Not all dukes are created equal. Most are upstanding members of Society. And then there’s the trio known as Their Dis-Graces.Hugh Philemon Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, will never win prizes for virtue. But even he draws the line at running off with his best friend’s bride. All he’s trying to do is recapture the slightly inebriated Lady Olympia Hightower and return her to her intended … her intended bridegroom.
For reasons that elude her, bookish, bespectacled Olympia is supposed to marry a gorgeous rake of a duke. The ton is flabbergasted. Her family’s ecstatic. And Olympia? She’s climbing out of a window, bent on a getaway. But tall, dark, and exasperating Ripley is hot on her trail, determined to bring her back to his friend. For once, the world-famous hellion is trying to do the honorable thing.
So why does Olympia have to make it so deliciously difficult for him . . . ?
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A runaway bride, a charming duke and lively banter. What more could you want from a Regency read? I am convinced Chase is one of my favorite authors in this genre. Such a fun book. Enjoy!
I am a big fan of Loretta Chase’s books, and her new series is FABULOUS!
Hugh Ancaster, the Duke of Ripley, one of a trio of dukes referred to as the “Dis-Graces” has just returned from a year abroad and has already found trouble. Nothing new for the Dis-Graces, but not what he was expecting on his first day back.
His friend Lucius Beckingham, the Duke of Ashmont is getting married – tomorrow and has demanded that Ripley makes sure everything goes off without a hitch. So when Ripley finds the bride to me making a run for it, he has no choice but to follow her.
Lady Olympia Hightower, bride to be and voted the ton’s “most boring” seven years straight is having second thoughts, empowered by brandy, she decides to get some air, in the park, in the rain, while wearing her wedding gown. After climbing out the library window and running through the garden, she is confronted by Ripley and demands that he boost her over the wall.
Ripley, never one to turn down an adventure or a chance to pull a prank, agrees to help Olympia run. He thinks he can convince her to return to her groom or at the very least, deposit her with a female relative and have Ashmont retrieve her.
What ensues is a very amusing road trip, involving dips in the Thames, dogs, kisses, two more dukes chasing them (one of which is slightly drunk), more kisses, twisted ankles, a hero trying to do the right thing and a bride who wants the wrong right one, interfering relatives, a matter of honor and more kisses.
This book is well written, with non-stop action from the first to the last page, laugh out loud moments, steamy moments and a truly beautiful love story.
I loved this story and highly recommend the book, it has been much too long since I read a Loretta Chase book and now I can’t wait for Blackwood & Ashmont’s stories!!!
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC provided to me by Edelweiss and the publisher*
Wow! Loved the characters and the romance!
A Duke in Shining Armor (Difficult Dukes #1) by Loretta Chase – I won the second book, so I bought the first book because it was Loretta Chase and I’ve never not liked a book I read by her. I was thinking this was a safe bet! I didn’t like the leading man (didn’t really like the one in the next book either). I liked the leading lady to a point. It did make me laugh in a comedy of errors with drunks kinda way! I was a bit let down honestly by the plot it just needed…more. Still well written, just not quite what I expected! Happy Reading!!
I received an ARC of the second book in this series and when I noticed that the hero of that book is the jilted fiancé in this book, I decided to read it first. I am so glad I did because I got to see what happened with Ashmont. I thought the banter was witty and the road trip was cute and exciting. The story takes place in about 4 days and whew was it a whirlwind. This story was fun and entertaining. After the second book, I look forward to the Blackwoods story.
I recently read “Ten Things I hate About the Duke” and didn’t realize it was the second book in the series. I was curious what had happened with Ripley and Lady Olympia and bought this book. What a fun read. I loved Ripley. He was always trying to do the honorable thing and things just got more and more complicated. Ms. Chase reveals Olympia’s personality a little at a time keeping the reader engaged from the opening page to the last. I can’t wait to read Blackwood and Alice’s story next.
Loretta Chase is a treasure, and this book is a delight. The twists and turns are impossible to predict, and the characters are perfect, as usual. Read this one now to get ready for the sequel coming soon.
Difficult Dukes series by Loretta Chase is about three best friends from childhood who inherit their dukedoms at the young age, the infamous trio of rakes known as Their Dis-Graces . This first book is about the Duke of Ripley and Lady Olympia Hightower, who happens to be his best friend’s bride-to-be … Oh the dilemma…
Olympia agrees to marry the Duke of Ashmont to rescue her family from their dwindling fortune. Voted the Most Boring Girl of the Season for 7 seasons, at the age of 26, she’s not really the most sought-after bride of the ton . She’s bookish, bespectacled, easily carried away talking about her own system of organizing books … On the day of her wedding to Ashmont, with much brandy in her system, she ran away, leading both Ripley and Ashmont on a chase …
Ripley is assigned to take care of the details for Ashmont’s wedding. Little does he expect that would include taking care of his bride on her escape and being her knight in shining armor . Honor demands him to take her to a respectable matron, but one event after another makes him realize she’s not the wallflower everyone thinks her to be. But then honor also demands him to return her to Ashmont, while his feelings and regards for her become all-consuming…
True to her style, Ms Chase delivers another fun and wild adventure that made me LOL , with excellent banters between the main characters: a fierce, practical, and strong-headed heroine, and a typical proud and sometime silly hero … I just wish the romance elements were stronger, and their chemistry more sparking … Nonetheless, I did enjoy their craziness and their sweet HEA! I’m fortunate to score the ARC for the 2nd book, which is coming out early December , and I’m looking forward to seeing Ashmont finally get his HEA .
