There’s no one way to write a great romance. In fact, one could argue good romance novels are less about the quality of the writing — though that should not be taken as a knock against the uber-talented writers that make up the genre — and more about the quality of the characters. Romance is, after all, about feelings. If we’re invested in what the characters are going through, if we care about where they’re going, then that’s 3/4 of the battle right there.
Up All Night with a Good Duke, which to start with, is a hell of a title, is the kind of book that works from the start because the characters work. They especially work together, which is precisely what you want in a romance novel. But they work pretty well separately too, and there’s always a undercurrent of “this could truly be special” in every one of their interactions that keeps pushing you forward, one more page, and then another.
But Up All Night with a Good Duke is, unequivocally, Artemis’ story, and that decision serves the book well. Great romances manage to make you care about both the hero and the heroine, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have to choose which one to focus on, which one the audience should connect to first. In fact, the books that don’t choose sometimes ends up biting way more than they can chew.
That is very much not the case here, because Artemis Jones absolutely shines, and because she does, it’s easier to understand the Duke of Dartmoor as he begins to fall in love with her. In turn, her feelings about him make us warm to him in a way that might have been hard if the book had chosen to focus on him, and him alone.
Because Artemis isn’t perfect, far from it. She’s petty and impulsive, and sometimes she’s a mess, but that’s okay, so are we. Regency heroines are sometimes hard to relate to, but Artemis always feels like she could be one of us — and not just because she’s secretly the kind of author we want to read.
It’s worth mentioning that there’s a lot more going on in the book than romance — sometimes borderline too much, but despite that, the book never crosses the line into too complicated. Instead Bennett manages to deliver a fun, entertaining romance that stands on its own and yet sets the stage for a series we really want to keep reading, if not because the secondary characters blew us away, at least because the author kept us entertained enough we wouldn’t mind another go at it.
Whatever it is you want in your romance, Up All Night with a Good Duke will probably deliver, and it will do so in a way that, when you finally close the book, you will feel like you’ve invested your time wisely. A bit of escapism, an enchanting heroine, a dashing hero and the possibility of more …what else could we ask for?
Up All Night with a Good Duke by Amy Rose Bennett is available now wherever books are sold. You can read the full synopsis below:
Artemis Jones―”respectable” finishing-school teacher by day and Gothic romance writer by night―has never lost sight of her real dream: to open her own academic ladies’ college. When Artemis is unexpectedly called upon by a dear friend, a fellow Byronic Book Club member, to navigate her first London Season, she comes at once. Who knows, perhaps she can court the interest of a wealthy patron for her school. As long as she can avoid her high-handed aunt’s schemes to marry her off.
Dominic Winters, the widowed Duke of Dartmoor, needs a wife―someone who will provide him with an heir and help him to manage his spitfire adolescent daughter. The problem is, Society has dubbed him “The Dastardly Duke.” Rumors are rife that he murdered his mad wife, so his choices for a suitable bride are limited. But then, he meets the ravishing and passionate Artemis Jones, who might just be everything he needs.
