Tuesday, April 17, 2012

O: One Dance with a Duke

Time for a romance novel!

One Dance With A Duke by Tessa Dare
Genre: Regency romance




General premise Spencer Dumarque, the handsome and mysterious Duke of Morland, is also known as “the duke of midnight”. He shows up at balls right at that hour, asks one of the young debutantes to dance (usually a gorgeous teenager awed into silence by his presence), and then escorts her in to dinner and disappears. Unlike her younger friends of marriageable age (and their mothers), Amelia d’Orsay isn’t impressed. Page 4 quote: “What other ladies saw as intriguing and romantic, she took for self-indulgent melodrama. Really, an unmarried, wealthy, handsome duke who felt the need to command more female attention?”

This time, though, when the duke arrives at the ball and reaches out for the girl next to her, Amelia grabs his hand, seizing the opportunity to spend several uninterrupted minutes with him so she can insist he forgive her brother’s gambling debts. This leads to a heated conversation on the patio, the arrival of unexpected bad news, and a midnight ride away from the ball. The next morning, the duke finds himself accused of the murder of an acquaintance, and (much to her chagrin) Amelia finds herself engaged to the arrogant duke to avoid scandal following their midnight disappearance.

Despite my love of Regency romances, the two most common “hero-types” in the sub-genre irritate me. That’s probably a charitable way of putting it. Anyway, there’s the brooding duke (the superior, rude, rich guy hiding a dark past and a heart of gold) and the romancing rake (the witty, handsome, ne’er-do-well who sleeps with lots of willing, attractive widows/actresses and is constantly in and out of trouble and gambling halls, but becomes monogamous and angelic once he meets his virginal true love).

Generally when I love a Regency romance, it’s because the love interest doesn’t fit either of these tired and tiresome tropes. Oddly enough, Spencer Dumarque definitely fits brooding duke-mode. But because we’re in his point of view for parts of the book, we know why he’s that way fairly early on, and it makes all the difference in the world for me. Not to get all spoilery, but when he finds out from Amelia that society views his midnight dance as the height of social excitement and mystique, his response is pure astonishment. But you’ll have to read the book to find out why he does the midnight dance. J

One Dance with a Duke is the first book of the Stud Club series. Yes, the name is a wink and nod for us modern readers, but the stud in question is actually a legendary stud horse called Osiris. The founder of the club is a popular member of society (genuinely liked by everyone because he’s thoughtful and friendly as well as rich, good-looking and well-connected) who created ten brass tokens giving access to this horse. The tokens can only be won, not bought, creating all sorts of excitement as men gamble for these tokens. The series is built around solving the mystery of who murdered the club founder.

History, mystery, romance, and horses. Works for me!

6 comments:

  1. Regency romance is so popular right now on the Kindle. It's a good genre to get into if you love it. I've read a few but don't write it.

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    1. I've tried my hand at writing every other genre I love, but not this. I find it impossible to write a world where women's options are so limited. But talented writers like Tessa Dare, Courtney Milan, Julia Quinn and Julie Anne Long really make it work.

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  2. I've never read a Regency romance. Maybe I should...

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    1. Oh, I highly recommend them! Written by modern writers, of course (older Romance novels tend to have insufferable heroes - the idea of what constitutes an appealing alpha male (or a good heroine) has changed dramatically since the 1970s & 80s). All the writers I mentioned in KarenG's comment are great, but they have different strengths - humor, complicated familial relationships, mystery, adventure, the intricacies of law and tradition in the Regency period...

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  3. I don't read Regencies often, but they can be fun escapes now and then.

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    1. I read fantasy, SF and literary a lot more myself. But occasionally, when I want to read something that's both exciting and detailed in world-building, and where I won't have to mourn the death of an important character, only Regencies will do. :)

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