{"id":31800,"date":"2025-04-01T10:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/?p=31800"},"modified":"2025-04-01T10:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:45:05","slug":"review-my-inconvenient-duke-by-loretta-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/01\/review-my-inconvenient-duke-by-loretta-chase\/","title":{"rendered":"Review \u2764\ufe0f My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-31800\" data-postid=\"31800\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-31800 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t<!-- module_row -->\n\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_ucji478 tb_first tf_w tf_clearfix\">\n\t    \t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top gutter-narrow tb_col_count_2 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t            <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-1 tb_1baf478 first\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module image -->\n<div  class=\"module module-image tb_8j0o478 rounded drop-shadow customBorderRad_top image-center auto_fullwidth tf_mw\" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div class=\"image-wrap tf_rel tf_mw\">\n\t\t    <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"973\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=640%2C973&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"wp-post-image wp-image-31761\" title=\"my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase\" alt=\"my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?w=987&amp;ssl=1 987w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=197%2C300&amp;ssl=1 197w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=674%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 674w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=768%2C1167&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=400%2C607&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/>\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/image-wrap -->\n    \n    \t<\/div>\n<!-- \/module image --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_79yd478 customBorderRad_bottom repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Of all the dukes in all the world, why does it have to be\u00a0<span class=\"a-text-italic\">him<\/span>?<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Lady Alice Ancaster needs a husband, and fast, because her reckless brother is going to get himself killed, leaving the dukedom\u2014and her future\u2014in their repellent cousin\u2019s clutches.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">The Duke of Blackwood has known Alice since childhood, and they\u2019ve always had a special connection. But years ago he broke it, when he chose a riotous life with his two best friends instead of a reasonable one with her.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">The trouble is, the tall, dark, sardonic rogue keeps turning up exactly when needed, and ready\u2014though he sometimes needs a push\u2014to play the hero, if only for as long as it takes.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">Being irresistibly drawn to the Wrong Man is not convenient, but when events come to a crisis, Alice has to make a choice. The question is, can she live with it?<\/span><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n                        <div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col3-2 tb_th7d478 last\">\n                                                        <div class=\"tb-column-inner tf_box tf_w\">\n                        <!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_osp1478  repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16471 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2_5-hearts-1.jpg?resize=107%2C44&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"107\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Jan 21, 2025<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong> <em>Difficult Dukes<br \/><\/em><strong>Book: <\/strong>3<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Warm<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Avon<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $5.99<\/p><hr \/><blockquote class=\"quotes\"><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>\u201cHe was not in the least prepared for the smile, and for a moment the world went away. He\u2019d known her since she was a ten-year-old hoyden. He\u2019d seen her up close, her face mere inches from his only a month ago. But that morning drifted in a haze that the passing days and riotous living had only thickened. Before that, when? Two years earlier? Had it been so long as that since Lord Charles Ancaster\u2019s funeral. He, Ashmont, and Ripley had drowned their grief in drink that day and in the days following, a process that had turned her into a dim, elusive figure in the clouded landscape of his mind. And so the reality of Alice, here and now and smiling up at him, struck him very much like a hard punch in the head.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Loretta Chase<\/strong> wrote one of my favorite historical romance books of all time, <strong>Lord of Scoundrels<\/strong>, and so I went into this expecting greatness, but it fell flat for me. I read the previous two books, but the last book was published in 2020, so my memories of it are fuzzy. However, the timeline of this book runs concurrently with book one, so it was difficult to follow.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I think needed to reread the previous two books before this one, maybe I wouldn\u2019t have gotten so lost. I was definitely curious about the <strong>Duke of Blackwood<\/strong> from the previous books, and I do love when the hero has been pining for the heroine for years, but there was negative chemistry between these two. Which is shocking to me if he has loved her from afar for years. Their conversations were so forced, and they went in circles, never getting to the point. The focus was not on their romance, but the side plots in the story, and that definitely caused their relationship to suffer.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first half had promise, but by the second half, the pacing had gotten completely off track, and add in that unnecessary third act breakup, the end could not come quickly enough for me. Unfortunately, this one just was not my cup of tea.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you\u2019re a fan of Loretta Chase\u2019s earlier books or <strong>Ella Quinn,<\/strong> then give this a try. It may work better for you than for me, but I would suggest rereading books one and two before diving in.<\/p><p><em>~ Michelle<\/em><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text --><!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_jcei479 customBorderRad repeat \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n        <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Y8tI9W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/4chENve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">iBooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase\/1145483658?ean=9780063094529\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">B&amp;N<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/my-inconvenient-duke-1?sId=23370403-b35d-4e99-8d3e-0d70eca4bb78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Kobo<\/span><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Loretta_Chase_My_Inconvenient_Duke?id=BxcGEQAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s3\">Google Play<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->                    <\/div>\n                            <\/div>\n            \t    <\/div>\n\t    <!