ARC Review: "Ne'er Duke Well" by Alexandra Vasti ★★★★★

ARC Review: Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti

This is an absolutely wonderful read, unbelievably Vasti’s first novel, with charming characters, a beautiful plot, and a very touching story. This is quite simply the best historical romance I have read this year! Need I say more? I should hope not, and you should be devouring this book posthate! However, since you are still here, wow let me tell you, this is everything you could possibly look for in a historical romance: slowburn, he falls first, blind to love, found family tropes meets a great mixture of humour and heart – and (arguably best of all, aside from the exquisite spice), no third act breakup. Highly recommended for lovers of Netflix’s Bridgerton and Austen’s Emma.

He loved her. He loved her so much he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Could do nothing but watch and memorize her face as she laughed. He kept the sight of her in his heart even as she pulled him from the room...He kept it safe, a perfect pane of glass, crystalline and fragile.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
29-year-old Peter Kent, the new Duke of Stanhope, priorly from New Orleans, Louisiana, desires to be the legal guardian of his half-siblings, 12-year-old Lucinda “Lu” and 10-year-old Frederick “Freddie” Nash. Unfortunately, his cruel late father never acknowledged them as his own nor mentioned them in his will. And even more unfortunately, Peter does not have the best of reputations, what with his general clumsiness, radical political views, and upsetting his rival Lord Eldon on a matter of cognac – who happens to be chancellor of the High Court and the man Peter must plead his case to. But how fortunate that he should happen upon (or, rather, literally bump into) 23-year-old Lady Selina Ravenscroft.

Selina, renown for both her love and skill of matchmaking, decides to help Peter. She believes that if he marries a respectable woman in the ton, this will cast a positive reflection on his character and convince Eldon he is a suitable guardian. Thus, Selena lists three possible candidates: Lydia Hope-Wallace (her best friend), Iris Duggleby (wallflower) and Georgiana Cleeve (considered the Diamond of the Season).

The more Selina helps Peter find a match, the more she realises she is in love with him herself. And the more Peter spends time with Selina, the more he believes there is no one else for him but her. But Selina has a huge secret: she is the owner of Belvoir’s, a scandalous library teeming with erotic literature. She cannot marry him, for if word were to get out about this, there goes his chances at keeping Lu and Freddie.

However, a certain compromising circumstance occurs, forcing them into wedding. Though all seems promising, Selina’s beloved secret of Belvoir’s threatens to come to light. As she tries to solve who is responsible for the threat in the hopes of delaying the inevitability of being exposed, Selina has to decide to either risk ruin together or avoid tarnishing their names by leaving.

This is told from the third-person past-tense dual POV of Selina and Peter.

OVERALL OPINIONS
Honestly, any time I read the name Selina – and this was a lot – I thought solely of the Mr. Malcolm’s List film (another book that is on my ever-growing TBR list) when Julia Thistlewaite says “Oh Selina, what an astute observation!”.

From the start, I could tell this would be a good story. The title itself is rather clever. Ne’er Duke Well is a pun on the phrase “ne’er-do-well” which is a derogatory term for a person who good-for-nothing, worthless, or without means of support. This is how Peter Kent sees himself as, thanks to memories of his horrid father reminding him he was reckless, thoughtless and weak. As a child, his father left the family with literally no means of support monetary-wise, but Peter also has no support in an emotional sense: someone to comfort him, be there for him. He finds this eventually in Selina, which is lovely!

The descriptions are so good that you can imagine scenarios and scenes clearly. One such description I love is of Selina’s friend Lydia Hope-Wallace’s family: “They were richer than Croesus” – Croesus was the last King of Lydia who was considered the richest man on earth, and of course her name is Lydia so therein lies the comparison. It is so subtle, but so very clever.

Aside from the excellent romance, I love that the whole premise of the story is Selina and Peter’s fight to keep Lu and Freddie. The found family element to this story was absolutely heart-warming! It is sweet that Peter cares so much about his half-siblings and wants to look after them, and from the get-go calls them his “siblings” not “half siblings”. Then Selina begins to care a lot for them to the extent that the obstacles in her love for and eventual marriage to Peter are all because she wants what is best for the children and worries her reputation will ruin this. The kids also being brave enough to stand up for themselves and their beliefs that Peter is the right guardian for them is beautiful to see (and the way in which they storm Westminster is hilarious!).

