Overall Grade: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Duke I’d Like to F… is NOT your mother’s or your grandmother’s Regency romance. Nay, DILTF is a dirty, delectable excursion into the Regency world. These stories, though, also circle ideas about female agency, underrepresented communities, and socioeconomic disparity. All of those sounds frightening, I imagine. Except through the talents of Sierra Simone, Joanna Shupe, Eva Leigh, Nicola Davidson, and Adriana Herrera, these ideas feel like manna to your Regency romance soul. I figuratively gobbled their stories of dukes falling hard for their heroines whether they were “traditionally suited” for them or not. Each story finds its own space in this book to illustrate a truth about power and about love. Usually, I can pinpoint a specific story or two in an anthology that stands out over the others. In DILTF, that isn’t the case. Each story is carefully wrought, decidedly dirty, and holds a happy ending specific to the hero and heroine of the story. You might think that you would grow weary of the Regency romance of these stories because, hello, how many different duke stories can you read? Well, each story has its own niche, its own voice, that makes it distinct from the others. There are a variety of tropes at play with various degrees of intensity. For me, the most compelling is Adriana Herrera’s “The Duke Makes Me Feel..” because it has a strain to it that is different from the others. Yet, that being said, all of the stories made for the perfect bedtime read.
Even if you aren’t a fan of Regency romance, you will LOVE Duke I’d Like to F… These talented authors have offered up stories that challenge you, titillate you, and entertain you to the very last page.
In love and romance,
Professor A
