Loretta Chase closes out her Difficult Dukes trilogy with My Inconvenient Duke, providing a satisfying conclusion to the series and a happily ever after for her final rambunctious hero, Giles, Duke of Blackwood.
Giles is one of the Dis-Graces, three wild and rebellious dukes running around 1830s London, all of whom inherited their estates young and have nary a care in the world. Giles should take heed, however, because love and the fairer sex have already reformed his fellow Dis-Graces, Hugh (A Duke in Shining Armor) and Lucius (Ten Things I Hate About the Duke), and it’s just a matter of time before his heart leads him back to Lady Alice Ancaster. Alice is Hugh’s little sister, and, predictably, Giles chose friendship over love when he was a younger man. The bond of the Dis-Graces was too weighty to cast aside for a potential future with Alice, and thus, the story is set up for some interesting relational problem-solving and a witty romantic reckoning.
Loretta Chase knows there’s nothing sexier than good banter.
Chase employs two intriguing techniques to help tell the story: a series of subplots following Alice’s work advocating for impoverished children and her propensity for epistolary dispatches. In other hands, these techniques might slow the momentum like molasses through a strainer. But they’re actually smart ways for Chase to illustrate growth and maturity for her two main characters. Alice works through her childhood trauma by helping other children, and Giles’ eventual involvement with her quests allows him to answer the call to action and responsibility, proving he’s worthy of Alice’s love. The letters move the story along (after all, these characters don’t have the 21st-century options of mobile phones or TikTok to maintain relationships and get news and information) and provide intimacy as Alice and Giles rekindle their romance.
My Inconvenient Duke is also marked by Chase’s lush, rich depiction of early 19th-century England, where the London Royal Mail rings five times a day, scandal and scoundrels rule the Ton, and seemingly incorrigible rakes can prove their worthiness by letter. Conversation was everything in this era, and if you’re a fan of chatty, dialogue-heavy stories, you’ll love this romance.
