Christina (stinarinareads)'s Reviews > Damned If I Duke

4.25✨, 1.5🌶️

Elements/Tropes:
📖~360 pages
📖Historical romance/romcom
📖FMC early/mid 20s x MMC 28 years old
📖A free-spirited FMC who doesn’t conform to society’s expectations
📖Former rake ‘what is this painful feeling in my chest it CANNOT be love’ MMC
📖Marriage of convenience
📖Loathe-to-love
📖Mutual pining
📖Fun banter between MCs
📖LOVE CONFESSION IN THE RAIN
📖Book 2 of an interconnected series with standalone romances (for full reference, I haven’t read Book 1)
📖Ending (view spoiler)[HEA (hide spoiler)]

This is a NetGalley arc review. Thank you as always! Expected publication March 26, 2024.

Damned If I Duke is a historical romance by Anna Bradley and Book 2 in the Drop Dead Dukes series. It follows FMC Prudence Thorne, who’s been put in the immediate circumstance of having to find a husband and fast in order to contend with the extraordinary debt her father got them into with one unfortunate wager.

The person her father owes is none other than our MMC Jasper Vincent, the Duke of Monford, who happened to be having foul night and took a bet he usually wouldn’t have taken, one that put a man and his family out of their entire life’s earnings.

Fifteen hundred pounds later, there’s only about 500 pounds left, but to get them, Prue and her father must sell their last remaining place of residence.

Due to the circumstances, there is obviously no love lost between Prue and Jasper, however, sometimes the brightest of love can come from the deepest of loathing. Plus, their mutual denied physical attraction doesn’t simplify matters.

Prue and Jasper and their relationship absolutely make this story. Their banter was fun, their chemistry undeniable, and I loved how their dynamic slowly progressed through all the situations and wagers they found themselves in. There were times when the story wasn’t even intentionally trying to be funny, but Prue and Jasper’s personalities oozed off the page so much you couldn’t help but be pleased as anything while reading. Jasper in particular was just effortlessly entertaining. He has high maintenance drama king vibes that I’ve never seen work so well before in a historical MMC, and still be so extremely likeable. He had his jerk moments for sure, but Jasper is just simply and utterly a delight to read about.

There isn’t much I would change in this story. I think everything worked fairly well and came full circle story wise, with great character development for both MCs. I personally think this also could’ve worked as a shorter story with just the debt between the MCs as the main plot foil, versus also including the slight former mistress revenge ploy towards the end. I didn’t absolutely hate it because we got an amazing love confession in the rain scene and additional emotional developments out of it, but I just could’ve also done without it if it wasn’t there. I also think the MMC could’ve fought harder to avoid this third-act separation, but again, I accept it for the resolution we got. I’m just glad that there was no question about the MMC’s romantic feelings on the former mistress. He was wholly and completely done with her, even before the FMC happened, and then only had eyes for the FMC.

Loved the grandparent and grandchild relationship highlight with the MMC and his grandpa. Anyone who knows me knows how much those mean to me!

I would recommend this book to readers looking for a fun historical romcom that’s a great length, not too long or too short, with vibrant and dynamic characters and a solid romance.

Safety:
🦺 MMC has broken up with his latest mistress before this book starts, but the former mistress is a second act villain in the story with some minor appearances. (view spoiler)[She’s angry at the FMC for marrying the MMC and becoming duchess, a position and wealth she thought SHE rightly deserved. MMC considers her a “devil”, his words. (hide spoiler)] No OW for MMC aside from this related aspect
🦺 FMC is looking to settle her father’s debt, and has some outings with a potential suitor, but she is never romantically interested and this is mostly done to trigger jealousy in MMC (not intentional on FMC’s part) and propel MMC’s plot choices
🦺 Minor talk of animal hunting relevant to a historical shooting party

Spice:
🌶️Explicit but scenes on the shorter side, about 3 or 4 in total
🌶️Virgin FMC x experienced [former] rake MMC