There is just so much fun yet far more depth to this story. We have relationships, families, friendship and breaking the cycle of toxic relationships and families. Here I want to focus on the latter. The main toxic people are Peter’s father and Georgiana’s father. When Freddie becomes ill, it is admirable that Peter does not want to leave his side, and becomes a fatherly figure to them far better than the man who actually was their father. Through this, Peter heals his own inner child who lost his other half-brother Morgan through Consumption. Georgiana’s father moulds his children into the standard he wants and I like that Georgiana challenges that.

Vasti, interestingly, is from New Orleans and it is nice that she used this as the place where Peter comes from.

<< Setting (Location/Year) >>
The setting is London and the year is 1815.

While it is explicitly mentioned, there are a few clues within the text as to the year that can help the reader guess:
🠚John Scott, Lord Eldon, was an actual person, who was born in 1751 and passed away 1838.
🠚William Pitt is mentioned in past-tense. He was prime minister 1783-1801. Therefore, it had to be a year after this time (Robert Jenkinson would have been the current prime minister at the time of the book, 4 prime ministers after Pitt).
🠚Napoleon is mentioned concerning events from 2 years ago when Peter is meant to have inherited his title of Duke (which we can work out is 1813). The Napoleonic wars took place between 1803-1815. This really helps to narrow down the years.
🠚Lord Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece is mentioned. This took place between 1801 and 1812 (the final shipment took place happened in 1812). The year had to be some time after this, but before the end of the Napoleonic wars (1812-1815).

<< Accuracy? >>
I am not usually fussed on whether a book is historically accurate or not but for those who are curious about this, I am pleased to inform you that it is reasonably accurate. Vasti really tried to do her homework about various events, people and novels mentioned within.

I really respect that in the Author’s Notes, as I was also going to explain, Vasti clarifies that Harriette Wilson’s memoirs The Courtesan’s Revenge was published later. In fact, it was in 1825, which is a decade out from the year this book is set. This I feel is fair enough as both the author acknowledges this, and the book/story it is used as part of the driving force behind Selina’s decision to start up Belvoir’s so more women are not so naïve.

Vasti says in her Author’s Notes the publication of the work Lady Bumtickler’s Revels is 1786, though a general Google might say 1872. For those confused about the year in which this was released, I think I can clarify: it was first written in 1770s-1780s along with other works though the authors are unknown. They were then republished a century later by George Peacock as a series under the title The Library Illustrative of Social Progress. Lady Bumtickler’s Revels is Volume 3.

<< Positives >>
🠚The cover is so aesthetically pleasing and depicts an actual scene from the book where Selina dives into the Serpentine to save a dog and Peter in turn saves Selina’s reputation by pulling up in a boat.
🠚The whole story about Selina setting up the bookstore Belvoir’s to help provide women with knowledge about sex and protection is very moving and selfless of her to do. I am glad she eventually sees the store as being something more powerful than something to be ashamed of.
🠚The amount of emotional depth in this book, as previously mentioned.
🠚The humour throughout was excellent. My favourite moments have to be: firstly, of course when Selina bumps into him and hopes he doesn’t recognise her and, upon his quick recognition she thinks “Oh blast!”; secondly the recount of the cognac incident; thirdly, when Peter is so confused and thinks Selina is proposing to him; fourthly, when Selina lists all the incidents on dates that have caused Peter to be in the papers; fifthly, when Selina saves the dog; finally, her family when she reveals her secret.
🠚The spice was everything! I was giggling and kicking my feet.

<< Negatives >>
There are a few misleading things as part of the book’s promotion, as well as missing scenes that I would have preferred included:
🠚The cover, though depicting the scene where Selina saves the dog, is a little misleading to have the dog in it as it made me think she would end up keeping the dog as her own.
🠚The blurb (and briefly in the book via the quote above) mentions “the time he interrupted a minor royal wedding with a flock of sheep―not his fault!” and:

I do remember Peter Kent. He knocked you into a mud puddle at Broadmayne, didn’t he? And stole your horse. And wasn’t there something about a wedding at St. George’s, two sheep, and a duel?

I have to say, this was something that I laughed out loud about when reading the blurb alone, and I really wanted to read this moment. I was, I admit, rather disappointed.
🠚There is also the mention that Selina and Peter met two years ago, and he had tossed her into a puddle:

On one memorable occasion he had offered to carry her portmanteau—perhaps offer was not the right word; he’d practically wrestled with the cursed stubborn woman— and accidentally knocked them both onto their asses in a slick patch of mud.

