A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole

[lightreads]

A Duke by Default

3/5. Socialite with undiagnosed ADHD who is trying to reinvent herself goes to Scotland for a sword making apprenticeship; ends up discovering that her grumpy boss is the unknowing heir to a duke.

I have a definite weakness for good royal romance, so I've been holding this series in reserve as everyone seems to love it. I did enjoy this – modern romance involving people of color with sex scenes that aren't actively terrible! But I actually . . . could have done without the duke plot? Like, she gets to make a single sword in this entire book, and let's be real, I can read about dukes any time. I can't always read about someone learning to forge a sword, complete with many many dirty jokes. Still, this was enjoyable.

…Still pregnant.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Yeah, the bit where I had to pretend that a title would have descended to a nonmartial child, without anyone asking whether that was a problem, was . . . a little distracting to me. And I also would have liked more swords. But on the whole I like what she's doing with this series.

[castiron]

That was about how I felt about it too -- a nice story, but would've been better with increased swordmaking and decreased duking.

I had the impression that his parents were married but divorced when he was small, but maybe I was imagining that to make the lost heir plotline work.

[lightreads]

They never married, no. And the whole thing -- re-settling the title, I mean -- apparently took like two weeks? Which....lol.

[castiron]

Okay, that's just messing up British aristocracy 101. (Especially given that I can think of at least two romance series based on the premise "titled guy's children find out they're illegitimate; son who was expecting to inherit doesn't".)

[jadelennox]

I enjoyed this one a lot, but I'd have liked it more with less nobility drama and way more forging.