Loretta Chase writes witty banter like nobody's business and that is def present here. But the beginning verged far too close to slapstick for my personal tastes. And I just could not quite get behind the premise. Olympia and Ripley most definitely belonged together, but she was betrothed to one of his besties for virtually the whole book. I really liked Ashmont and was kind of rooting for him (with the caveat that he didn't quite see Olympia as an actual person but had only a very idealized picture of her). I am eagerly awaiting his redemption arc.



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Despite Loretta Chase's insistence on referring to men as "males" and women as "females," I really liked this book. For better or worse, I'm now accustomed to her frequent assertion that "he was a man, and so he did X," so it doesn't ruin my reading of her books any longer. While I do think that men are capable of not staring at a woman's ankles, I was quite happy that the heroine, Olympia, finally got the attention and admiration that she deserved. This is a true "romp," with a runaway bride and all sorts of road trip shenanigans. All of the characters are more complicated than they initially appear, and Chase's love for fashion sets the story firmly in time and place. If you can overlook the implausibility of three dukes raising hell together for years and then falling for the same woman, you'll like this one. I will add that a big part of the central conflict is Olympia's frustration with the institution of marriage. I found some elements of her Dressmakers series to be slut-shamey, but this was a refreshing and much more progressive novel. Well done. ( )

This is really Ripley’s story, although I love Olympia too of course; I think Chase really excels at the heroes. This was quite a fun romp which was almost too rompy for the first half, but I did actually love all the craziness. I look forward to reading Ashmont’s story next (and am glad I’m reading in order) because he seems pretty idiotic in this one. ( )

Oh, these two idiots blind to their true beauty and charms. Ripley reminded me of at least one of the wonderfully mischievous boys I grew up with. And Olympia—well. Aside from all the brothers she has, she's basically me in a book: twenty-six, wears spectacles she needlessly adjusts all the time, appears boring but is really just reserved and level-headed, loves cataloguing books. That scene in the library with the invalid chair will go down as one of my favorite humorous scenes in romance.

This book was highly entertaining right from the start, and, even though it threw my heart for a loop there at the end, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. This was my first Loretta Chase. I've owned Lord of Scoundrels for some time now, but I've been too afraid that I'll hate it when everyone else seems to love it. I'm glad I started with this one because now, even if I'm disappointed in the other, it won't stop me from reading more of her work. ( )

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Olympia is dangerously close to being on the shelf but when she serendipitously catches the attention of a duke, she has a chance to help her large family from financial ruin.
The Duke of Ripley is doing all he can to help his bestfriend not flub up his wedding but he should have been paying attention to the bride. When he sees her make a run for it, he chases her.
They're not meant to be together but they also wouldn't have it any other way.

He was trying desperately to find a way out of whatever it was he'd got himself into.

The first in a new series, A Duke in Shining Armor introduces us to the three Dis-Graces, dukes who have a bit of a tainted reputation because of the antics they have gotten up to over the years. The Duke of Ashmont has the face of angel but a bit of a drinking problem. Through some reverse psychology his uncle gets him to really pay attention to Olympia and offer for her. Just returned from a trip on the continent our hero, the Duke of Ripley, has come across Olympia at balls and such but tried to keep his attention of her to the peripheral as he wasn't ready to grow up yet. This latent attraction becomes the source of his problem.

This is a road romance that from page one hits the ground running and doesn't let up into well into the second half of the book. Ripley and Olympia have a bit of madcap adventures as they constantly spout wit back and forth. It gave them some spark but the duration and focus of it, came at the expense of some depth. Their dialogue had a tendency to come off as them talking at each other instead of with and I had a hard time getting to know them.

He'd said things and looked at her in ways other men didn't, and the combination had started to make her think she wasn't altogether the young woman she'd always believed she was. She knew rakes were dangerous but she hadn't understood how subtle the danger could be. Her ideas about a great many subjects were threatening revolution.

Along with their dialogue lacking exploring other emotions for most of the book, the vast majority (I think the last 5% goes a week into the future) takes place within 4 days, the first 50% of the story is the first day. I will say, even with this time frame, it doesn't feel like insta-love, which is a credit to the author's writing. The author has Ripley admit to himself a couple times that he always noticed Olympia and liked her personality and Olympia remembering having a pining moment over Ripley dancing with someone else but we don't get the scenes of a solid emotional growing between beginning attraction that I personally look for and enjoy.

"What are you doing?" he said.
"I'm being unsubtle," she said.

With the hero and heroine busy being witty and flitting around, I never gained a strong grasp of who they were. Olympia was probably the stronger of the two with her large family driving her to marriage and feeling like she didn't belong because she was voted the most boring debutante years in a row, which felt brought up more than enough. Her love of books and categorizing books is discussed but I would have liked some family interaction scenes or if she had friends; scenes that help show more personality and different nuances of a character. Ripley is given a very vague bad past with an ill father and though he has scenes with his friends, the Duke of Ashmont who's bride he's accidentally stealing and his brother-in-law the Duke of Blackwood, we're not shown how they became friends or what really binds them together. I was left with a lot of questions regarding Ripley and who he was.

Ripley was a disgrace and had been for years, but this had to be the worst thing he'd done in his life.
Yet it seemed to him the best thing he'd ever done.

The last 15% or so was more of what I was looking for, Ripley and Olympia seemed to talk with each other more and I began to feel their emotional connection, but it would have been great to have that start more towards the middle of the book. They also start to hit the sheets more but I frankly could have done with more of the platonic growing together at the time. Ashmont definitely doesn't shine here but as I'm sure he'll get the chance to be a hero of his own book, his redemption will interesting. The other friend Blackwood and his wife (Ripley's sister) seemingly have a secret frosty relationship that raises a lot of questions. With all the dukes running around, even I started to get fatigued but it's still a hard title to say no to. In a very small side story that managed to kind of steal the show for me, Ripley’s aunt seems to have a very interesting hurt and angry past with Ashmont’s uncle. The emotion and tension could be cut with a knife whenever the two were in a room and I’m greatly looking forward to seeing what comes of them.

With a bit too much wit and one-upping sarcasm for its own good and short time duration, this didn't start providing enough emotional building blocks for me until closer at the end. This author's writing is always engaging though and if you're in the mood for a quick paced witty back and forth, this definitely would provide. ( )