If you’ve ever felt like you had to choose between sapphic romance that’s well-written and sapphic romance that’s actually hot - this book refuses that compromise entirely! Final Score: 5 Stars

What This Book Did Well It’s been hard for me to figure out why this book worked so well for me: the prose is skilled, the pacing is controlled and intentional, and the spice feels earned and well woven into the story. But above all that Kate and Celine are the true standouts because they are each richly drawn on their own. They are both complex, fully formed characters which is what made their intimacy so rich!

Enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope, so I can be an extra tough critic on books that don’t meet my high expectations. This book created an additional challenge for itself by starting off with a bang… literally. But even with the very early attraction, the book was able to hold the tension all the way through for me which is rare!

I don’t want to risk spoilers, so I’m going to keep this short, but what I can say is that this one is one of my new favorite sapphic romances and I am usually not super drawn to historical romance!

Where It Fell Short For Me I didn’t note any real critiques with this book, but I think this would be a good place to put my “confession”. I’m not well versed in this historical period and there is meaningful political maneuvering woven through the plot that I know I didn’t fully absorb on a first read. This is a knowledge gap issue on my end not the book’s fault. However, usually if I notice that I have missed something, I would go back and re-read those parts to make sure I had a good grasp of the political infrastructure - but I was so invested in Kate and Celine that I wanted to keep going.

All this to say - I’m sure this book has flaws, but I was so invested in the story I didn’t pick up on them on a first read at least. If I catch anything on my re-read, I’ll update my review then!

Audiobook Experience Highly recommend! The narrator did a great job with this one! Since this was a giveaway, I don’t know if it was considered an advance copy, but the copy I had left a cough in the audiobook. Not a big deal, but I felt like I should mention it. All other aspects of the audiobook were fantastic!

Final Thoughts, Opinions & Recommendations I’d recommend The Duke enthusiastically to readers who love enemies-to-loves with genuine stakes, who want heat that doesn’t come at the expense of craft, or are drawn to heroines with real moral texture. I’m already looking forward to a re-read of this one and I apologize in advance for how much I am not going to shut up about this book!

My thanks to Storygraph for hosting this book as a giveaway with Macmillan Audio! All opinions are my own.

TL;DR Would I recommend it? Whole-heartedly YES Would I continue reading if it was a series? Also, whole-heartedly YES!

Star Score Breakdown Personal Enjoyment: 5 Overall Execution: 5 Craft & Writing Quality: 5 Character: 5 Plot: 5 Final Score: 5 Stars

I definitely see why people have been recommending this one to me! I requested volume 1 before I even finished this volume! I'm very curious to see where these story lines go.