Hazards of Hunting a Duke

Author: Julia London
Published: May 2006 (Pocket Books)
Category: Regency Romance
Series: Desperate Debutantes #1
Rating: 8/10

I read a review for Dangers of Deceiving a Viscount, the last book in the Desperate Debutantes trilogy, and it sounded interesting, so I decided to read the first one. There are mixed reviews for The Hazards of Hunting a Duke on Amazon, so I picked it up at the library instead. After reading it, I find that I wouldn't mind owning it, although goodness only knows when I'll have time to reread books when my TBR grows exponentially.

When the young ladies of the Fairchild family learn that their stepfather has absconded with their late mother's fortune, Ava, the eldest, hunts down the notoriously wealthy rakehell Jared Broderick, the Marquis of Middleton and heir to a dukedom. Much to her shock and delight, the marquis sweeps her into a whirlwind romance and proposes marriage. But after their passionate wedding night, Ava discovers Jared has ulterior motives of his own. Not only does he expect her to deliver an heir while he continues to enjoy a rogue's life, but Ava also suspects she is a pawn in her husband's quest for revenge. Marriages of convenience work for some, but for Ava a loveless bond won't do. So she devises a bold plan to confront her husband's demons so that he might be free to choose to give her his heart for the right reason: because she is the only woman he will ever truly desire.

Maybe I haven't read enough old romances to be tired of this kind of setup. Man and woman marry for convenience, and man is too much of a.... well, a man, to own up to his feelings, and woman wants the marriage of convenience to turn into one of love as she's already fallen in love with him. Some reviews complained that the heroine jumped to conclusions about Jared being with his ex-mistress, Miranda. However, when it comes to that kind of relationship stuff, your emotions take over and it's so easy, when you have the evidence Ava did, to come to that conclusion. She had Miranda's daily love letters, saw them returning from a hunt after everyone else had returned, and Jared constantly asks Ava whether she's conceived yet. That made her feel like a baby machine, instead of the woman he loved, and she was royally ticked.

For once, I didn't mind the twists thrown in at the end of the book. Jared and Ava go to London for the season and she refuses to stay in their house, going back to her stepfather's house instead to be with Phoebe. And then Jared realizes he really does love Ava and he goes to get her back, but she won't have him, and then she finds out that she's been an idiot about the whole thing. I thought it fit really well and didn't seem like a waste of text.

I couldn't put the book down, and I've already ordered the next book in the trilogy, Perils of Pursuing a Prince. Sigh, my poor wallet and TBR.