A Lady For a Duke: Swoonworthy Historical Romance Novel by Bestselling Author of Boyfriend Material | Regency Era Love Story for Book Clubs & Beach Reads

Viola Carroll, formerly Lord Marleigh and 'killed' at Waterloo, has finally become the woman she was always meant to be but, like Marley's ghost, is weighed down by chains of guilt and fear of discovery. Her best friend, Justin, Duke of Gracewood, has never gotten over his best friend's death. Wounded himself, he uses laudanum and drink to assuage his survivor's guilt. So Viola and her meddling sister-in-law Lady Marleigh set off for Northumberland to rescue Gracewood and Mira, his seventeen-year-old sister.Viola is a great character, full of remorse for those she's hurt by her 'death' but strong in how she deals with the aftermath of the change and never sorry for what she needed to do. Alexis Hall is an excellent writer and he treads the line carefully here as Viola navigates her new world. Regency England has strong expectations on how each sex should behave and what is expected of them. The scene where Viola must serve tea for the first time is both funny and poignant; in her former life she observed the ritual many times, but actually having to serve the tea in a precise manner- well, let's just say she needed some training.Gracewood is also a wonderful character. As friends, he was a counterpoint to Viola's adventuresome nature and they both bring out the best in each other. Watching them fall in love is a wonderful gift to the reader as they navigate new feelings and expectations. Gracewood has to deal with his role as a Duke as well as the bothersome leg wound and his duties toward his sister, and he manages it all with decency and respect.There are a few steamy scenes that the author deftly handles with his usual discrimination. They're more sensual than graphic, but they showcase the true love between Viola and Gracewood.The plot is fine with abductions and fighting, but it's really the characters that make this book such a good read. Mr. Hall invests all his side characters with emotions and traits (both good and bad) that bring them alive to the reader. Louisa, Badger, and young Bartholomew are all interesting in their own right as well as being Viola's family. Mira, or Miranda, is a dreamy seventeen-year-old, bewildered and resentful at being abandoned by her older brother, but still wants to care for him. As a reader of a lot of Regency romances, I loved how she chooses to navigate the Ton as an original, more interested in magic tricks, dissections, kissing, and Shelley's Frankenstein.Names have significance in this book (at least, it seemed so to me). Viola is also the heroine of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the girl who dresses as a boy in the Forest of Arden. Miranda is the gentle daughter of Prospero in The Tempest. Amberglass, the villain of the piece, is possibly a stand-in for the amber glass bottles of laudanam that Gracewood struggles with and ultimately defeats. And then there's Lady Lillimere, an adventurous seducer of women - well, that name I haven't figured out but I suspect some meaning nonetheless.I didn't mean to but I sat down and read this book in one day. It's a lovely story filled with friendship and love while still providing plenty of angst and some very funny bits. I would say it might be the romance book of the year, but Mr. Hall's Husband Material (the sequel to Boyfriend Material) is coming out later in the summer and I suspect he will be competing with himself for that title.