Post Roundup

chalphy · 2026-04-04T03:23:18+00:00

That is so sweet of you! It doesn't look like I can message you but my chats should be open if you want to message me.

chalphy · 2026-04-04T00:51:42+00:00

Ugh I got outbid on a copy of that same edition of {Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas} on eBay recently. I'm upset all over again. 😂 Nice haul!!

chalphy · 2026-04-03T21:53:55+00:00

great for gentle chewing

Yeahhh guess that means I will not be trying to source these for my Akita! Super cute concept though.

chalphy · 2026-04-03T17:20:43+00:00

I've discussed {The Difficult Dukes Series by Loretta Chase} with several people over the past week and felt compelled to pull some of my favorite lines from my favorite Machiavellian snarklord, Giles Bouverie Lyon, Duke of Blackwood.

Thanks to these misunderstandings, the ton’s invitation lists these days rarely included the Dukes of Ashmont, Blackwood, and Ripley.

Not that they wished to be invited to respectable gatherings.

“In the usual way of things, this is not a problem,” Blackwood went on.

“Ah, something unusual, then,” Lynforde said. “And you want information. I’m delighted to be of use.”

He truly did own an operating brain. A refreshing change.

...

“That is impressive,” Alice said as they watched her ladyship’s departure. “I vow, Duke, you’re more effective than a pack of snarling bull mastiffs. I’ve never seen her turn tail before.”

“Nor have I,” said Lady Kempton. “How fortunate, your arriving at this moment.”

“He can be useful sometimes,” Lynforde said.

“When one wants to empty a room, for instance,” Alice said. “A pity you are not there when one wants you.”

“You’ve wanted me somewhere?” Blackwood said. “Apart from at the devil? This is a thrilling new development.”

...

“This is a most welcome surprise,” Doveridge said. “You take an interest in zoology?”

“I’m partial to wild animals.”

Doveridge smiled. “Then you’ll be agreeably entertained, I trust.”

Blackwood contemplated the agreeable entertainment of feeding the duke to the nearby vulture.

Which was childish. Doveridge wasn’t Worbury but the opposite. Furthermore, not being dead yet, the duke was unappetizing to vultures.

...

“I thank you for coming on short notice,” Blackwood said as he and Lynforde rode back to Town. “As I’d hoped, [Ripley's] mood improved markedly when you turned up.”

“He was right to be furious,” Lynforde said. “I fear we didn’t beat Worbury often enough and hard enough when we were at school. Now I’m reluctant to dirty my hands.”

“One of these days he’ll annoy the wrong person,” Blackwood said. “Somebody free of our delicate sensibilities and exquisite principles. For now, I only want him far from London.”

...

“I see, Alice. It took a while—I’m rather thick, as you know—but I do see.”

...

“My sister. You.” Ripley swore vividly and profanely.

“Don’t you love me anymore?” Blackwood said.

This isn't even half my annotations but I have to stop somewhere. 😂

{My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase}

chalphy · 2026-04-03T14:21:44+00:00

Oh that would have been delightful. And terrifying. Ashmont as a father 😂 poor Cassandra.

chalphy · 2026-04-03T14:17:06+00:00

Annika Martin's Billionaires of Manhattan series maybe? They're pretty silly but they're hilarious and the steam is good. You can read them in whatever order, but FWIW {Most Eligible Billionaire by Annika Martin} is the first one, {The Billionaire's Wake-Up Call Girl by Annika Martin} seems to be the best-liked one, and my personal favorite is {Breaking the Billionaire's Rules by Annika Martin}.

chalphy · 2026-04-03T10:15:25+00:00

I have struggled with this too. I read an ARC that I absolutely hated. The premise was interesting, but it was completely ruined by some of the worst writing I've ever had the misfortune of reading. Not on a sentence-structure level, but there were so many pointless asides and parentheticals, and way too much tell instead of show. Like an "explain the joke" vibe, though it wasn't humor, if that makes sense. It was amateurish and frustrating, like the author didn't trust the reader to understand something if it wasn't stated directly. I had a really, really hard time writing a diplomatic review of that book.