-- \/row_inner -->\n\t<\/div>\n\t<!-- \/module_row -->\n\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Of all the dukes in all the world, why does it have to be him?<br \/>\nLady Alice Ancaster needs a husband, and fast, because her reckless brother is going to get <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,106,122,48],"tags":[142,305,548],"class_list":["post-31800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avon-books","category-harpercollins","category-michelle","category-reviews","tag-2-5-stars","tag-historical-romance","tag-regency-romance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review \u2764\ufe0f My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase - Smitten by Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/01\/review-my-inconvenient-duke-by-loretta-chase\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review \u2764\ufe0f My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase - Smitten by Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Of all the dukes in all the world, why does it have to be him? 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Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5a4181aeb9cd5641e30023b9b4d3e00d","name":"beverley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d01d9a027fd24b3d94658206104dd5d7aaffba75b651e55c08358a9bc51b26a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d01d9a027fd24b3d94658206104dd5d7aaffba75b651e55c08358a9bc51b26a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d01d9a027fd24b3d94658206104dd5d7aaffba75b651e55c08358a9bc51b26a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"beverley"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/author\/beverley\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?fit=987%2C1500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"builder_content":"<img src=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg\" title=\"my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase\" alt=\"my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?w=987&amp;ssl=1 987w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=197%2C300&amp;ssl=1 197w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=674%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 674w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=768%2C1167&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase.jpg?resize=400%2C607&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 987px) 100vw, 987px\" \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Of all the dukes in all the world, why does it have to be\u00a0him?<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Lady Alice Ancaster needs a husband, and fast, because her reckless brother is going to get himself killed, leaving the dukedom\u2014and her future\u2014in their repellent cousin\u2019s clutches.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Duke of Blackwood has known Alice since childhood, and they\u2019ve always had a special connection. But years ago he broke it, when he chose a riotous life with his two best friends instead of a reasonable one with her.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The trouble is, the tall, dark, sardonic rogue keeps turning up exactly when needed, and ready\u2014though he sometimes needs a push\u2014to play the hero, if only for as long as it takes.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Being irresistibly drawn to the Wrong Man is not convenient, but when events come to a crisis, Alice has to make a choice. The question is, can she live with it?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2_5-hearts-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"107\" height=\"44\" \/><\/p><hr \/><p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> Jan 21, 2025<br \/><strong>Series:<\/strong> <em>Difficult Dukes<br \/><\/em><strong>Book: <\/strong>3<br \/><strong>Heat Level:<\/strong> Warm<br \/><strong>Publisher:<\/strong>\u00a0HarperCollins<br \/><strong>Imprint:<\/strong>\u00a0Avon<br \/><strong>Price:<\/strong> $5.99<\/p><hr \/><blockquote><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>\u201cHe was not in the least prepared for the smile, and for a moment the world went away. He\u2019d known her since she was a ten-year-old hoyden. He\u2019d seen her up close, her face mere inches from his only a month ago. But that morning drifted in a haze that the passing days and riotous living had only thickened. Before that, when? Two years earlier? Had it been so long as that since Lord Charles Ancaster\u2019s funeral. He, Ashmont, and Ripley had drowned their grief in drink that day and in the days following, a process that had turned her into a dim, elusive figure in the clouded landscape of his mind. And so the reality of Alice, here and now and smiling up at him, struck him very much like a hard punch in the head.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Loretta Chase<\/strong> wrote one of my favorite historical romance books of all time, <strong>Lord of Scoundrels<\/strong>, and so I went into this expecting greatness, but it fell flat for me. I read the previous two books, but the last book was published in 2020, so my memories of it are fuzzy. However, the timeline of this book runs concurrently with book one, so it was difficult to follow.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I think needed to reread the previous two books before this one, maybe I wouldn\u2019t have gotten so lost. I was definitely curious about the <strong>Duke of Blackwood<\/strong> from the previous books, and I do love when the hero has been pining for the heroine for years, but there was negative chemistry between these two. Which is shocking to me if he has loved her from afar for years. Their conversations were so forced, and they went in circles, never getting to the point. The focus was not on their romance, but the side plots in the story, and that definitely caused their relationship to suffer.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first half had promise, but by the second half, the pacing had gotten completely off track, and add in that unnecessary third act breakup, the end could not come quickly enough for me. Unfortunately, this one just was not my cup of tea.<\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you\u2019re a fan of Loretta Chase\u2019s earlier books or <strong>Ella Quinn,<\/strong> then give this a try. It may work better for you than for me, but I would suggest rereading books one and two before diving in.<\/p><p><em>~ Michelle<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Y8tI9W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apple.co\/4chENve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iBooks<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/my-inconvenient-duke-loretta-chase\/1145483658?ean=9780063094529\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">B&amp;N<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/my-inconvenient-duke-1?sId=23370403-b35d-4e99-8d3e-0d70eca4bb78\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kobo<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Loretta_Chase_My_Inconvenient_Duke?id=BxcGEQAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31800"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31813,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31800\/revisions\/31813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smittenbybooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}