Anna Bradley is good at writing ton-centric historical romances that really sell you on the attraction between the main couple as they interact during a series of society events. In this case, Prudence is predisposed to hate Jasper because she believes he essentially swindled her father out of his fortune because Jasper figured her dad was bad at cards. Unfortunately, her friend Francesca’s (previous heroine) husband Giles is best friends with Jasper so they keep coming across each other. Cue Prudence’s slapdash blackmail attempt that somehow ends with Jasper being shot in an…. indelicate place, and then holy matrimony.

Jasper is a good example of a rake hero. He’s a louche aristo-type who has series of meaningless society affairs, he has a natural sex appeal that Prudence is not indifferent even though she hates him (who knew a runaway horse rescue scene could have so much sexual tension?), he has potentially compromising nudes set in pieces of jewelry, etc. etc. Of course in natural rake fashion, he’s thoroughly bewildered by his attraction to Prudence, and even more horrified after their marriage when he realizes there are Feelings involved.

Jasper is intent on not falling for Pru and is convinced he’ll make a terrible husband, so he attempts to place distance between them after their wedding (it’s pretty similar to Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me in this way, sans the bee-string death trauma). Meanwhile, Prudence who is an unconventional sporty type and loves to ride and hunt, wants nothing more than to take fencing lessons at a usually all-male establishment. Jasper HATES this, which is why a bet is struck up between them: if he can’t seduce her within 10 days, she can attend fencing classes forevermore. This might arguably be the best part of the book just because of how increasingly desperate Jasper gets— man’s fully banging on her bedroom door by day two(?). Again, Pru isn’t unaffected which is why I’m pretty sure they wordlessly decide oral doesn’t count.

Here’s the thing about Pru being a sporty gal: it actually has plot ramifications in that a blackmail plot nearly succeeds only because Prudence is uninformed about the hymen/virginity myth while being an enthusiastic horse girl. While I could buy her lack of education to a degree, I didn’t super enjoy how much the plot hinged on this one fact.

My final note: If there’s one thing a year of reviewing historical romances has taught me to appreciate, it’s the sniffers, and Prudence does not disappoint when she sniffed the pillow on the chair Jasper was sitting on not once, not twice, but three times before panic-hurling it away.

I enjoy Anna Bradley’s sex scenes. She does such a thorough job of building up the tension between the couples so the payoff is always good. The wedding night scene in particular was excellent, and that’s in part because Jasper comes with, and I quote, a “defeated groan”, (my new favorite phrase) on their wedding night presumably because the pussy was that good and he just lost all willpower. And it only goes downhill from there (downhill for him; uphill for us): Their next encounter, his hands are literally shaking with lust. By the time he’s four days into a celibacy streak due to the bet, he gets hard because Prudence touched his arm. It’s so great.

This is another solid addition to Anna Bradley’s Drop Dead Dukes series; it certainly gave me a laugh and also gave me good sex scenes and chemistry between the hero and heroine. I look forward to the next book in the series, which features Jasper and GIles’s friend Stoneleigh who is (also) vocally opposed to marriage…

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

 Heat Level: 3.5/5
Publication Date: March 26th