Duke in Shining Armor. Loretta Chase

Published: Avon
Date: November 28th 2017
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 400 pages
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Rating:
            

Hugh Philemon Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, will never win prizes for virtue. But even he draws the line at running off with his best friend’s bride. All he’s trying to do is recapture the slightly inebriated Lady Olympia Hightower and return her to her intended bridegroom.

For reasons that elude her, bookish, bespectacled Olympia is supposed to marry a gorgeous rake of a duke. The ton is flabbergasted. Her family’s ecstatic. And Olympia? She’s climbing out of a window, bent on a getaway. But tall, dark, and exasperating Ripley is hot on her trail, determined to bring her back to his friend. For once, the world-famous hellion is trying to do the honorable thing.

Duke in Shining Armor is a Regency romance - one I thoroughly enjoyed.  I loved Lord of Scoundrels when I read it by the same author, and this one pretty much matches it.  

There are three Dukes - their Dis Graces as they are known. They are men in their late twenties, always out for a good time and one of their main goals is to ensure that life is not boring. This book puts the focus on Ripley, who somehow finds himself watching over the heroine of the book as she escapes out the window and over the wall from her pending marriage to one of the other Dis Graces and one of Ripley's best friends.

Lady Olympia is a a blue stocking, most interested in sorting out libraries, she is regarded by many as boring, it has taken a number of seasons to marry her off. She has succumbed because she is aware she has a large number of brothers who could do with some funding. So a rich Duke is required! While she may appear boring there are hidden depths to this young woman and she is quite used to ordering the male species around - ask her brothers about that!

The opening chapters are comedic, almost to the point of slapstick. I could imagine it all unfolding in front of me. What could go wrong does go wrong as a somewhat inebriated bride escapes with a "best man" endeavouring to keep her safe.

This book has it all, fun characters, snappy dialogue, a plot that zings along with something happening in each chapter.  There is some tension as Ripley struggles with his growing attraction towards Olympia. At times he was a little petulant and irritable, however Olympia is no newbie to male irrationality and copes with hardly a misstep. 

While Ashmont the almost Groom was a little bit of a hopeless case I can see that he will have his day of redemption now that he has been challenged with Olympia, and as well the third Dis Grace, married to Ripley's sister, seems to be having some kind of mystery marital difficulty. So there are two good setups for two more books, and quite frankly I am absolutely looking forward to them.