Review: My Inconvenient Duke (Difficult Dukes, #3) by Loretta Chase

                                                      

Print Length: 384 pages

Publisher: Avon (January 21, 2025)

From Goodreads.com: Of all the dukes in all the world, why does it have to be him?

Lady Alice Ancaster needs a husband, and fast, because her reckless brother is going to get himself killed, leaving the dukedom—and her future—in their repellent cousin’s clutches.

The Duke of Blackwood has known Alice since childhood, and they’ve always had a special connection. But years ago he broke it, when he chose a riotous life with his two best friends instead of a reasonable one with her.

The trouble is, the tall, dark, sardonic rogue keeps turning up exactly when needed, and ready—though he sometimes needs a push—to play the hero, if only for as long as it takes.

Being irresistibly drawn to the Wrong Man is not convenient, but when events come to a crisis, Alice has to make a choice. The question is, can she live with it?

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Right off the bat, let me begin by saying that I have not read either of the prior two novels in this series, however that did not stop me from understanding and enjoying this one as it would seem as though all three of these stories take place during the same time frame with events coinciding with each other in some parts. 

However, this book has left me feeling very conflicted. On one hand, I enjoyed the banter between Giles and Alice. There were times when their quips made me literally laugh out loud, and it made it easy to buy into their prior history together. The problem I had with this story was that I feel like their romance was secondary to everything else going on which made it hard to connect with that aspect of the story. 

She shows up at his house dressed as a washing woman to enlist his help in finding a certain street urchin for which she had a fondness, and he goes with her. Then when her brother goes missing, she demands to accompany him, then takes it upon herself to race off into danger while he is busy elsewhere. Giles points out that unless she allows him to take her back home immediately, she will be ruined so she can either go home and back to the suitor she had there, or she could marry him. Which had me then questioning Alice's true affections for either man as  she had a perfectly respectable suitor that she admired very much in Lord Doveridge, who he in turn seemed perfectly amenable to her society work with the less fortunate. But when given the choice between going home before she was utterly ruined and lost all chance of a marriage to that man, Alice instead chooses to accept Giles' proposal (such as it was). She claims she realized that she did not want a life like the kind she would lead with Doveridge, and yet even married to Blackwood, that is exactly the type of marriage she would have. Still doing favors for the Queen and other influential people. 

But I digress. The same street urchin runs away again, gets into a spot of trouble, again, and is rescued (you guessed it again) by Lord Blackwood. And then the poor lad ends up kidnapped leading to more drama for our newlyweds. Not that their marriage was off to a good start as it was what with Alice constantly running off to meet with this person or that person to help with her various charitable works (admirable to be sure, but as Blackwood pointed out why couldn't she delegate some of these tasks to other people)? 

Of course, Giles wasn't any better constantly running off to keep his friend Lord Ashcroft out of trouble, and honestly these were grown men, why can't this Lord Ashcroft behave his damn self? Why does his newly married friend have to leave his wife at home to come make sure he's not doing anything stupid?

I swear, Alice and Giles spent more time together before they were married than they did after the fact making me care less and less for the state of their marriage (or their happiness in general) as the story went on. I would have much rather preferred to see them together more, finding a way to balance all of their responsibilities and still have time for one another, and in some cases, hashing out their issues and reaching a compromise, for it would seem that was another aspect of their relationship that was sorely lacking, they were both too stubborn for their own good.

Now, I fully understand that I will likely be in the minority here with my thoughts as the story itself is well-written, it just didn't resonate with me the way I wanted it to. However, I do think it will appeal to others who enjoy historical romance novels, and I would read more from this author in the future.  

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.