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A review by reader_fictions
The Truth About Love and Dukes by Laura Lee Guhrke
4.0
Since I revisited my obsession with historical romance novels back in 2014 by reading my first Tessa Dare, Romancing the Duke, I’ve been constantly on the hunt for more authors who write the sort of historical romance I love. I’ve found Julia Quinn (an oldie but a goodie), Lenora Bell, Courtney Milan, among others. When I first asked for recommendations, Guhrke was one of the names I got from several people, and those people were spot on. Guhrke writes solid, creative, feminist af romance novels, and they’re absolutely what I expect of historical romance of recent years.
There’s a deeply specific subgenre of historical romance where the books center on agony aunts, and tbh I really love it. The premise of the series is based around the advice column of “Lady Truelove,” a fictionalized character written by Irene Deverill, who runs her family’s newspaper single-handed. The agony aunt concept serves as a humorous foundation, yes, but more than that writing advice columns or society gossip was one of the few careers respectable women could have in that era…so long as they do so anonymously.
Irene’s such a badass. She reminds me a lot of Frederica Marshall from Milan’s The Suffragette Scandal, who is also an opinionated suffragette who runs a newspaper. They would totes be besties and dismantle the patriarchy one article at a time. Irene is the granddaughter of a viscount, but she’s happy to have escaped society, thanks to dear old granddad completely cutting off her mother for marrying a newspaperman. She loves being the editor of the paper and advocating for women’s rights in her free time.
Henry, the Duke of Torquil, comes into her life after Lady Truelove advises his mother to marry the scandalous artist she has her heart set on. Henry’s not amused, and he demands that Irene and her younger sister Clara come stay for a fortnight so that Irene can talk his mom out of the plan, which will turn society against them, ducal or not.
Though I never really got emotionally invested in the ship the way I like to, I do love Henry and Irene on an intellectual level. Henry comes off as high-handed and a bit of an asshole, but he’s mostly just deeply protective of those around him. He’s open to listening to Irene’s criticisms of his privilege, and he really learns from her. Of course, I also love any book where the dude is a mess of feels, and the heroine’s holding it together; I like when the men are emotional and the women are more logical. It’s also nice that Henry is in no way a rake at all; he’s rule-bound and traditional, which isn’t a hero type you see very often.
Everything about this romance novel was great. It’s somewhere in the intersection between Courtney Milan and Kate Noble.
There’s a deeply specific subgenre of historical romance where the books center on agony aunts, and tbh I really love it. The premise of the series is based around the advice column of “Lady Truelove,” a fictionalized character written by Irene Deverill, who runs her family’s newspaper single-handed. The agony aunt concept serves as a humorous foundation, yes, but more than that writing advice columns or society gossip was one of the few careers respectable women could have in that era…so long as they do so anonymously.
Irene’s such a badass. She reminds me a lot of Frederica Marshall from Milan’s The Suffragette Scandal, who is also an opinionated suffragette who runs a newspaper. They would totes be besties and dismantle the patriarchy one article at a time. Irene is the granddaughter of a viscount, but she’s happy to have escaped society, thanks to dear old granddad completely cutting off her mother for marrying a newspaperman. She loves being the editor of the paper and advocating for women’s rights in her free time.
Henry, the Duke of Torquil, comes into her life after Lady Truelove advises his mother to marry the scandalous artist she has her heart set on. Henry’s not amused, and he demands that Irene and her younger sister Clara come stay for a fortnight so that Irene can talk his mom out of the plan, which will turn society against them, ducal or not.
Though I never really got emotionally invested in the ship the way I like to, I do love Henry and Irene on an intellectual level. Henry comes off as high-handed and a bit of an asshole, but he’s mostly just deeply protective of those around him. He’s open to listening to Irene’s criticisms of his privilege, and he really learns from her. Of course, I also love any book where the dude is a mess of feels, and the heroine’s holding it together; I like when the men are emotional and the women are more logical. It’s also nice that Henry is in no way a rake at all; he’s rule-bound and traditional, which isn’t a hero type you see very often.
Everything about this romance novel was great. It’s somewhere in the intersection between Courtney Milan and Kate Noble.