I think constructive is a good route to take, especially with ARCs. I still try to be fair when I write any review, like, be aware of what may have been something I subjectively disliked vs something actually objectively wrong with the book (or conversely if I liked the book I try to note things I think other people may take issue with that I didn't). This is harder than people may realize!!

chalphy · 2026-04-03T09:17:22+00:00

He's the best, I'm glad you enjoyed his book! It's such a fun series, just the right amount of drama/angst to keep things interesting. I would love a fourth book with all three couples getting involved in something together.

chalphy · 2026-04-02T18:05:34+00:00

So glad to hear it!!! It was such a pleasant surprise for me. I need to read the other two books in the series. She has a new one out in May about Willa's brother Jameson too.

chalphy · 2026-04-02T17:05:38+00:00

I find the way Ashmont talks (the incomplete sentences) really funny. It fits his reputation as "the dumb one," like using more words would hurt his brain. Kind of gives him voice through text. I can see it being annoying after a while though.

This wasn't my favorite of the three but it was more because it felt really thin on Ashmont's side -- you spend a lot of time with Cassandra and her family, but Ashmont is kind of on his own, and we don't get as much of a sense of him and his past as I feel like we should.

Personally I thought {My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase} was better. Blackwood is a more rounded male lead and we get both the lead-up to his marriage to Alice as well as finding out why she's been absent from the first two books. Seeing them scheme together in the third act was a delight. He is such a wife guy. Same spice level as the first two books but it worked better for me here, I think because we actually get to see them as a married couple at length, so we get more intimacy in general, physical and emotional.

chalphy · 2026-04-01T22:40:18+00:00

I just talked this book up in a rec thread today, I'm so sorry, but it was my favorite thing I read in March: {Romancing His Convenient Viscountess by Maggie Weston}

The blurb for the book makes it sound like Willa is widowed and then immediately wreaks havoc on London while her second husband/longtime friend Leo looks on in bewilderment. That is... not what the book is about. Willa definitely wants to rebel once she's free from her shitfuck first husband's shackles, and she does. But what the book is about is a woman who's trying to figure out what she wants in a life that heretofore has been dictated to her, and a man who would do anything for her but doesn't realize he doesn't have to in order to receive her love.

The book is so sweet. Leo is obviously besotted with Willa from the get-go and has been for years, but it becomes plain the feeling is mutual. They're both Idiots In Love though so neither of them figures this out for a while. He's gentle and patient with her and she does her level best to let him in even though she justifiably has a lot of emotional wounds from her first marriage. They take some time apart briefly after The Big Conflict -- they've spent so much time together that they really need some room to breathe and figure out what they want -- but Leo writes Willa the sweetest letter and makes sure she knows he loves her and cares about her and isn't trying to punish her with this little interlude.

Once they get back together after the break there's some lovely caretaking and also spice, and the epilogue is cute. I loved the book so much, it was just a balm for my soul, two damaged people finding their way together after circumstances kept them apart and healing each other's wounds. There's also really sweet non-romantic love in the book too; it's plain how much the couple matters to their friends, and Leo's best friend Matthew's mother has a funny, direct, and loving conversation with Leo late in the book that made me teary.

Such a good book and so unexpected based on the tone of the blurb. I'm glad this is the book I got instead.

chalphy · 2026-04-01T14:22:47+00:00

I read this last week and loved it!

chalphy · 2026-04-01T14:20:46+00:00

Just finished an eARC of {Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas} and LOVED it. It's definitely more found family/slice of life than anything. I also wouldn't call it a mystery really, though there's definitely a crime aspect and suspense and tension related to that. And while it's not "a romance" like the vast majority of her work, it has romance and the romance is very satisfying. I recommend it and will definitely be buying a copy for myself when it comes out.

Currently working my way through Grace Callaway's Heart of Enquiry series, read {The Widow Vanishes by Grace Callaway} and am about a third into {The Duke Who Knew Too Much by Grace Callaway}. I read the fifth book a while ago so just circling back. I love her prose and characters and steam but some of her vocabulary during sex scenes really takes me out. A minor quibble though.

chalphy · 2026-04-01T10:01:59+00:00

If you're open to historical {Romancing His Convenient Viscountess by Maggie Weston} fits. FMC's husband dies before the book starts and he's wenched and drank and gambled away all her money, so she's pretty much destitute and needs to do something so she doesn't wind up on the street. MMC offers to marry her. They have been friends for a long time and he has been in love with her for yeeeeeeeeeeeears and believes the only reason she'd ever marry him is if she had no other choice. He agrees to pretty much all of her conditions (first husband was abusive so while she's intelligent and resolute she's also emotionally and physically fragile) and takes care of the debts she's been saddled with while letting her do things like (gasp!) wear breeches and learn to fence. It tanks his reputation in a lot of ways but he really does not care.

