Sabrina Jeffries: A Duke for Diana

If you love Julia Quinn's Bridgerton, you'll fall head over heels for Sabrina Jeffries!

'Anyone who loves romance must read Sabrina Jeffries!' Lisa Kleypas, New York Times bestselling author

The Designing Debutantes have arrived, and they're taking the ton by storm...

Self-made man Geoffrey Brookhouse has unexpectedly inherited the dukedom of Grenwood, but he's hiding a secret that could ruin his family. With the Season approaching, Geoffrey is desperate to find his sister a respectable husband who can protect her if the worst should happen, but he needs help to orchestrate her debut.

Enter Lady Diana Harper, spirited fashion expert, party planner to the ton, and rather more than Geoffrey bargained for. Finding him overwhelmed by the social requirements, she begins transforming him into something he never thought he'd be: a presentable duke.

Diana doesn't know what to make of the dishevelled and bedevilled duke. He's stubborn and completely unaware of his many faux pas, but there's something rather endearing about his reactions to her teasing.

The real question is: can a man who hates the ton ever fall for a woman whose life revolves around it?

For more dazzlingly romantic and witty historical romance, don't miss Sabrina's other gorgeous series including the Duke Dynasty series, The Sinful Suitors, The Hellions of Halstead Hall, The School for Heiresses and The Royal Brotherhood.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

CW: Suicide, grief, loss of parent, divorce, narc family members

It has been a while since I have read Sabrina Jeffries, or at least reviewed one of her books, but remember her being one of the authors I turned to frequently when I first started reading Regency romance.  She is consistent, delivering that perfect combination of history, romance, and good character development.

A Duke for Diana continues that legacy, with two characters who are carrying trauma from their parents who meet first as client/service provider but quickly realize they can’t fight the instant attraction.  What seems like it might be enemies to lovers is really just a masquerade of insta-love/lust.  There are also touches of Cinderella/Pygmalion with reforming the civil engineer (he curses like a sailor) who has inherited a Dukedom almost against his will.  And a bit of the love lessons trope thrown in at about the midpoint to keep things spicy.

I genuinely liked and understood both MCs and thought they had believable chemistry so that the intimate scenes were pretty hot if more of the vanilla variety.  I have given this book some flames both for on the page intimacy (several scenes) and a lot of the mature content (see CW) for which I think a reader should be prepared, even if they are handled with a skillful touch.

There are no villains, misunderstandings, or melodrama and the central conflict is really both the MCs being reluctant to marry, for their own reasons.

I enjoyed both the aristocratic MCs having day jobs, which is unusual.  The Elegant Occasions company is probably a bit of a historic stretch, but as this book feels Victorian (I don’t remember seeing a date), I think it works.

The supporting characters (including the sisters who will likely have their own books) were delightful and any setups for the series were very subtle.  Although we learn of some toxic family members, most of the on the page time is spent with fairly supportive, lovely humans so I rate this a pretty low angst book, even though it touches on some difficult topics.

I would recommend this for readers looking for a low angst book that focuses on internal conflict, and a nice pairing of aristocratic, yet working MCs who have ambition, dreams, and a lot of fun with love/romance.