The Worst Duke in London

I’ve been enjoying Amalie Howard‘s Taming of the Dukes series and was excited for Effie’s love story in the third installment, The Worst Duke in London.

More concerned with her animal shelter than with finding a husband (especially after becoming an outcast during her first season), Lady Evangeline Raine has sworn off the whole marriage mart and doesn’t want to partake in yet another season. But her younger sister desperately wants to get her own chance at finding a husband, and Effie must serve as her chaperone. Meanwhile, Gage Croft, the new Duke of Vale, has inherited his late brother’s debts. When the odious Huntington makes him an odd offer in exchange for cancelling his final debt, Gage has little choice but to accept. But this sets him off on the wrong foot with Effie, who knows nothing of the secret deal. She just wants a chance to learn about the pleasures of the body with Gage, no strings attached…

Tropes & Narrative Devices:

• The Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You retelling
• Sex lessons
• Open-door romance
• Dual third-person narration (Evangeline and Gage)

What I Liked:

• Effie marches to the beat of her own drum. She’s a bit of an outcast after being the victim of Huntington’s bullying a few years earlier, and she’s learned to embrace it. She’s opinionated and free-spirited, and she’s not afraid to stand up for herself and others. Effie is so much feistier than I remembered her being in the first two books! She can come on too strong sometimes, but I like that she’s comfortable in her own skin.
• Effie’s animal shelter. As an animal lover myself, one of my favorite things about Effie is that she rescues and rehabilitates abandoned, lost, and injured animals. Not just cats and dogs, but foxes, owls, rats, and more. It’s unusual for the Victorian era, and especially for a Lady like herself, which makes her all the braver for it.
• Gage is a genuine and good person. Sure, he is more or less forced to accept a shady deal from Huntington, but he doesn’t really act on it or do anything bad. He’s kind, considerate, and helpful—all qualities I like to see in a main character.
• Sister relationship between Effie and Viola. At first Viola comes across as selfish and naive, but her arc is great to see! I like how Effie does her best to support Viola yet also steer her in a better direction. That’s what sisters are for, even with the arguments and gentle teasing.
• I almost threw my Kindle across the room when Huntington was first introduced! Thank goodness he’s NOT the love interest here, because he is truly awful. He only gets worse as the book progresses! Bullying, shady deals and blackmail, cheating, and more… he’s something else. I loved seeing his slow, deserved downfall.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• Effie seemed too antagonistic towards Gage at the beginning. He didn’t do almost anything wrong? Not enough to warrant hating him, at any rate.

Final Thoughts

The Worst Duke in London is a sex-forward and sex-positive romance between two unlikely characters. I enjoyed watching Effie and Gage get to know each other and unravel their misconceptions of one another. They’re ultimately a cute pair.

There will be a fourth book in the Taming of the Dukes series, and there was plenty of setup for it here. Bring on Lushing and Briar! I’ve been waiting for their love story and look forward to finally reading it!

I also have and ARC of Amalie Howard’s forthcoming romantasy novel, Starlight Heir, due in January 2025. Look out for my review of that soon!

Special thanks to Forever and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Worst Duke in London here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Title by Author
Series	The Taming of the Dukes (#3)
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Romance
Setting	England
Number of Pages	384
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	September 24, 2024
Publisher	Forever

Official Summary

Bridgerton meets 10 Things I Hate About You in this spicy enemies-to-lovers Victorian romance from a “must-read author” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Lady Evangeline Raine prefers animals to people and has no interest in marriage­–much to the dismay of her flirty younger sister, Viola. Because their father has one rule: Viola may be courted, only if Effie has a suitor as well.

Saddled with debt, Gage Croft, Duke of Vale, is determined to rebuild his estates. When the owner of his vowels offers him a fortune to charm the impervious Lady Evangeline for the season so Lady Viola can be courted, the game is on, even if it means pretending to seduce an unconventional wallflower.

But Gage gets much more than he bargains for in an adversary who wants to make her own scandalous arrangement. Effie will go to London for the season, but only if Gage agrees to be her lover. Yet when their fake courtship leads to passionate feelings, will their indecent proposal end with the season or be the start of something real?