This historical romance was delightful and charming. I always appreciate Amalie Howard's books for their strong-willed heroines and appealing heroes, and this one was no exception. The heroine, a wallflower shunned by society after a mishap in her debut season. The hero, a Scottish duke facing financial troubles after his brother's death, is compelled by a promise to seduce her and bring her to London with her sister.
The chemistry between the leads was fantastic, with their witty exchanges highlighting the heroine's determination. This story draws inspiration from "10 Things I Hate About You" and is perfect for historical romances fans

This is a fun twist on the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. The story follows a wallflower who is not liked by the ton and a Scottish Duke who is struggling financially after the death of his brother.

Effie’s a great fmc, though she isn’t as shrewish as I expected. She’s so nice! She dedicates much of her time and energy into her animal shelter, which I totally loved! And Gage is fabulous too. He’s stuck in a terrible situation and has so much responsibility weighing on him. His determination to do better than his brother and father drives him, and he proves to be a great match for Effie.

Of course, my favorite part of the story is the romance. Some of their conversations are hysterical, and there are several great laugh-out-loud moments between the pair. Their banter is fantastic and their chemistry sizzles off the page. Both characters are virgins, which I haven’t seen much in historical romances. I did wish Gage revealed the scheme a bit earlier than he did, but I tend to feel that way when secrets like these are introduced in a love story.

The story also has a great cast of secondary characters, some of whom I loved and others I loved to hate. Effie’s sister Viola is probably my least favorite of them all. She is so selfish and superficial. She preys on Effie's guilt to get her way, and her crying temper tantrums more resemble a petulant child than a woman ready for marriage. I hate how manipulative she is with everyone. She definitely contrasts Effie well. But as much as I disliked her sister, I loved Effie’s father. He is kind and supportive, and his unconventional views and unconditional love for his children are endearing.

I’m really enjoying this series, though that’s no surprise. I’ve liked every historical romance I’ve read by Amalie Howard. Special thanks to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

“The Worst Duke in London” is a fun take on “Bridgerton” meets “10 Things I Hate About You.” It was great that this story kept the parallels with the two sisters’ love stories. Similarly to the classic Rom-Com - Viola longs to go to London and come out in society, but is un-allowed to do so unless her reclusive sister, Evangeline, decides to accompany her. I enjoyed the added elements of romance between societal outcasts and the friends-with benefits romance. And this heroine loves animals and runs an animal shelter!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was such a fun and surprisingly spicy spin on 10 Things I Hate About You & Taming of the Shrew! The impoverished Duke of Vale agrees to court Lady Evangeline Raines so that the self-absorbed Lord Huntington, to whom Vale owes a significant sum of money, can court Evangeline’s younger sister. But Evangeline offers Vale an indecent proposal that he finds impossible to refuse.
I liked the modern twist and forward-thinking heroine who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it. Vale was a very sweet MMC. Effie and her friends are a riot.
You’ll enjoy this one if you like:
- Feisty FMCs
- Cute animal antics
- Virgin MMCs
- Indecent proposals
- Retellings
Thank you NetGalley, Amalie Howard and Forever Publishing for the opportunity to read this book and provide my honest review.

I love Amalie Howard and I love 90s rom coms, so I was pretty much destined to enjoy this. This is a Regency reimagining of the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which was a late 1990s teen adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew and I really enjoyed reading Howard's unique twist on these characters. Lady Evangeline Raine is a devoted animal lover - she even has her own animal rescue in Chichester - but she's not really all that fond of people. Her younger sister Viola is the opposite, and she is absolutely determined to get to London for the season so that she can be courted by a pretty terrible dude who wants to stake his claim. The catch is that (like the the source material), their father won't let Viola go to London for the season if Evangeline won't go. So her terrible suitor hires Gage, Lord Vane, who is a bit of a Scottish rouge who unexpectedly inherited a dukedom (and a ton of debt) from his older brother, and who is in dire financial straits, to woo Evangeline and convince her to go to London. While I always enjoy Amalie Howard's work, this was (weirdly) not my favorite. I love both sources (Shakespearean and Stilesean), so I may have just been having an off week when I was reading this. I definitely liked it but it took me a lot longer than a Regency romance usually would - especially one by Howard, whose books I typically just devour. I still loved the character development, the humor, and the delightful nods to the source material, it just wasn't my favorite of the series or of Howard's.

This was a delightful romance inspired by 10 Things I Hate About You! As a fan of historical romance, I loved how it blended classic elements with a modern twist. It was a quick, spicy read that I thoroughly enjoyed!

