*For my personal thoughts on A Lady for a Duke check out my review of the book.
““Damn the world. The world told you that you had to live the life it shaped for you, and you defied it. The world told me that I had to be as my father was, and I defied it, or am trying to. We can make our own world, Viola, with our own rules.””
Author: Alexis Hall
Title: A Lady for a Duke
Category/Type: Adult Fiction
Genre: Romance
Subgenre: Regency / Historical
Publication Date: May 24, 2022
Number of Pages: 449 pages of story text; includes Content Guidance, Acknowledgements, and a Reading Group Guide
Geographical Setting: British countryside and London
Time Period: Regency
Series (if applicable): This book is not part of a series
Plot Summary: Alexis Hall strikes again with a delightful, fun, and sexy tale that challenges the conventions of Regency romance stories.
Thought to be dead after the battle of Waterloo, Viola Carroll is finally living as her true self and serving as a lady’s companion for her sister-in-law, Lady Marleigh. Viola’s plan to fly under the radar and live a quiet life is disrupted when a concerning letter arrives from the sister of her former best friend, the Duke of Gracewood. Gracewood is not only suffering from the traumas of war, but also can’t move on after the death of his best friend in battle.
Lady Marleigh and Viola rush to help Gracewood recover and bring his sister into society. Shortly after they arrive Gracewood becomes enamored with Viola, the strong, beautiful woman who refuses to back down from his shenanigans. Viola may have reciprocating feelings but she’s vowed to keep her distance so her secrets aren’t revealed. Are Viola and Gracewood willing to lose everything all over again, throwing convention to the wind to have a relationship?
Content warnings (may containt SLIGHT SPOILERS): Discussions of war, trauma, sexism, ableism, suicidal ideation, use of a deadname and pronouns for a trans character (more details about these warnings are listed in the Content Guidance section at the start of the novel)
Subject Headings: Romance - Historical - Regency; Romance - LGBT - Transgender; LGBT - Transgender; Historical - General; Great Britain History Regency, 1811-1820 Fiction
Representation:
Disabled main character
Trans main character
Appeal/Characteristics of Romance Fiction
Emotionally satisfying, happy ending- This book has an endearing “happily ever after” ending.
Characters are vividly, if quickly drawn. Men are powerful, confident, and slightly dangerous, women are strong, bright, and independent- All the characters are vivid and well-developed even if they are quickly sketched. The importance of each character within the story is clear to the reader.
This book offers some challenges to the tradition hero and heroine roles:War has left Gracewood disabled and he is struggling from PTSD. While he strives to be the stereotypical hero and man of the era, he has some limitations.
Viola is bright, strong, and independent but still becoming comfortable with her position as a female. As a trans woman, she has lived experiences that differ from the traditional historic heroine and allow her to aid Gracewood in ways that stereotypical heroines might not be able to.
A misunderstanding between the protagonists followed by a satisfactory resolution of the romantic relationship- The misunderstanding has to do with Viola’s past and, while the challenge does separate the romantic leads, this happens early on and they reunited before the middle of the book. The typical third act misunderstanding involves another character with Viola and Gracewood embarking on a daring rescue attempt. The couple is happy together at the end of the book.
Engaging details of time and place attract readers, and these historical, cultural, and social particulars often frame the stories- The Regency setting is well-developed and described in detail. Social particulars frame the story and conventions of the time challenge Viola to live as she truly wishes and present a struggle for the romantic duo.
Love on all levels- There are many levels of love in the story outside of the main romance. There is the love Viola and Gracewood feel for their siblings as well as the love Viola’s brother feels for his wife. There is also the past friend-love that Marleigh and Gracewood felt for each other which is frequently referenced.
Well-developed and interesting secondary characters- Gracewood’s sister as well as Viola’s brother and sister-in-law are well developed and interesting enough to be impactful to the plot.
3 terms that best describe this book:
Heartfelt
Sexy
Adventurous
Fiction Read-alikes
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics (book 1 in the Feminine Pursuits series) by Olivia Waite- when Lucy Mulcheney is hired to translate an astronomical guide from French to English, she is not thinking about romance but nonetheless finds herself attracted to her new employer and it seems the feelings are mutual. Readers of A Lady for a Duke will likely find this F/F Regency romance appealing.
Peter Darling by Austin Chant - After a decade in the real world Peter Pan, formerly Wendy Darling, has returned to Neverland. Only, it doesn’t seem like anyone needs him. No one is excited to see him… no one except Captain Hook, that is. This trans romance retelling of Peter Pan is likely to be appealing for fans of the trans romance in A Lady for a Duke.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske - Colorful and upbeat Robin Blyth is the new magical liaison for the Prime Minister, though he had to idea magic existed until his first day on the job. Bookish and uptight magician Edwin Courcey is less than thrilled with his new, non-magical co-worker. When Robin is cursed on his way home from work, the two are thrown together on a magical adventure to take down evil forces, an adventure that might reveal that Edwin and Robin have more in common than they first thought.
Though set in Edwardian England, this queer fantasy romance has a similar level of adventure and steaminess, as well as a peek into queer lives in 19th-century England, as A Lady for a Duke.
Non-Fiction Read-alikes
Born Trans: Three Gender Stories from Nineteenth-Century France by Rachel Mesch- though the focus of this book is France and not England, it does explore the lived experiences of trans people in the nineteenth-century. Through the stories of three famous gender-nonconformists, the author details how trans people represented themselves and the challenges they faced in the nineteenth-century.
Jane Austen’s England by Roy and Lesley Adkins - this tome details the true historical details of Regency England. While Austen’s work, as well as Hall’s focuses on the well off, this volume also explores what daily life would have been like across the class spectrum. Readers wanting to know more about the setting of A Lady for a Duke and its source material will find this volume enlightening.
Female Husbands: A Trans Story by Jen Manion- Though the focus is on female to male trans people, this history book looks at trans marriage history from the colonial era through World War I. For readers wanting to better understand queer and trans lives in the past, this is a helpful resource.
Citations
Characteristics of Romance Fiction taken from
Wyatt, N. and Saricks, J. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction. Third edition. ALA Editions.