Never Met a Duke Like You
Author: Amalie Howard
Reviewer: Jen
Rating: A-
What I’m Talking About:
Lady Vesper Lyndhurst loves love for others and views herself as a premier matchmaker, but doesn’t want love for herself. She was in love with her neighbor and best friend, Aspen, now Duke of Greydon, but when he returned home from his first year at Eton, he was cruel, treating her like a child and she’s not spoken since.
Aspen is a paleontologist in America when he learned his mother was going to declare him dead and place his cousin as ducal heir. Realizing it was time to come home to deal with his ducal obligations, including finding a match for his foster sister, Judith. He also wants to find out the truth of his father’s internment in an asylum and proof his mother was behind it all.
Never Met a Duke Like You is Howard’s second historical romance that gets inspiration from a 1990s movie, with Clueless (aka Emma) providing the foundation this time around. While the story is familiar, the characters are unique and engaging. I got caught up in Vesper’s passions and frustrations. I love that she speaks her mind and that she has friends and family that love and support her just how she is. Her family is amazing, and I adore that she was able to grow up without constraint. Watching Aspen realize who the true Vesper is and how he loves her is a joy. I also like that he has his own passions and how the pair complements one another. Their banter is fun, although it cuts deep sometimes. But when it does, they recognize it and make amends, eventually. There are years of hurt that require reconciliation, and truths that need to come out.
I love how the author creates camaraderie between the couple and their circle of friends, yet each character has their own personality and opinions. They disagree, but are loving. I enjoy the nuances of the banter between Aspen and Vesper – some is playful and fun, some is hurtful, hurled when the other is hurt and angry. The characters are likable because they are written with hearts of gold. On the other hand, the dowager duchess is a wonderful villain because she is so cold and vial. She’s the kind of antagonist one loves to hate.
In the end, I completely enjoyed Never Met a Duke Like You and its references to both the movie Clueless and its inspiration, Emma.
My Rating: A-
Jen
About the Book:
Lady Vesper Lyndhurst is beautiful, clever, and popular. Afforded every luxury as a duke’s daughter, she fills her days with friends, intrigues, and a self-professed knack for matchmaking. She may have sworn off love for herself, but she is rather excellent at arranging it.
Faced with an insolvent estate, the Duke of Greydon has no choice but to return to England in a final attempt to revive his family’s fortunes. He’s been gone for years, happy to have escaped his mother and the petty circles of the ton. To his dismay, not much has changed, including the beautiful and vexing heiress next door.
But when an accident of fate traps the friends-turned-enemies in an attic together, the explosive attraction between them becomes impossible to ignore and even harder to resist. They are total opposites and their lives don’t align in the slightest, but fate, the ultimate matchmaker, appears to have other plans . . .
Release Date: November 14, 2023
Publisher: Forever
Series: Taming of the Dukes #2
Genre: Historical Romance, Rom-Com
Format(s): paperback (384 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley
Purchase Info:
Amazon (affiliate link)
Books in the Series:
Always Be My Duchess by Amalie Howard (Taming of the Dukes #1)