This was another good historical romance novel from Amalie Howard!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

✨Never Met A Duke Like You by Amalie Howard✨

Genre: Romance
Pages: 384
Series: Taming of the Dukes, Book 2

📚Lady Vesper Lyndhurst is beautiful, clever, and popular. Afforded every luxury as a duke’s daughter, she fills her days with friends, intrigues, and a self-professed knack for matchmaking. She may have sworn off love for herself, but she is rather excellent at arranging it.

Faced with an insolvent estate, the Duke of Greydon has no choice but to return to England in a final attempt to revive his family’s fortunes. He’s been gone for years, happy to have escaped his mother and the petty circles of the ton. To his dismay, not much has changed, including the beautiful and vexing heiress next door.

But when an accident of fate traps the friends-turned-enemies in an attic together, the explosive attraction between them becomes impossible to ignore and even harder to resist. They are total opposites and their lives don’t align in the slightest, but fate, the ultimate matchmaker, appears to have other plans . . .

📝This is the second book I’ve read by Amalie Howard and I’ve enjoyed them both. Our MCs, Aspen and Vesper, had great chemistry and snarky banter. The trope is enemies to lovers - my favorite - and there was definitely some spice!

This book also highlights mental health: Vesper has ADHD.

💫Thank you @netgalley and @readforeverpub for my egalley💫

Non-stop bickering between the two main characters and a plethora of unenjoyable events in this book have led me to rate it 2 stars.
I tried so hard to be invested in this storyline but I just couldn’t get with it. It is cute if you’re into historical romance / clueless vibes with argumentative bickering and asylums. Also a villain who does not get justice whatsoever.

Thanks to netgalley, the author and publisher for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review 🎉

Excellent story with sympathetic characters. I loved that the duke had an interesting job you don't often (or ever) see in Historical Romance.
The idea of women in history maneuvering within the confines of the time is really shown well here. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

I always THINK I'm a historical romance fan because of my love of the Bridgerton TV show but unfortunately, that never seems to be the case. I didn't hate this book by any means and i think for fans of HR it is a great one but it just did not work for me... TY for the gifted copy!

Thank you to Netgally, the publishers, and Amalie Howard

When I requested this book I was unaware that it was apart of a series, one that requires you to read the previous books for this one to make sense. I am unable to read all the previous books along with this one before the publish date. Therefore, I will rate this a fair 3/5 stars and will adjust the rating and review when I am able to read all the books in the series along with this one.

I really liked the way that Vesper and Aspen’s backstory and current re-meeting interacted to make the audience understand the history behind their relationship, and I really liked how each of their perceptions of the past coloured how they viewed the present. I also liked their interactions and the banter that was present between them, but I didn’t enjoy how Aspen repeatedly made the same judgements and assumptions about Vesper when he was aware that she was putting on her public performance. Other than that, I enjoyed the interactions between all of the characters and the way that Aspen and Vesper relearned each other (and the nicknames were amazing).

I LOVE clueless and I was so excited for this retelling in the regency setting. Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. There were moments that just didn’t hit the same as Clueless does. And when you make sure to promote this book with a nod to Clueless I’m going to 100% compare the two. I think this could’ve had a little more oomph or something that would’ve made me enjoy this book a little more

If you're in the mood for a passionate Regency romance that defies conventions, this story awaits you. Never Met a Duke Like You by Amalie Howard blends the charm of Clueless with the allure of Bridgerton.

Meet the Duke of Greydon. A palaeontologist (so cool). He is faced with an insolvent estate, so he reluctantly returns to England after years abroad. His escape is short-lived when he discovers that not much has changed. This includes the beautiful and vexing heiress next door.

Meet Lady Vesper. A neurodivergent matchmaker. Despite her self-imposed vow to avoid love, she excels at arranging it for others. When fate traps them together in an attic, their explosive attraction becomes…

Howard tells a tale of opposites attracting and readers will root for their love to conquer societal norms and personal insecurities. The Regency setting comes alive, complete with ballrooms, secrets, and scandalous encounters.

We can’t end the review without talking about the characters. They’re complex, flawed, and utterly endearing. Vesper's determination and Aspen's vulnerability create a perfect balance. Howard's prose captures the essence of longing and desire, making this a page-turner for historical romance enthusiasts like myself.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for a temporary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this one! I haven't been in as much of a historical romance phase, so this was my first of the year, and it was a fabulous one to start with. Now all I want to do is go read more!

Howard played so brilliantly with the setting, all of the galas and balls and parties were so much fun. I love her talent for describing clothes and capturing an environment, it's decadent. As for the heroines, I loved them as well. I'd really enjoyed Always Be My Duchess, but to be honest, I'd forgotten almost everything about it. I just remembered enjoying the writing style and the characters. And Never Met A Duke Like You had many of the same charms. I loved Vesper's girl group, and I can't wait to continue reading about them in the rest of the series. (Especially the friend and Lushing!)

But I think the real star of this was the romance. Friends to lovers is a trope I often avoid, but enemies to lovers has become so oversaturated recently. So, I think this book walked a very fine line between the two, and I loved it for that. Vesper and Greydon had so much chemistry and tension, I really enjoyed watching them slowly draw together. I found the conclusion of their relationship satisfying, and I really hope we see them make cameos in the rest of the series. After all that, I really enjoyed Never Met A Duke Like You and I'd certainly recommend it!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was just okay for me. I really love regency romances but I just didn’t love the writing style of this one. Unfortunately I didn’t like the main characters much either. However, I did like the side characters so I may still read the future books depending on who they are about. This is the second book in the series and I haven’t read the first but they can be read as standalone with some minor spoilers for previous couples. I think I might go and read the first book at some point as I liked those two characters a bit more. However, I mainly loved Briar and Lushing/Jasper so I’ll 100% be reading their book in the future.

