Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin
Date of publication: July 23rd, 2024
Genre: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical Regency, Fiction, Adult, Regency Romance, Chick Lit
Purchase Links: Kindle | B&N | WorldCat
Goodreads Synopsis:
In this steamy Regency romp, Lady Selina is determined to find the Duke of Stanhope the perfect wife―the only problem is she’s starting to think that might be her.
Peter Kent―newly inherited Duke of Stanhope and recently of New Orleans, Louisiana―must become respectable. Between his radical politics and the time he interrupted a minor royal wedding with a flock of sheep―not his fault!―he’s developed a scandalous reputation at odds with his goal of becoming guardian to his half siblings. For help, he turns to the cleverest and most managing woman of his acquaintance, Lady Selina Ravenscroft.
Selina is society’s most proper debutante, save one tiny secret: she runs an erotic circulating library for women. When Peter asks for her help, she suggests courtship and marriage to a lady of unimpeachable reputation. (Which is to say, definitely not herself.)
But matchmaking doesn’t go according to plan. Peter’s siblings run rampant on Bond Street. Selina ends up in the Serpentine. And worst of all, the scorching chemistry between Peter and Selina proves impossible to resist. For the disreputable duke and his unpredictable matchmaker, falling in love just might be the ultimate scandal.
First Line
Peter suspected the project was doomed.
Important details about Ne’er Duke Well
Pace: Medium
POV: 3rd person (Peter, Selina)
Content/Trigger Guidance: Ne’er Duke Well contains themes of child death, grief, fatphobia, misogyny, death of parent, abandonment, domestic abuse, sexism, slavery, terminal illness*, vomit, medical content, death, pregnancy, death of a sibling, and sex worker shaming. Please read carefully if any of these triggers you.
- Terminal Illness—Peter’s half-brother died of consumption (tuberculosis) as a child.
Language: Ne’er Duke contains no swearing but does contain language* that might offend some people.
- There are examples of era-typical sexism and misogyny throughout the book.
Sexual Content: There is graphic consensual sexual content in Ne’er Duke Well.
Setting: Ne’er Duke Well is set in 1815 London, England.
My Review:
I will be honest with you all. When I read the blurb for Ne’er Duke Well, I almost didn’t accept the widget. I was drowning in ARCs and barely getting ahead with my reviews (I often do this to myself). What ultimately made me accept was that I love Regency romances. I am glad that I accepted because this book was a good read.
The plot for Ne’er Duke Well was medium-paced and centered around Selina and Peter. I liked that Selina and Peter knew each other before the book started. Their gradual falling into love seemed like an obvious next step instead of being forced upon them.
The plot for Ne’er Duke Well was a dual plotline. One branch followed Selina and her running of the erotic circulation library. The other branch followed Peter as he fought to become his half-sibling’s legal guardian. In the middle of the book, both storylines merge, and that is when the chaos starts to happen. I loved it!!
The storyline with Selina was well-written. The evolution of the erotic circulating library had good roots. Selina’s best friend had found herself pregnant a couple of years earlier, and she did not know how it had happened. Selina took it upon herself to try to educate the ladies of the ton with this library. And, surprisingly, it took off. I wish I could have gotten more glimpses into the material used because it seemed very pornographic (from what Selina read). Selina did her best to keep her ownership of the library secret, but secrets have a way of coming out, and oh boy, did Selina’s.
The storyline with Peter was also well-written. He wanted to get custody of his siblings but got in the way of himself. He was a little scandalous (he said and did things that the proper British ton didn’t like), but he was a good person. But, and this comes up later in the book, Peter does have his demons. Those demons come out in full force when Freddy (his brother) becomes deathly ill. I felt awful for that poor man; he was terrified and was willing to do anything to keep Freddy alive.
Ne’er Duke Well has strong and memorable secondary characters. These characters added much-needed depth (and, in some situations, levity) to both storylines.
As stated in the blurb, the romance angle of Ne’er Duke Well was steamy. The author gradually builds up the sexual tension between Selina and Peter. By the time their wedding night comes around, everything explodes. And it keeps exploding with every sex scene. While the sex scenes were good, the relationship between Selina and Peter caught my attention. They were true partners and stood by each other’s sides during two critical scenes in the book. Selina was even willing to go as far as to annul the marriage so Peter would have a better chance of gaining custody of his brother and sister.
The end of Ne’er Duke Well was an HEA. I liked how the author resolved both storylines. I hope she writes more books in this universe. I am keen to see how various characters find their matches.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, NetGalley, and Alexandra Vasti for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Ne’er Duke Well. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
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