DARING A DUKE

Author: Claudia Dain ISBN: 9780425235461 7/2010 HISTORICAL Publisher: BERKLEY SENSATION
Time Period: 1802

Jane Elliot of New York is in London for an adventure. Unfortunately, her two brothers are also in London and quite determined that Jane have no such thing, which does create a few problems, and really is so typical of brothers. What Jane did not expect was the Duke of Edenham to be quite so dashing and quite definitely the most handsome man she’d ever seen. She also did not expect to capture his attention upon the first look. It was flattering, to be sure, but did Edenham have to be quite so bold with her two brothers looking on? Most inconvenient. How was a girl to have any sort of adventure at all with brothers snarling at her and a duke commanding her attention? How? Why with Sophia Dalby’s help, that’s how. If there’s one thing Sophia believes it’s that every proper woman should have at least one very improper adventure.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Claudia Dain sets her historical romance, DARING A DUKE, in 1802 London, where American Jane Elliot has arrived with her two brothers (both ship captains in her family's shipping business) in time to attend her London cousin's wedding. Jane had hoped to stay for a year and have an adventure, but the voyage had many obstacles and time has run short. Her brothers want to head back to America as soon as there's a good tide after the wedding. Jane's cousin and her new cousins-in-law have another idea—they taunt her into a wager where she needs to attract the attention of the most eligible bachelor at the wedding breakfast: the Duke of Edenham. Jane doesn't really want a duke, especially not forever; she's looking to have fun—go to museums, concerts, plays, meet many men. The cousins, though, are sure that marriage to the thrice-widowed duke is the perfect situation for Jane. How will this raucous, bawdy day end? Will it end? Will the guests ever get served their wedding breakfast?

Dain takes a single day in a woman's life and fills it with daring, humor, angst, danger, love, teasing, jealousy, hope, vengeance, and definitely hunger of several sorts. I was so hungry by the end of this tale that I was glad to see that Jane and her Duke finally were able to lead the way to the dining room (long after sunset) to partake of the wedding feast. Jane has her American pre-conceptions of dukes being arrogant, selfish men, who get anything and everything they want simply because they are dukes. The Duke, on the other hand, is immediately taken with Jane, and when he finds out that she's merely interested in him because of a bet, he's amused. When he finds out that what she wants from him in order to win the bet is a public kiss that her cousin will see, he is ecstatic. (His British mores dictate that he must marry her to save her reputation, and this is the answer to all his prayers—to marry the beautiful American, who is surely sturdier than his former wives.) Of course, Jane doesn't realize the consequences of her actions; besides, how can she marry the man if she doesn't even know his name—just his title (which is, by the way, Hugh Austen)?

DARING A DUKE is a delicious comedy of errors with gender, cultural, and class differences all playing into the miscommunications. And isn't it ironic that Miss Elliot will become Mrs. Austen? I laughed until I cried in several places, while in other spots, the tenderness and touching situations made me go all soft and mushy. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more of Claudia Dain's novels in the future.

Susan Barton