Overall, the plot was okay. It was definitely a slow burn and very slow at that. I also didn’t realize that this was an adult book so there was a lot of spice I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t really form a connection with the mmc or fmc unfortunately.

So not the best but not the worst either. Still recommend if you like romances and historical romances at that! It really just came down to the writing and some of the characters that made me not love it.

Also thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book. So sorry it took me so long to get to it!

This is a fun friends to enemies to lovers romance . I really liked Vesper and Greyson as characters and their love story was sweet and steamy at the same time . I do enjoy their friend group and hoping we get at least one or two more stories
I didn’t love the villain and there is a lot of miscommunication , but overall I really enjoyed this one

Vesper and Aspen were childhood friends until he rejected her and broke her heart. Now, Vesper focuses on matchmaking other couples while trying to maintain a perfect facade to the world. A facade that Aspen sees as a beautiful covering to a superficial and cold heart.

Aspen has returned to London from his paleontological studies to carry out his ducal duties and finally corral his mother

Despite the years apart, they still know each other better than anyone else.

I have never enjoyed Emma adaptations much, and I did have some issues with Vesper not believing Aspen. She needs to face something uncomfortable, but her first instinct is to deny. But Aspen is flawed too as their rift was partly caused by him not realizing she wore a mask in public. They both only wanted to see surface level and had to learn to look deeper, but as their feelings grew, they cared to.

There's a lot of time in the book with them together figuring out their relationship, with some help from good friends. I enjoyed getting to see them become a team that takes on challenges together.

Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Feat: best friends to enemies to lovers, Emma vibes, ADHD rep, neurodivergent FMC, a not outrageous age difference (rare in historicals) of 23 and 25, arguing as foreplay, pool as foreplay, fuck the sass out of each other, banter during sex is healthy, insults as endearments?,

3.75 stars
1.5 spice

(3.75/5 stars)

Never Met a Duke Like You by Amalie Howard is a dual perspective historical rom-com that is an homage to the movie Clueless.

Lady Vesper fancies herself a matchmaker, but she swears off love for herself. The Duke of Greydon, aka the boy next door, is now an archaeologist, but must return to England to revive his family's fortunes.

These characters have clear chemistry and I was really rooting for them. They're childhood best friends/crushes--the literal girl and boy next door--to enemies to lovers. The hero is a hot nerd, which is my kryptonite. The heroine is sex-positive and all spicy scenes have great consent. There's also a fluffy white kitten who likes to cause chaos.

The book itself felt slow to start for me, and overall it was a little on the long side. There's a lot of miscommunication here (that started during Vesper's first season on the ton seven years prior) and that's never one of my favorite tropes. The villain is also a little heavy-handed. But the chemistry between the leads kept me hooked.

Vesper is neurodiverse and has ADHD. It's always so great seeing someone like me in books. Both of our main characters are committed to social activism, the Duke hopes to prevent people from being unjustly committed to asylums and the Lady helps provide food and schools for poor or orphaned children.

Overall I had a fun time with these characters, especially with the little update we got about Lysander and Neve, the main characters of the first book in the series, Always Be My Duchess.

Tropes in this book include: childhood friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, opposites attract

CW: discussion of mental illness, brief mentions of abuse suffered by asylum patients

I loved the ADHD representation in this story. Vesper was fantastic and I loved her from the start. This book had great banter and I loved the regency vibes. Some sad stuff in this book too but it made it feel more real so I didn’t mind.

The description for this book had me at "Clueless meets Bridgerton" but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I loved Vesper as she navigates the complicated life of a Regency Era Lady. I loved how she's a great matchmaker and never expected or wanted to find a match of her own but somehow found herself deeply in love anyway. But other than the main romance, I didn't really enjoy much else about the book. I wish the villain of the story had been properly punished. The character's lingo was quite modern at times which made it really jarring. Overall I liked but definitely didn't come close to being able to compare to Bridgerton.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was my first Amalie Howard book and I’m hooked! I’ve already started another one of her books.
I loved the fierce main character Vesper, and how kind and caring she was throughout the whole book. I don’t usually like books where the love interests mis communicate, but this story point worked because of the time period and the societal expectations on women. The drama of the book was enough to keep me interested and curious of how it would work out. I definitely saw elements of the movie Clueless which made the book more relatable.

Regency era romances are my kryptonite and this book is no exception! If you love friends to enemies to lovers and back and forth banter, then you will love the story between Vesper and Aspen!

Loved this series. this is new author to me in a genre that i love. it will be a great addition to my tbr shelf.

Never Met a Duke Like You is a great read! I was really entertained, and loved both Lady Vesper (especially her name!) and Gray. There's so many great tropes in this one-- locked in a room, old friends, enemies-to-lovers, second chances... Amalie Howard did a great job of combining these all without making it too busy. The writing is excellent, and the story was really fun and reminiscent of modern and classic books and movies (Clueless, Emma) but still it's own. I loved seeing cameos of Genevieve and Blackstone, and their circle of gal pals!
Never Met a Duke Like You is a really fun story, and I really enjoyed reading it. I'm looking forward to the next book in this series, and I really like the cover and title!!