Ten Things I Hate About the Duke (Difficult Dukes #2)

(4.5 stars) I went into the reading of this with few expectations. There’s something about immature, bad boy, entitled rich jerks that does not sit well with me. I did not enjoy Chase’s first book in this series very much for that reason and thought I’d enjoy this one even less because it’s about the most immature of this immature trio called the Dis-Graces. But Chase managed to make me like this guy and I enjoyed seeing him grow up and work to make himself worthy of our heroine.

As you can tell from the title, this is inspired by that movie Ten Things I Hate About You, which in turn was inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. This story, however, is a bit of a 180 on Shakespeare’s play, since the
character who is actually “tamed” turns out to be Lucius, Duke of Ashton, the second of the Dis-Graces to have his story told to us.

At the beginning of this novel, we find our “hero” Ashton drunk as a lord after dueling with fellow Dis-Grace Ripley, who had managed to run off with Ashton’s wife-to-be on the day of the wedding. (That can all be found out about in Book One of this series.) So, yeah, he’s drunk and as irresponsible as always and he manages to cause an accident to the carriage of Miss Cassandra Pomfret, who is passing by on her way to visit her aunt.

The accident causes an unfortunate injury to Cassandra’s manservant Keefe. When Ashton passes out in a drunken stupor soon after, she throws a bucket of water on him and says, “You must collect yourself and try, for once in your misbegotten life, to make yourself useful.” Well, there you have it, actually. He takes her words to heart. He also takes her to heart, quite taken by her take-charge, strong, opinionated personality.

Yes, Cassandra is our “shrew” of this story. But not really. She’s just a woman who wants more from life than the subservient “I have no thoughts in my head that haven’t been put there by a man” role that women are expected to play in 1800s England. She isn’t demure enough to attract suitors, she involves herself in politics and social concerns through the Andromeda Society, and she tools around town, driving her own carriage.

Well, her father, well-respected politician Lord deGriffith, has had enough of this and has set down an ultimatum that she must make herself agreeable to the opposite sex and marry before her lovely and sweet younger sister Hyacinth will be allowed out and about in society.

This love story is actually quite delicious. There’s a bit of the Lord of Scoundrels Dain/Jessica feel to the relationship of this H and h. You know, the maturity and smarts and thoughtfulness of the woman and the immaturity and bad behavior of the man. “‘I’m very glad one of us has a large brain,” he said. “Yours is perfectly functional, ” she said. “The trouble is lack of exercise.'”

There’s also a lovely slow-burn development to the romance and some really warm, romantic scenes that are actually quite innocent on the surface. Remember the swoon-worthy LoS moment with Dain unbuttoning Jessica’s glove while murmuring to her in Italian? In this story we have some swoony moments involving just hand holding. “Though the theater was well lit, their joined hands lay in the shadows, invisible to the audience. A delicious secret…”

And there’s his sensual reaction to her dressed for the theater, in sight, sound, and smell. “Tonight she was deliciously undressed, or at least less covered than usual. Only a few strategically placed bows adorned the blue silk dress. One fluttered at each naked shoulder. The one of the center of her neckline moved in time with her bosom’s rise and fall…When he leant over her, the scent of rosemary, lavender and Cassandra Pomfret rose to his nostrils…Even when he couldn’t smell her, he could hear the faint rustle of silk when she moved. Breathed.”

I really thought that Chase got the romance almost perfect here. We didn’t get immediate sex even though there was almost immediate attraction. That had to wait until Ashton proved himself worthy of Cassandra. And he worked very hard to do this. He stopped drinking and acting like a juvenile. He started listening and thinking of others. He even read A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Wollstonecraft. “..he saw her now, truly saw her, as no other man did or probably ever would. He’d taken pains to see her truly.”

I loved the love in this. I enjoyed the hero’s growth. I think this fictional couple has a chance for happiness in their fictional life.

Wow, I am having trouble even reading this book. I am almost halfway through it, and am just struggling. I love Loretta Chase and can’t figure out how she could fail so bad on this one. I loved A Duke in Shining Armor, the first book in this series, so much that I’ve read it multiple times. I was so looking forward to the second book in the series, and am so disappointed in it.

I can’t figure out why Cassandra even wants to spend time with Ashmont and vice-versa. It’s not that either one of them is an unlikeable character, they just seem to be on different wavelengths.

The book just seems to be disjointed. I am going to finish the book, and I sure hope it gets better.

After a confrontation with Mr. Titus Owsley, a member of the House of Commons, Miss Cassandra Pomfrets father lays down the law he forbids Cassandras 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 wont 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 cant 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. *

Ah. Lucius and Cassandra’s love battles. Going from dislike and drunkenness to caring and seduction. No one does
it better than Loretta Chase,making her characters vulnerable, interesting, so seductive and funny. I’ve missed your books for the last few years. You have given me such wonderful reading adventures with characters I love reading about. The only quarrel I have with you is the fact that the ending comes too soon. Can you do a sequel so I can find out how the Ripley’s and Lucius and Cassandra are doing? I’d love that!

After establishing Ashmont as the inebriated, painfully immature duke in A Duke in Shining Armor, Loretta Chase sets herself up in The Ten Things I Hate About the Duke to turn an unredeemable sot into a romantic lead.

She fails. Painfully. Ashmont remains a silly man-child and the reader is left wondering how the $6.99 could have been better spent.

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