Grace Callaway: Regarding the Duke

For the eight years of their marriage, sweet, innocent Gabriella Garrity has adored her powerful and darkly handsome husband Adam, whose moneylending empire has earned him the moniker of Duke of the City. Her domestic bliss is shattered when Adam suffers a traumatic accident that results in amnesia. Gabby dedicates herself to nursing him back to health…until devastating revelations destroy her illusions about their marriage.

From the moment he met beautiful redheaded Gabriella, Adam knew that she would make him the perfect wife. Guileless, biddable, and sweetly unaware of her own charms, she also holds the key to his secret plot for vengeance. A self-made man who rose from the darkest streets of London, he values control above all and will stop at nothing to gain his justice—until an accident robs him of his memory. As he fights to remember his past, he comes to a stunning realization: whoever he is, he is passionately in love with his own wife.

One by one, dark secrets emerge from Adam’s past as well as Gabby’s. The lovers struggle to steer a relationship gone off course…only to discover steamy marital adventures they never expected to find. All the while, a deadly villain lies in wait. Will husband and wife find the courage to trust one another and their love…before time runs out?

CW: Parental death, parental abandonment, parental abuse, child abuse, fatphobia, amnesia, some violence, sub/dom themes

A reader recommended I check out Grace Callaway, and I am so glad they did.  I am hooked!

This very early Victorian/late Regency novel is part three of a series (Game of Dukes) but worked really well as a standalone. Its a new spin on the amnesia trope that worked really well for me, as it transforms an emotionally unavailable husband into one that opens up (intimately in every sense of the word) and helps also transform his wife. There are some sub/dom elements that are subtle, and as I am not much of an expert in that world I am probably not correctly categorising it but if it something you are interested in exploring, this might be a good match.

The subject matter is mature with a lot of possible triggers (see content warning), as well as spicy leaning intimate scenes, and some violence. This is best for readers looking for steam and spice and okay to grapple with difficult topics that are handled well.

I found this a really easy, engaging read that was refreshing in its take on some old tropes and I thought deftly explored all the ways our past traumas and our dumb brains keep us from loving fully–and that open hearted loving is the best HEA.

Some of the dialogue wasn’t quite there for me in terms of keeping me in the history, but other historical elements were well-researched and engaging.

I would recommend this for readers interested in picking up something slightly different, and who love a wallflower/bad boy combo. I am looking forward to skipping on to the next book in the series.  And I probably would read again (although judging from my TBR pile, I am not a loss for new reads).