I Enjoyed this 10 Things I Hate About You inspired historical romance.
A cute, but spicy, quick historical read that I couldn’t put down.
Great banter and tension between the main characters. (Very slow burn romance)
I do, however, feel like the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more individually.
The plot and writing were just okay, but I did enjoy the animal shelter aspect.
Overall, a good book for you if you feel like reading a historical romance with more of a modern twist.

One of the best books I’ve read all year. Loved the Ten Things I Hate About You/Taming of the Shrew retelling. Gage and Evangeline are great characters whose chemistry comes off the pages. I love Amalie Howard’s writing and banter between characters and this book delivered.

A really fun steamy read! The plot is obviously predictable, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable!

Thank you to Netgalley/Forever for the advance reader's copy!

i absolutely loved this book. i've thoroughly enjoyed all of the books in this series so far, but something about Effie and Gage really hit for me.

i'm a big fan of a taming of the shrew/10 things i hate about you adaptation, and this did not fail me. Effie was perfectly prickly, and i loved that we immediately also got to see her soft spot due to her rescue animals as well. her meet-cute with gage was delightful (and i would die for Buttercup). Gage truly was immediately obsessed with her, and i loved that too. they were both down SO bad for each other but trying to resist it, which is one of my favourite tropes.

this was also spicier than i was expecting (much to my delight) and i thought that the sex scenes were excellently written (sex toys/mutual masturbation in a historical romance!!!! a carriage scene!!! mutual virginity-loss!!!!). i love a woman who goes after what she wants, and she was not at all shy about wanting Gage.

overall i found myself giggling and kicking my feet all the way through this, and it was an excellent romp. i'm so excited for Briar/Lushing's book next.

I loved the fast pace of the romance that Gage took Effie on. The romance was just another love story that this reader really needed to enjoy her evening with. The romance was definitely a story that was fun to read with the number of different characters who brought their own quirks to this gem of a story. I do wish however in the future that the FMC could be older than one and twenty perhaps? There are certain mature and grown adults things that I feel a woman with more mature experience should be written about.

I really wanted to love this! I LOVE a retelling, but Howard's romantic pacing had shades of insta-love, which I'm not (personally) drawn to. I think what works about the romantic tension in "10 Things" is that we don't see Julia Stiles' character even acknowledge that she finds Heath Ledger's character attractive at first, even to herself––she's a hardened shell that then slowly begins to crack/soften. I think this book would have benefited from a similar kind of character work and pacing. I'll have to try this author again!

I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed by this book. I wavered between two and three stars before settling on two. It was just... meh. I mean, I finished it, but that's probably not saying much considering I had no access to WiFi at the time.

Don't get me wrong, I love historical romance and The 10 Things I Hate About You. This book should have been an easy win for me. But it wasn't. For one, it's not really enemies-to-lovers if they're not really fighting and just lusting over one another before you're very far into the book. For another, one of the thinks I loved in The 10 Things I Hate About You was the relationship between the sisters and how that evolved and that, just wasn't here. The sister (who's name escapes me) was more of a caricature than a character. She was flat and her growth had no development. It just happened off-page, if it happened at all.

I really wish I had liked this more. It had all of the right elements, but the execution just wasn't there for me.

I do have to thank NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book for review purposes. It in no way influenced my opinion of the book.

This is a review of Amalie Howard’s third release in her Taming of the Dukes series, “The Worst Duke in London”. This book is loosely inspired by “10 Things I Hate About You” otherwise known as Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”. We begin with Lady Evangeline, who is a dedicated lover of animals. In an unfortunate turn of events she is given the name “Lady Ghastly” during her first season out in Society after an encounter with the world's worst duke. Lady Evangeline is at peace with who she is and has no interest in ever marrying. BUT her younger sister has aspirations of marrying well, thus thrusting her back into society. Enter Lord Vane (Gage), who is offered a proposition to clear his last remaining family debts in exchange for convincing Lady Evangeline to attend the coming season in London for six weeks.

I loved this installment in the Taming of the Dukes series! As a matter of fact it may very well be favorite. The duke is a perfect pairing to Lady Evangeline and gives off the perfect scottish rogue vibes. I cannot wait for the next book in the series and I hope it includes Earl Lushing. I think we can all guess who the FMC will be! If you are looking for a book with a fun story line, independent and strong FMC, cinnamon roll MMC and some decent spice....this is a great book to pick.

Special thanks to the publisher for the ARC!

I liked the story line of this book. I love female characters who are not afraid to stand up for themselves. Especially in a time that was frowned upon. I love the chemistry between the MCs. My only complaint is the middle seemed to drag for me. I found myself starting to skim pages to get to more interesting parts. All in all an OK book.

Loved it! Chemistry, delicious banter, and so much fun!