Again this was so funny, I would have really loved something like a prologue chapter where we had this encounter. It does say at the end of the book if you sign up to her newsletter you can get bonus content including a bonus chapter of their meet-disaster but girl please put this in the book itself!

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Selina꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ She is so selfless and kind, but I love that she is always matchmaking and is full of wonderful ideas. She gives a lot of Lady Whistledown vibes with her secrets and Emma Woodhouse vibes for her love of matchmaking. It is great to see the growth she has, going from worrying about the future and afraid all she will do is disappoint her husband Peter to no longer hiding her secret and allowing Peter to support her.
🠚When she is told she does not need to take care of everyone, I felt that. This is just like me.
🠚I hope she gets to see her brother Will again. It might be interesting to have a relationship between Will and Georgiana. A widowed man and a clever author, might make an interesting match. Oops, I’m turning into Selina!

Society had cast the women of her generation adrift— they were meant to be playthings, meant to be innocent and empty headed and leave practical knowledge to the men who controlled their lives. To hell with that. Selina had read books. She had learned. And she had taken it upon herself to change the way the women of the ton saw their own place in the world.

-ˋˏ ꒰ Peter꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ My heart bursts for Peter, he has been through so much and endured much loss. His mother and his half-brother Morgan, made to feel that he is foolish and weak by his father. I got so sad and he feels like he has nothing to offer Selina.
🠚I am so glad he finally gets the love he deserves and a family to care for! And wow, what a man. He listens, makes her laugh, protects her, encourages her. And he is so sexy too! A magnanimous green flag I wave!
🠚And of course he had a Mr Darcy moment where he wanted to flex his fingers when she touched the back of his hand!

“You bring the morning with you. You’re the light, sweetheart. When you walk into a room, I can’t see the shadows. There is nothing in this world that could persuade me to send you away if I thought you wanted me half as much as I want you.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Other characters꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Georgiana is such an interesting character. I like that she is not as idiotic as one thinks, and her idiocy is in fact a façade so her father never suspects she is a bestseller author. I predicted she would be the one who discovered Selina’s secret. There is an implication from the Acknowledgements section that she will have her own story and I really hope so, looking forward to that.
🠚Lydia is so sweet, I am glad she builds up her confidence and helps stand up for her friend Selina. As is Thomasin, also a lovely person, very motherly.

FAV QUOTES
• Then she looked up, and that fierce tawny gaze caught his, and he knew down to his bones that he’d been right to think of her. And he had the strangest thought then: that he’d been right *every* time he’d thought of her.
• She wanted love. She wanted someone who wouldn’t be afraid of her connection to Belvoir’s. She wanted someone to look at her and see more than just the sister of a duke or the recipient of a substantial dowry. More than difficult and prickly and too opinionated and too much.
• “I think about you. All the time. Even when I shouldn’t think of you, I do.”
• He respected her, more than any man she’d known except perhaps her twin. He asked her questions and really listened to her answers, his gaze so steady and absorbed upon her that she felt like the center of his world. He made her laugh. He made her burn.
• He looked at her the way he always did. Warm, and sure, and so intent upon her that the rest of the world could have faded away, and she thought he might not notice. • “You are spectacular. You are a bright, brilliant light on this benighted country.”
• God, she was so beautiful it hurt. He wanted to touch her, and he was afraid to touch her at the same time. Touching her made him start to imagine a different kind of a marriage, not a patched- up affair in an empty house designed to save them both from scandal.
• “only you would turn up your nose at embroidery and resolve to overturn society in its stead.”
• He huffed a little laugh. “I would have liked to have seen you then.” | “You wouldn’t. I would have made you fence with me. Or tried to punch you in the nose.” | He looked at her then, truly looked, all the force of his gaze trained upon her face. She felt heat rise in her cheeks at the intensity of his regard. “I have always wanted to look at you.”
• How could he protect them from any kind of hurt? He couldn’t. He saw that now... They would be hurt. They would get sick. They would be afraid. And he would love them through it.
• “You’re making a mistake.” She heard herself say the words and knew she was lost… “Sweetheart,” he said. “Loving you is not a mistake.”
• No secrets. No hiding. Not any longer. And she wasn’t alone. That was the part that pulled at her heart, that made her eyes burn as she thought of it.
• “If it works, it is because of you. Because of the way you turn what could be a crisis into a victory. A flaw into a strength. You see this world and imagine it better, Peter, and I— I think you are remarkable.”
• “A hairbreadth from catastrophe and loving every minute of it.”

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Alexandra Vasti, Atlantic Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“Ne'er Duke Well” is out July 23rd