Review: Ten Things I Hate About the Duke

Ten Things I Hate About the Duke by Loretta Chase
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Victorian re-imagining of The Taming of the Shrew.

Cassandra Pomfret is an ardent feminist and follower of the works of Mary Wollenscraft, the daughter of a Member of Parliament she has strong views and has spoken up, against male speakers, at various public events. Her latest outburst has so incensed her father that he has threatened to send her younger sister home to the country, foregoing her London season, if. Cassandra doesn't curb her tongue.

Lucius Beckinham, sixth Duke of Ashmont, and his friends live a life of dissolution (drinking, gambling etc) and excel at practical jokes such as smuggling a goat into the snootiest ball and letting it loose. Apparently in the first book in this series Ashmont's fiance ran off with one of his best friends which led to a duel.

Cassandra and Lucius knew each other as children, albeit Lucius was much older than Cassandra, and she hero-worshipped him, perhaps even loved him, for years, until his ridiculous behaviour and lack of moral fibre turned her love into disgust.

Lucius and Cassandra encounter each other again when Lucius fires a gun to disperse a fight which spooks Cassandra's carriage horses and causes an accident. Stuck alone in a country inn, with no chaperone and forced to stay and look after her groom, Cassandra will be ruined. But she would rather be ruined than marry a waste of space like Lucius.

Lucius is impressed by Cassandra's spit and fire, even if it is directed at him. He soon comes to realise that she is unfairly denigrated for speaking her mind, just because she's a woman, called names like Medusa and Gorgon just because she doesn't suffer fools. The more he sees of her, the more he comes to admire, but can he make himself someone she could love?

I enjoyed reading this at the time but I must confess the story has been done and redone so many times it is difficult for an author to bring something new to the story and a week after reading the book I struggled to distinguish this from another historical romance I read in the same period.

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