Review: Duke with a Reputation (Wicked Dukes Society #1) by Scarlett Scott

        

Print Length:  320 pages

Publisher: Happily Ever After Books, LLC (December 19, 2024)

From Goodreads.com: The Duke of Brandon is London’s most infamous rake. But his world crashes to a decided halt when the sins of his past come back to haunt him in the form of one small she-devil of a child who has green eyes just like his. To make matters worse, his disapproving grandmother has decided that he must marry or forfeit his inheritance.

Now, he has no choice but to raise a daughter, find a wife, and keep his harridan grandmother from discovering his sordid secrets as the founder of the Wicked Dukes Society. So when the tempting, fiery-haired Countess of Grenfell propositions him, he offers her something else instead—a marriage of convenience.

Lottie, Countess of Grenfell, is London’s most notorious widow. Her doomed, one-sided marriage left her with a broken heart and a determination to never wed again. What she wants is simple—passion, independence, and one night in the Duke of Brandon’s bed. Or in his scandalous chair. Perhaps even against a wall. She wouldn’t marry him, however, if he were the last man on earth.

Brandon is quickly running out of time and his troublemaking daughter has decided no one else shall do as her step-mama but the maddening countess. He must persuade Lottie to become his duchess with all haste or risk losing everything. As he sets out to seduce her into marriage, he’s shocked to realize that he’s done the one thing he previously believed himself incapable of along the way—he’s fallen in love. But Lottie’s bruised and battered heart is more guarded than his, and she has vowed to never allow another man to hurt her again.

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My Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5

I enjoy these novels because they’re quick, easy reads; the kind you can fly through in an day or two while relaxing. But just once, I’d love to see this author write a story that doesn’t rely so much on sex. Sometimes it feels like she relies on the physical side of things to do the emotional heavy lifting, and after a while the repetition starts to feel more like filler than genuine character development.

That said, the real stars of this book weren’t the Duke or Lottie, but his illegitimate daughter by someone else, Pandora (affectionately called Pandy) and her dog, ironically named Cat. Their antics brought a levity and charm that made me smile every time they were on the page. 

On the flip side, I grew weary of Lottie’s single-minded focus on using the Duke for his prowess as a lover. For a character who had such strong convictions about never marrying again, her fixation wore thin quickly. Similarly, the Duke’s grandmother, who spent so much of the book disapproving both of her grandson and his child, suddenly not only becoming accepting of Pandy without really spending time with her, but also rescinding her ultimatum to Brandon, felt out of character.

And while I’m all for a little creative license in historical romance, the inclusion of a sex club just pushed the believability a step too far. In a contemporary romance? Sure. But in a historical setting, it struck me as absurd and pulled me out of the story.

Overall, this was a fun enough read, but between the overreliance on steamy scenes and some eyebrow-raising plot choices, it left me wishing for a bit more substance to balance out the scandal.