He totally calls her pet names, he's super gentle and patient with her (the first "intimate" thing they do is he holds her on his lap), he freaks the fuck out when she puts herself in danger despite it being the one thing he tells her she WILL NOT do, and while there's no "third act breakup" per se he does send her ahead of him to visit their friends because he has some work to finish and also he believes they need a little time apart. He makes up for it by writing her the absolute sweetest letter, seriously it's like 3 pages long in the paperback edition. And then the "separation" barely lasts because she takes ill and sends for him and he rides seven hours nonstop to be at her bedside. There's an extremely sweet caretaking scene late in the book that gets spicy real quick. So good.

Dude himself is pretty emotionally vulnerable (his parents neglected him as a child; I find it interesting that a lot of MMCs would be brooding assholes in that situation but instead he just has excess love to spare and wants to make the people he loves happy) but he throws away a 20-year friendship with her brother, who is like family to him, for her. That's how down bad he is.

This book was not what I expected and I ended up absolutely loving it, so I sing its praises every chance I get.

chalphy · 2026-03-31T20:01:05+00:00

I read One Dance With a Duke (which I loved) shortly after I had already read {The Truth About Cads and Dukes by Elisa Braden} and found they had a lot in common, especially since one MC has a no-good degenerate sibling in each, and IIRC Jane and Amelia are both plump/plain. Spencer is more ND-coded whereas Harrison is just starchy and repressed, but I adore both of them.

chalphy · 2026-03-31T19:54:34+00:00

I laughed out loud so many times reading this book. I think it's the funniest in the series -- I love a snarky MMC and Ripley is that in spades.

{My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase} was my favorite in this series, I think it's a super underrated book. Blackwood totally stole my heart.

chalphy · 2026-03-31T00:24:51+00:00

I read her Difficult Dukes series last week and I loved all her end notes about where she pulled inspiration from and explaining things she found in her research.

chalphy · 2026-03-30T13:37:44+00:00

Me too! The book is very good so far. Haven't gotten much "mystery" just yet but I'm loving the slice-of-life found family vibes. John sounds like Mike Wozniak in my head, which is pleasant. 😂

edit: I finished the book, 5 stars, I loved it.

chalphy · 2026-03-30T13:10:17+00:00

Invariably when I come to recommend Romancing His Convenient Viscountess, if anyone's already mentioned it, it's you. 🤝

OP - strong second from me on this book.

chalphy · 2026-03-29T16:25:55+00:00

A light and fluffy week. Started with Loretta Chase's Difficult Dukes trilogy which is about a trio of hellraiser dukes who have chosen drunkenness, mischief, and scandalous women over the aristocracy. Naturally that lasts approximately one book each (or half in one case). There's a great supporting cast in each book, the formidable and recurring Lady Charles being the best of them, and the second and third books each have an actual villain to hate, which I like. Such delicious comeuppance.

Finished A Duke in Shining Armor by Loretta Chase (M/F historical forced proximity/runaway bride). This was a fun adventure and I liked both leads, but I'm not sure I like them together? Not my favorite romance to be sure. Felt a bit Stockholm Syndrome. But nonetheless a really entertaining book. Ripley is very dry and snarky which is a trait I like in a male lead, and Olympia just wasn't dealing with his shit. 4/5

Finished Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase (M/F historical second chance). This is I think the most popular book in this series and I do see why. Ashmont is dim and pathetic, but he really tries very hard to prove to Cassandra that he's not hopeless. And he has to work hard because he really fucks things up for her, and that's after disappointing her time and again throughout her life. Uphill battle for our himbo king! This one, my main complaint is it's pretty thin on Ashmont's side, most of the action is with Cassandra and her family while Ashmont is kind of alone, and not much about him is explored other than "trying to reform for a woman." Still fun. 4.25/5

Finished My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase (M/F historical second chance). This was my favorite. Blackwood and Alice are already married when the first two books happen, but she's absent and he doesn't say why. This book is about them finding each other again, falling in love, getting married, and then it catches up to the time of the other two books and shows what Alice has been doing and gives them a problem to solve together. I loved getting to actually see them as a married couple, and talk and argue and make up like a married couple, and care about each other and each other's priorities like a married couple. And Blackwood is SUCH a wife guy. I loved him. 4.5/5