4.5 read for me!
The incomparable Loretta Chase does it again in this first installment of her Disreputable Dukes. I’ve loved her work since her first classic Regencies–her wit, her unexpected situations, her always drool-worthy heroes and heroines with intelligence, determination, and panache. If only she wrote faster!
My second read by Loretta Chase and it was like the first one, a must-read.
A very different blurb from Dukes prefer Blondes, it was a road trip story and the action takes place during a short lapse of time.
Most of the book was the battle of wits between the h and the H with some insights from the other parties.
“Didn’t you tell me you were a damsel in distress?” he said. “I’m your knight in shining armor.”
This story of a tipsy run-away bride-to-be kidnapping in her tail a rakish Duke was full of humous, hilarious with some Laughing out loud moments but not only, their funny banters is what shaped this book is a so very enjoyable read.
“Her eyebrows went up. “It makes for a change,” he said. “I should not call it a change,” she said. “In your case I should call it . . .” Her eyebrows settled again and a glint of humor lit her eyes. “An apocalypse.”
“You kissed first,” he said. “On the cheek!” “On the cheek, on the lips. All the same to me. Female, kiss. Male, excited. Do I have to explain simple facts of life to you?”
It was also a rollercoaster ride of the emotions, during the four days of their journey, they grew up, matured to sort out who they really were.
Olympia always played the good girl, she felt out of place but she tried not to rock the boat until her wedding day. She thought that marrying a Duke will solve all her family problems, she thought she would have no problems to chose this path if it means securing her brothers future.
Until some brandy gave her second thoughts, and here she is on the road with a Duke, not her betrothed, assisting her in her flight.
“She’d called herself a damsel in distress, but she wasn’t. Damsels in distress were always virtuous ladies in trouble through no fault of their own. She was in trouble she’d made for herself. No dragons. No evil sorcerers. No stage villains twirling their mustaches. No heartless parents or stepparents.”
During her short time with Ripley, she realizes there is so much more to live than spending her time in a library. He makes her wish for more.
“she understood she’d waited years for him, without hope because she hadn’t dared to understand herself. She’d made herself what she ought to be, and it was like a dress that didn’t fit.”
Ripley, one of the three Dis-Graces, Dukes well known for their improper behaviors, walking on the thin line of scandals, always ready to launch themselves in any unlikely circumstances and hoaxes. Why following the runaway bride of his best-friend was at first more a joke to have some fun on the back of his friend Ashmont. But soon the prank turned sour when he began to comprehend Olympia was meant to be his.
“He saw her, and that was all he really saw: the daring girl who’d led him a wild chase . . . the girl he’d raced with in his invalid chair . . . the girl he’d wheeled after through the park of Camberley Place . . . and made love to, madly and stupidly, in his favorite place in the world.”
But how could he betray his friend?
While Olympia wonder how she can undo the mess in which she is now, fleeing from one man with another one, she begins to care too much for.
Together, they will have to sort out and face the consequences of their growing attraction and the path they will choose.
“Yes, well, you’re not a good girl,” he said. She sucked in her breath. “Good girls don’t get drunk and run away on their wedding day,” he went on. “Good girls don’t take off their clothes in front of wicked men. Good girls don’t taunt those men into tumbling them. Good girls don’t make the men wish they’d thought to do it years ago. Good girls are boring. You won the awards for boring because you were trying to be a good girl. You’re not. You’re a bad girl, and if you’d been a boy, you might have been one of my best friends. I’m glad you’re not a girl.”
My only querying is why Ripley left on one year abroad as I do suppose the next books will be about his two friends, I’m very curious of how Ashmont will redeem his way and what about Blackwood’s marriage.
I especially liked the humor in this book, but I found that it took me longer to read than other books I have read. I’m glad that I stuck with it,because I really liked this author’s work. I can’t wait to see if there is a sequel, plus I would really like to see a sequel where Ashmont dries out and finds true love, not necessarily in that order.
A fun page-turner! I love characters that are human such as Olympia, a very practical lady, getting a little tipsy before her wedding. And Ripley, a playful scoundrel, who’s honorable side is reluctantly pulled out of him in order to protect Olympia’s reputation! Their dialogue was humorous and their path full of surprising twists that kept me entertained and turning the pages to see what would happen next! I can’t wait for the next in the series of Difficult Dukes!
When I see a book by Loretta Chase, I know that it will be a story worth reading.
Lady Olympia Hightower is twenty-six years old and in her seven seasons has not managed to become betrothed. Image her surprise when she receives an offer from the young, wealthy and utterly gorgeous Duke of Ashmont? Her parents are almost desperate for funds to support her brothers and Olympia being the practice sort, accepts him. What she comes to find out is that Ashmont is a wastrel of the worst sort and hangs out with several gentlemen of the same ilk. On the day of her wedding, the groom is totally inebriated and Olympia decides she has to escape. Climbing out of a window, she is followed by Hugh Ancaster, the Duke of Ripley who is a friend of the Ashmont’s and has been tasked with standing up as his best man. What follows is a whirlwind journey with Hugh, at first trying to get Olympia back to the wedding. But as fate often has different ideas, an attraction begins between the two. Of course there is a lot of adventure and many entertaining moments that will keep you turning the pages!
You will love this book as I did and will be looking forward to the next in the series!
It’s Loretta, once again at her entertaining best. I particularly enjoyed reading as both characters evolved and realized their potential – he maturing, she, blossoming. They were truly meant for each other.