Adorable

This was so delightful! I love Cassandra so much, and Lucius was not far behind. More importantly I loved the strong family connection that run all through the book. ( )

I feel sure I've read this but it seems I haven't recorded that I have. I must flash through it to remind myself ... ( )

I quite liked how the hero's feelings developed, and overall enjoyed this. (More for the hero than the heroine).

But this is just barely 4 stars because I did have some issues with it. Too much is made of the hero's lack of intelligence. For one thing, he's not that bad at all, (the heroine probably acted foolishly more often honestly) and for another, people who are always reminding a person that they're slow minded are jerks! It's brought up entirely too often, like it's in the top 3 things you should know about him. Chase has done this at least once before, in Scandal Wears Satin, going on and on that the hero's just a big lunk. And she's so good at writing two whip-smart characters with great banter too, so this is extra disappointing.

Also, the heroine was too comfortable threatening people with violence. 'Do this or I'll hurt you' over and over. If the hero were saying that to the heroine, most people would be justly horrified! She shouldn't get a pass to bully people just because she's small. Not to mention the time she nearly *kills* him by shoving him when she's angry, and then just walks away when he's still at risk of falling to his death?! You shouldn't be so cavalier with people's lives for one thing, and also, like a dozen people would have witnessed her *murdering a Duke!* She would almost certainly be hanged! So it's idiotic on top of being super mean. ( )

The first half of this book was a slow read because the characters were so unbelievably juvenile acting. The setting is Regency England but both characters were ridiculously spoiled and immature. When the Duke realizes how selfish and immature and how he’s wasted his life and the heroine comes to grips with her selfish behavior and how it’s effecting her family, it gets interesting. Happy ending . . . because they’ve brought out the best in each other they’ll be the people they were meant to be. ( )

3.5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A match made in Bedlam: the Gorgon and the prankster.

Second in the Difficult Dukes series, this starts off about a week after the first in the series, A Duke in Shining Armor, ended. If you read the first, you'll remember Lucius, the Duke of Ashmont as the drunken jilted groom. Lucius did not recommend himself much and as this starts off, he continues with his drunken ways, causing a carriage accident that enmeshes our heroine. Lady Cassandra deGriffith has a reputation as a too opinionated woman and considered on the shelf. When a carriage accident caused by none other than the wastrel Duke of Ashmont and her childhood crush, has her groom and friend laid up with broken ribs, she is furious at him.

“I like a lively girl,” Ashmont said.

The first half of this felt a little slow and meandering but it comes together more in the second half as everything comes crashing together. The carriage accident causing Cassandra's friend to be laid up and her maid running away, sets up Lucius offering marriage to her to save her reputation and thus our marriage of convenience trope is born. Cassandra states and thinks the betrothal is fake and just for appearances sake but Lucius wants it to be real as by the second half, he's consciously enamored by Cassandra's backbone and wit and subconsciously in love with her.

She was a force to be reckoned with, and he was ready to reckon.

Cassandra for her part is extremely cautious about Lucius, she knew him in childhood as their circle of family and friends played together and had a childhood crush on him. Her childhood crush gets, well crushed, as they grow-up and Lucius becomes an obnoxious prankster and lush. Cassandra is scared to believe and trust in this “new” Lucius that is trying to act more mature and seems intrigued and attracted to her. Cassandra was mostly raised by her grandparents as her parents had eleven kids and seemed to want to focus on the boys more. This seemed an odd add-in as we never get scenes with Cassandra and her grandparents and there was some dancing around making her father a caring man for her but he didn't raise her? She has the added pressure to not cause drama because of her more feminist views and actions she takes in their favor have damaged her reputation and her father is trying to keep her in line by punishing Cassandra's younger sister, Hyacinth, by restricting what Hyacinth can do during her season. I'm team Cassandra, because how can you not be with this line: Coffee rooms, generally, were men’s domains. Cassandra usually observed such proprieties, because men became hysterical when women trespassed, and that was tedious. The word tedious is killer. So Cassandra is trying to protect her heart and not cross any lines, all while scandalous Lucius is saying he has mended his ways and truly wants her as a wife.

This was the one who’d spun herself dizzy, gazing at the stars. This was the little rebel who wouldn’t be bullied. This was she, all grown up.

Lucius grew up without a mother and his father definitely had a hand in creating the man who became one of the three 'Dis-Graces'. Again, for how much and important Lucius' uncle Frederick was, I was we could have gotten more scenes with the two together. I was not a fan, at all, of Lucius when the first book ended but I have to say, he did a pretty good job of redeeming himself in his own book. He pays attention to Casandra (her reads Wollstonecraft for her!) and begins to fall in love for who she is and he works to show her that. For people that are looking for more sex scenes, you only get one here, for others that want the depth of relationship to come from more tantalizing emotion bred from inner and mental connections, the second half delivers this with some sweet letter writing and other moments.

The way she’d looked at him. He’d thought he’d died and come to life at the same time.

Secondary characters from the first carry over and I find myself still strongly desiring Lucius' uncle Frederick and Julia's story and Lucius' friend Blackwood (another Dis-Grace) and his wife Alice clearly have some marriage angst that begs to be sorted out. I also really enjoyed the sense of time and place that the author managed to create, it helped make this feel like a solid historical instead of window dressed. This started off slow for me but with a hero that worked to bond with the heroine and managed to be dashing in Vauxhall and feel this while helping Cassandra stop a family from being evicted: They had nothing. He wanted to weep. She makes men cry, Morris had said. Maybe they ought to., well, how could you not soften towards him and cheer for him to sweep Cassandra off her feet.

“Because you’re you,” he said softly. ( )