Lady Evangeline has no plans to marry, give up her freedom to a man, or deal with the petulant ton in London who’ve made her an outcast. Nope, she’ll stay in the country tending to the animals she’s rescued, on her terms. But, Viola, her very opposite younger sister pines for a London season and a celebrated match, and isn’t allowed to go without Evangeline.

Gage knows he’ll have to marry someday, but his sole focus now is getting his dukedom above water after his father and brother gambled most of it away. Viola’s slimy suiter makes him an offer that’s too good to pass up: entice Lady Evangeline to London and his debt will be forgiven.

The meet-cute is perfect—at Evangeline’s animal shelter of all places—with instant sparks and a little embarrassment too! Unlike most dukes, Gage adores Evangeline’s outspoken nature and independence. Evangeline feels like Gage actually sees her, unlike the others of the ton. So much so that she makes him her own scandalous offer…

Amalie Howard can write chemistry from the beginning and fit it perfectly into her characters’ personalities! The small, sizzling touches that you know are going somewhere later; the characters’ inner thoughts and desires; the banter. It’s all right there. The buildup is long and slow—sometimes maybe a tiny bit too slow (they’re so hot for each other but it’s often a week in between meetings--these characters have more patience than I do) but it worked! The story teases us to perfection, a little at a time with a lot of intensity that eventually explodes.

Oh my gosh I had such a fun time with this book! This is a retelling of 10 Things I Hate About You with a Victorian twist and I have to say I really loved it. If you're going to have characters get involved with crazy schemes you've got to give them a good reason to do it and the author definitely did that with these characters. They both had strong motivations for the actions they took and I found myself very invested in their story. If you prefer your historical romances to have a modern feel then this is definitely the right historical for you. It gets very old to me when historical heroines are missish or shy and Effie is neither of those things. The banter was delightful and the chemistry was sizzling. This book could have felt unbalanced because there were quite a few sex scenes but thankfully there was a good bit of emotional development too and I never felt like the story was moving too quickly. I also really liked the author's choice to push back on the whole arrangement that the premise is based on. It wasn't cute in that play or the movie and it's still not cute here, but because the author calls that into question and gives the Duke a strong motivation to participate in the scheme I didn't mind. That change really added to the story for me. Overall I blew through the story in a day. If you're looking for something with lots of banter and steam I would recommend picking this book up.

Lady Evangeline prefers animals to people and has no interest in marriage­ and she is very opposite of her younger sister, Viola.

Their father has one rule: Viola may be courted, only if Effie has a suitor as well!! Such a tricky time for someone who is not a fan of that.

Gage Croft, Duke of Vale, has a ton of debt and is determined to rebuild his estates.
He was offered a fortune to charm Lady Evangeline for the season so Lady Viola can be courted.

Effie is such a fun, strong character, especially in a time when women didn't have much power!

Her love for animals made her even more likable to me!

This book was an easy, happy read, perfect for my Bridgerton binge.

The chemistry between Effie and Gage was fantastic, and watching their fake courtship turn into something real was so enjoyable.

If you’re looking for a light, romantic escape, this is it!

Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Can’t do it. DNF at 50%.


This has taken a turn into lecturing me about modern feminist concepts like the constructs of virginity, sapphic relationships, self pleasure, sex toys, women’s sexuality and all the double standards therein. The heroine is constantly lecturing this hero like she’s just walked out of a women’s studies class at Berkeley not an unwed woman from the regency (maybe?) era.
Honestly, I expect some modern sensibilities in historical romance, and I like seeing a woman push against the expectations of society but this is beyond enough and yes i absolutely agree with everything this author is spouting but I do not love to be lectured on it. WE AGREE WITH YOU BUT HOLY CRAP SHUT UP AND GIVE ME SOME PLOT AND STORY DEVELOPMENT.

This book vacillates between soap boxing on the patriarchy and its injustices (from a modern ethos) and dick and 💩 jokes and horny inner thoughts. There is no substance to this story and the plot is basic af.

This whole thing is a huge miss and I could go on about how much masturbation this character talks about, how stupid all the set ups are, how contrived and unbelievable the plot is and how every single male character in this series is a Duke, but I won’t because it’s simply not worth it.

Skip this book folks. There are a billion Duke books out there, maybe even more. Go read one of those instead.

This next story in the Hellfire Kitties series follows Evangeline Raine as she crosses paths with Gage Croft, the impoverished Duke of Vale--also known as the worst duke in London. Neither one of them is particularly fond of the London scene, but end up there anyway mostly because of family reasons. Evangeline to chaperone her younger sister, Gage in order to pay off his dead brother's debts. Of course the sparks fly between them and the author creates quite a few steamy scenes that usually work. Unfortunately, a number of them come across as anachronistic, particularly in the language used, but on the whole this is a decent book with the requisite happy ending achieved after much angst on the part of both main characters.