A review by swooningandstepbacks
When the Duke Loved Me by Lydia Lloyd

4.0

I was so excited to see that one of my favorite historical romance bookstagramers had a book releasing soon. Lydia Lloyd is the Queen of compiling research on historical romances and the history aspect of them. So I was pleased to read that her heroine, Catherine is a bit of a history buff herself. Our book has a promising opening with John and Catherine each secretly seeking something outside of their normal lives (John pretends to be a vicar to break from his duties as a Duke, Catherine too conceals her identity). Amidst their instant attraction and beginning of a make out session, their identities are revealed and they are none other than family rivals. Why rivals? John’s married father had an affair with Catherine’s aunt and was caught in flagrante. This destroyed John’s parents’ marriage and also the reputation of Mary Forster, Catherine’s aunt who by association destroyed her family’s name. Seem a little confusing? It was at first for me too.

The story then book then jumps to 7 years in the future. Both John and Catherine have secretly been lusting over one another (which I found to be a LOOOOONG time for feelings of lust without interaction to exist) and they must pair up due to a stipulation in the late Duke’s will. For me this is where the chemistry really started to take off. If you take enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity, spiciness is bound to happen, right? There seemed to be many plot points driving this novel and I think it confused me initially, but I really enjoyed the time John and Catherine had to spend together. There is a scene where Catherine is at the modiste that is