Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase

Narrated by Kate Reading

Ten Things I Hate About the Duke was easily one of my favorite books in 2020; the audio improves this already tremendous novel. Kate Reading has a flair for rakes/wild-living/flawed noblemen and I AM HERE FOR IT. I swoon, I shake my head, I giggle…I love them – and her interpretation of these flawed heroes. Friends, Chase and Reading are a dream team.

While A Duke in Shining Armor, the first Difficult Dukes novel was fabulous, I couldn’t wait for Ms. Chase to spend more time with the dissolute and gorgeous, jilted Duke of Ashmont (dubbed ‘his Grace with the Angel Face’ by his best friends and fellow Dis-Graces, Hugh Ancaster, Duke of Ripley, and the Duke of Blackwood). In A Duke in Shining Armor, while Ashmont got rip-roaring drunk on his wedding day, Ripley (his best man) chased after his similarly intoxicated runaway fiancée, Lady Olympia Hightower. Ripley and Olympia wound up falling in love and an angry Ashmont challenged Ripley to a duel.

When Ten Things I Hate About the Duke begins, Ashmont is drunk and desolate after very nearly killing his best friend. He’s spent the morning imbibing at his favorite pub (the owners are used to his hijinks, fond of his coin, and tolerant of his behavior), when chaos erupts. Fed up, a woozy Ashmont steps outside and shoots his pistol to put an end to the kerfuffle. The loud blast inadvertently sends an approaching carriage and its riders careening through the street. Horrified, he runs to help and watches in dismay as the carriage tips over. Much to his relief, the redheaded woman who was holding the reins sits up, and then the woman next to her (her maid) stirs and also appears unharmed. He’s considering what to do next when the vaguely familiar driver approaches and begins insulting him before finally hitting him with her hat, knocking him off his feet.

Still drunk, now dazed and also a little bit afraid, Ashmont gets up and follows her to a man lying motionless near a tree. Ashton immediately recognizes him – it’s Tom Keeffe, a once successful jockey who survived a terrible accident that ended his career; Ashton is a fan. The pair exchange greetings and chit chat as the redhead fumes, until she finally silences the pair in exasperation. Keefe tries to reassure her that he’s well, while Ashton, confused about why the woman is with Keeffe in the first place, and uncertain what to do next (he doesn’t want to make her mad) staggers and then passes out. Oops. Friends, you read that right. It’s been a LONG and DRUNKEN day. Ashton comes to after the redhead dumps a bucket of water on his face and tells him to get up and make himself and his money useful. #badass

Cassandra Pomfret, the familiar and angry redhead, also sometimes referred to as Medusa or deGriffith’s Gorgon or Cassandra Prophet of Doom, is intelligent and Has Opinions. Opinions she’s also, much to her father’s chagrin, unafraid to share. WITH MEN! When Ten Things I Hate About the Duke begins, Cassandra’s plain speaking has gotten her into bigger trouble than usual. Exhausted and frustrated by her behavior and unwilling to tolerate it any longer, her father issues an ultimatum he hopes will force her to change: Hyacinth, her beautiful, beloved younger sister – the belle of the season – cannot marry or attend social events until Cassandra conforms to her father’s expectations and finds a husband of her own. The ultimatum saddens and infuriates Cassandra who, with a gentle nudge from Hyacinth, decides to leave London and reassess her future.

Cassandra is en route to the home of her former governess, accompanied by her maid and companion and friend Tom Keeffe, when disaster strikes. A group of men pour out of the local pub, a buffoon shoots his pistol into the air, and her horses go into a frenzy.

After cataloging her injuries, Cassandra sits up and recognizes the man crouched next to her asking if she’s okay. It’s the beautiful, angel-faced Duke of Ashmont, the man she loved as a young girl until he proved unworthy of her affections. The same idiot who just fought a duel with his best friend after his fiancée jilted him. Uh oh. Oh friends! This whole scene – and the ensuing days – is a hot mess of Ashmont trying and failing to fix the GIGANTIC mess he’s made, and Cassandra awesomely putting him in his place. I loved her, I loved him, I loved sweet Tom Keeffe – who quickly does some romantic mental matchmaking – and I loved how the carriage disaster sets these two on a path together. Ashmont is no dummy (he just acts like one in public All the Time). He’s a sexy badass who keeps making bad decisions, but has finally realized that drinking and shenanigans are ruining his life. Cassandra is the one woman who gives as good as she gets and is more than a match for him. Ashmont usually relies on his uncle (and only living relative) to help him out of his various messes, but this time – instead of fixing everything – he gives Ashmont good advice…and Ashmont follows it.

Cassandra knows a single, minimally chaperoned woman involved in a carriage accident with an infamous duke is a disaster in the making. So after a brief stay to ensure Keefe is on the mend, she returns to London, convinced her life is ruined. But unbeknownst to her, Ashton puts his money to good use silencing any witnesses and also returns to London. And then Cassandra’s real problems begin. A repentant Ashmont has decided he likes Cassandra. A lot. And he’s sexy and hot and sweet and stubborn and determined to be the man he believes Cassandra deserves. Cassandra futilely resists, and what follows is a battle of wits, wooing, sexy smirks, good smelling cologne, smart, clever repartée, and chemistry and…friends, it’s all so much fun.

Ashton quickly realizes Cassandra is good to everyone but herself, and makes it his job to understand his prickly, brainy lady-love. He reads Wollstonecraft, learns about issues that are important to her, and protects her from anyone and anything aiming to do her harm. Yep, there are villains, too! Listeners expect the carriage disaster to prove the biggest impediment to love between Cassandra and Ashmont, but it’s the villains (along with an assist from the lovely Hyacinth (who I hope gets a novel or novella of her own) who actually nudge the romance in the right (sexy times) direction. Ashmont and Cassandra are lovely together in every iteration – enemies, co-conspirators, friends, and eventually lovers, and it is a JOY to read yet another terrific Chase romance.

I was thrilled when I finished reading the novel, but I sighed in absolute happiness after I listened to it. Kate Reading nails our mischievous, sometimes bewildered, deeply in love Duke of Ashmont, and nearly matches the excellence of that portrayal with our tough-as-nails heroine. She gives as good as she gets, and Ms. Reading masterfully captures both her strong and fearsome outward persona and her vulnerable, less confident, tender side. I was totally engrossed in her performance, and she’s similarly brilliant at bringing to life the secondary characters, too. Ms. Reading is the perfect narrator to voice Ms. Chase’s novels. She becomes these characters. I didn’t hate anything about Ten Things I Hate About the Duke! I loved it – you will, too.

Em