Ten Things I Hate About the Duke

A Difficult Dukes Novel

De: Loretta Chase

Narrado por: Kate Reading

USA Today bestselling author Loretta Chase continues her Difficult Dukes series with this delightful spin on Shakespeare's classic, The Taming of the Shrew.

This time, who’s taming whom…

Cassandra Pomfret holds strong opinions she isn’t shy about voicing. But her extremely plain speaking has caused an uproar, and her exasperated father, hoping a husband will rein her in, has ruled that her beloved sister can’t marry until Cassandra does.

Now, thanks to a certain wild-living nobleman, the last shreds of Cassandra’s reputation are about to disintegrate, taking her sister’s future and her family’s good name along with them.

The Duke of Ashmont’s looks make women swoon. His character flaws are beyond counting. He’s lost a perfectly good bride through his own carelessness. He nearly killed one of his two best friends. Still, troublemaker that he is, he knows that damaging a lady’s good name isn’t sporting.

The only way to right the wrong is to marry her…and hope she doesn’t smother him in his sleep on their wedding night.

©2020 Loretta Chase (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Excellent in Every Way

While I enjoy this author, as sometimes happens, I couldn’t get through this book in ebook format. Weeks later, listening to the really superior narration, the story finally drew me in. I don’t like shrews, I don’t like endless insults to males, but there’s enough left in the characters to make it worth a listen. Did I say the narration was superb?
Folks need to keep in mind that if it weren’t for men, we wouldn’t be enjoying kindle and audible at all. We’d still be pitching tents and cooking over open fires. No thank you.

Well-written, well-developed characters

This is one of those books you need to give a little more time before passing judgment. In the beginnig, the characters appear too zany. Kate Reading, the awesome narrator that she is, did a great job interpreting and presenting their zaniness. Consequently, I debated on whether I could tolerate those quirky characters for 12 hours. But, I stuck with it and came to develop a real liking for the characters as they developed into very personable people with depth. Cassandra, the female lead character, has a very strong personality who speaks her mind. She also has strong beliefs in women's rights which were unusual for that time perod. The reluctant hero of the story appears a real loser with weak character. At first the reader would think the disparities in their characters are insurmountable. Not so, Lucien, our hero, has strengths that Cassandra shows him that he has. This was a delightful book and I'll listen to again and again.

Funny, endearing, great characters, great performance…

What can I say…I love Loretta Chase and Kat Reading brings her characters to life! Strong, flawed women and their chosen men…please write book 3!

Lovely

At first I didn’t like Cassandra’s treatment of Lucious, but it became clear that she was protecting herself. Lucious was adorable in a way that showed he was willing to change from rouge to adoring lover. Together they faced the challenges of being too much alike and different.

Duke of Ashmont & Cassandra Story

Love then as a couple...they are both absolutely crazy, no wonder they were a good match!

Incredible! Lovely main characters

The long time Lucius and Cassandra have known each other has a real piquancy.
Her mother is awesome! So is her sister.

But the addition of Mary Wollstonecraft grabbed my heart.

Loretta Chase writes depths but the best humor in historical romance!!

Loved it!!

This is the best book of the year so far for me!


I loved the character development, the plot, the evil machinations of the villain, how those machinations were overcome, and the wonderful end of the book. This book was a lo-o-o-o-ong time coming but it was worth every minute of the wait. Chase does her usual stellar job of storytelling, and Ashmont is now second only to Rupert Carsington as my all time favorite book boyfriend. Ashmont is a drunken, brawling, womanizing Duke and is very hard to like. Chase not only redeems him entirely, she does so in a very believable fashion. He actually starts listening to people, and begins to make changes in his habits and attitudes, and that is the making of him. The story is loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew, but quite loosely. I do not consider the heroine a shrew at all, merely an intelligent woman who marches to her own drummer. If you are a fan of traditional-style Regency romance, you will love this one. Perfect prose, delightful humor, three-dimensional characters, interesting settings, and a really fun story to top it all off!


My only (tiny) quibble is that I felt Kate Reading's voice was a bit off, she sounded like she had a cold and her register was lower than usual and her normal spritely vocal energy was dimmed a bit. I especially noticed this in the first half of the book.

I highly recommend this book to fans of romance in general but especially historical romance, romantic comedy, sexual tension, well developed characters, and unexpected plot twists.

Slightly different version of Book 1

I loved Book 1, A duke in Shining Armor, since it had a fabulous story and used lots of humor. This book, was boring because it is such a similar story without much of the humor. There was lots of rehashing of emotions and bashing of men. Men did have almost complete power of women in those days but the author made this point so often that it got tiresome. Cassandra refuses the Duke's wedding proposals because she thinks him shallow and the story is about his evolution into a deeper person. I understand that her disdain for the Duke was part of his redemption but I didn't like how mean she could be to him. I think it was meant to be humorous but it fell flat.

The performance

Formost, i really like the performances of Kate Reading and this is perhaps the best of Loretta’s books and series. The characters seem so real and the plot provides a relief from the cookie cutter romance stories that abound. I find that i re-listen to this one more often than her others and Kate/Loretta books are the only ones that i find myself going back to with hundreds in my library.

Loretta Chase and Kate Reading-/a match made in heaven

Another bright, clever, delightful story by Chase performed perfectly by Kate Reading. These are characters we enjoy spending time with.