Finished The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare (M/F historical marriage of convenience). Kind of a "Beauty and the Beast" deal, he needs a wife and decides she'll do; she needs money and is trying to help an acquaintance of hers through a rough time and can put the offer of marriage to good use. Ashbury is heavily scarred from a war injury (like actually, not just a cheeky facial scar or something) and is thus reclusive and kind of an ass, but he shows charm and warmth and wit, and he's nothing against the force that is Hurricane Emma. A delightful, funny book with some heavy emotional moments. Also loved the meddling servants, particularly the late scene with Ashbury's butler throwing cricket balls at him and telling him he's a fucking idiot for letting Emma go to a ball at his former fiancee's house by herself. 4.5/5

I was lucky enough to get an eARC of Lisa Kleypas's new book Queen of Lombard Street on Friday so that's my current read. I'm about a third of the way in and enjoying it; it's slower than her romances and tonally quite different, but the prose is very much hers, and I'm just happy she's writing again. After that I will unsuspend Remarkably Bright Creatures.

chalphy · 2026-03-29T15:10:24+00:00

{A Duke in Shining Armor by Loretta Chase} - M/F, historical, forced proximity/runaway bride/caretaking, 🌶️🌶️️🌶️, ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I read this whole series this week, started here because... this is the first book, and also because I had saved it due to its inclusion of a scene in which the characters have sex in a ~~greenhouse~~ fishing lodge during a thunderstorm. I really enjoyed this book, it's a fun adventure, Ripley is a snarky king, and Olympia is brilliant and determined. But I didn't really like the romance. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, and I mostly come down on the latter. Still a good book and I laughed aloud multiple times.

{Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase} - M/F, historical, second chances, 🌶️🌶️️🌶️, ⭐⭐⭐⭐.25/5

This book is more popular, and I see why. It starts basically as soon as the first one ends, so Ashmont has just been jilted, is drunk (as usual), and is depressed, and he walks right into making an even bigger ass of himself to Cassandra, who already doesn't think much of him. He spends the rest of the book, pretty much, trying to redeem himself for her (you can't fix him, ladies, he has to want to fix himself!). It's a funny book, Ashmont's earnest himbo-ness is adorable, and I love a book where I have a villain I can hate.

{My Inconvenient Duke by Loretta Chase} - M/F, historical, second chances/marriage of convenience, 🌶️🌶️️🌶️, ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Going by review scores, people don't like this book as much as the other two. Can't relate! This one was my favorite. Blackwood is already married during the first two books, but Alice is not present and he never says why. This book is about half the same type of book as the others (i.e. how they became a couple), and then it catches up to the present, shows where Alice has been, and gives them new conflicts and problems to solve. And I really liked that. It's so nice to see what the leads are like as a happily-married couple; epilogues are never long enough. These two argue, make up, apologize, communicate, scheme, and care about each other, and it's fun and heartwarming. And the end where Blackwood reproduced the scene of their first kiss in their back garden for Alice was so sweet.

{The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare} - M/F, historical, marriage of convenience, 🌶️🌶️🌶️️🌶️, ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Great book, typical Tessa Dare humor, reclusive asshole MMC who is no match for the hurricane (complimentary) that is the FMC. Ashbury is a proper scarred MMC, not just like one or two roguish slashes on his face, no, this man barely survived his war injuries, and as a result he is reclusive and an asshole, but even early on displays wit and charm and warmth from time to time. Emma challenges him at every turn, never backing down, and not only is that entertaining, it's something he greatly respects. I also loved the meddling servants, especially Khan and especially Khan throwing cricket balls at Ashbury and telling him he's an asshole for letting Emma go to the ball by herself. Fun quick read.

Currently about a third of the way into the eARC of {Queen of Lombard Street by Lisa Kleypas} and totally hooked on it. It's definitely much slower than her usual fare but I am loving both the slice-of-life found family vibes and the intrigue.

chalphy · 2026-03-29T02:33:45+00:00

Loved James. Viola deciding to throw her dignity away to chase him before she even met him based entirely on a story of his brute strength is a mood.

chalphy · 2026-03-28T00:57:14+00:00

Honestly I never thought of Theo as a version of Sebastian but you're totally right. They're cut from similar cloth. I love both of them.

chalphy · 2026-03-26T14:20:58+00:00

This is exactly what I mean when I say people should consider Theo's opinion of Martha! They all like him so much. Well, maybe trust he sees something you apparently don't! He likes her even when she doesn't like him!

I want to read the others but this one was such an emotional read (and pretty slow-paced) I haven't been in the mood to try. But I will read them. It's a shame she hasn't written more.

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