3/5. Releases November 8.

A duke who needs a mother figure for his three wards--a bug girl who really could use a husband. Sounds like a marriage of convenience!

Some Dukes Have All the Luck is my first Christina Britton, and it was a bit of a rocky one for me. I want to make it clear off the bat--she's a talented writer, and there were parts of this book that made me smile and say "aww" and experience all of the things you should experience when reading a romance. And as a disclaimer ward books are hit or miss for me, as are all books with kids involved. I love the responsibility and the texture they give, but I don't like the kids... as characters. For most books.

But I really liked the sound of the heroine--and she is a super fun heroine, totally the highlight of the book. Bronwyn is charming and funny in a way that isn't over the top, and I just loved that she was a bug girl. It was adorable. She also may have been on the spectrum...? It's not explicit, but that's how I read her.

And of course, her hero, Ash, is smitten with her fairly early but, due to his own emotional trauma, cannot promise her more than their basic agreement (which was initially a chaste marriage, and then quickly turned into "oh well I guess for the two weeks that we live together I WILL fuck you, just for your own health and to satisfy your curiosities, like any good guy would"). To make it clear, Ash's emotional trauma is super legit. I don't want to downplay what he went through.

However, I think that you can write an emotionally stunted hero with trauma who withholds from the heroine without making him withhold from the reader... And this is where I think the book lost me a bit. Ash is very compelling, but I don't think I got a true follow through on everything he promised.

His pros:

--owns a gambling hell, which I loved

--drinks his respect women juice

--was very defensive of Bronwyn to her shitty parents, which I loved

--was clearly turned on by her bug thing, ideal for this girl

Cons:

--I never felt like I knew Ash. I never felt close to him as a reader, so it was difficult for me to believe that Bronwyn got close to him.

--I don't think he ever really actively fucked up enough. To me, a lot of his issues were standard "I can't love" and otherwise he was fairly pleasant, if kind of quiet. This was a part of the greater issue, which is that Ash just didn't have a strong enough personality, especially compared to Bronwyn.

All in all, I wouldn't say the wards were really an issue in this book, though they do make amends with Ash rather quickly. It was really more of a problem with him, and if your hero isn't hitting I think the book can be difficult to stay interested in.

With all of that being said, I reiterate that Christina Britton is a talented writer, and I enjoyed the sex scenes in this book, and the atmosphere, and the general style of it. I'd totally read her again. But I don't know that Ash was the right hero for a reader like me

Thank you to Netgalley and Forever for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I quite enjoyed this romance and how important the children are to the bond between the characters. Also it's fun to see a woman scientist in historical fiction, as such women did exist and were erased from history. Also, in my autistic opinion, the fmc is autistic coded in a good way.