ARC Review: Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase

“Chase has created a fantastic book full of humour, intelligence and excellent witty banter”

~ Under the Covers

Recommended Read!

I admit to a little bit of trepidation when it came to starting this book. What could Loretta Chase do to redeem the Duke of Ashmont and make him even remotely presentable as the hero of a romance novel? I think our heroine Cassandra Pomfret best explains the issues with Ashmont whilst giving him a firm scolding:

“You’ve had every advantage: power, rank, money, looks, not mention your gender. What have you done with them? What have you accomplished, besides dissipation and destruction?”

Ashmont is the kind of person you’d expect to emerge from an upbringing of wealth and privilege without any responsibility or sense of duty to those around him. He isn’t cruel, which opens the door to redemption, but he is thoughtless, reckless, entitled and has a temper. He’s a grown man with the mindset of a teenager.

The Duke of Ashmont didn’t mend things. He broke them. All the world believed it, and the world wasn’t wrong.

Then we have Cassandra, our outspoken, intelligent heroine who those in society like to call the Gorgon. She is passionate and proactive about women’s rights and poverty and isn’t shy about voicing her political opinions. She has a complete disgust for Ashmont, which is only solidified when his drunken stupidity causes a scandal that would leave him unscathed due to his gender and position, but completely ruin her and her family. Only, the incident has a completely unexpected outcome: Ashmont is completely besotted by the warrior female who looks at him with such loathing.

It’s hard to see how a romance can emerge when you have so little respect for the hero. Which, is why Loretta Chase is such a master of her trade, as by the end of this book I was dying for their HEA. Chase has created a fantastic book full of humour, intelligence and excellent witty banter. Not to mention the building chemistry between Cassandra and Ashmont.

What I really enjoyed about this book was Ashmont’s journey as he begins to take a look at not only his own life, but in an effort to win over Cassandra, also begins to see the struggles of those around him. He gradually begins to care and not just as a ploy to gain Cassandra’s favour. When you get to this turning point, Ashmont starts to become much more viable as a hero. It also helped that he always admired Cassandra’s strength and is infuriated by the way she is treated by others in the aristocracy. I am not a fan of jerk heroes and I am pretty unforgiving, but there was something about the way that Ashmont started to see his life with more clarity and then try and change it that resonated with me.

I’ve spoken a lot about Ashmont, but it is Cassandra who I admired most in this book. I love a strong heroine and there was a steely resolve and intelligence to Cassandra that had me adoring her from the start. Frankly, Ashmont is lucky she gave him a chance.

I really adored this book, it managed to be laugh out loud funny, heart warming and thoughtful all at once.

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[about-author author=”Loretta Chase”]

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