry him – especially since it seems her father is willing to let Hyacinth attend events with them. But she is clear – she can’t trust him and will not marry him.

No one is more surprised than Ashmont when he realizes that he really wants to marry Cassandra and sets out to win her over. It will be a long, uphill battle to win her hand with more than one person set on keeping them apart. But this is a battle Ashmont intends to win and soon winning her hand is not enough, he wants more – he wants to win her heart!

This was a well written, fast paced, fun twist on The Taming of the Shrew. Cassandra and Ashmont are perfect for each other and provide the reader with lots of witty banter and amusing moments without dragging the story into the realm of silly or fluffy. The book has humor, betrayals, great secondary characters, more than one “villain”, warm love scenes, blackmail and a very, very sweet ending. This is the second book in the series, but it can certainly be read as a standalone title. I really loved this book and happily recommend this title!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher. *