Judith’s review of The Art of Duke Hunting (Royal Entourage #2) by Sophia Nash

The Hangover meets Regency England in RITA Award-winning author jSophia Nash’s wickedly clever and wonderfully sensual Royal Entourage historical romance novels. In The Art of Duke Hunting, the second in her series, the dashing Duke of Norwich–on the morning after a most extravagant royal bachelor party that he simple cannot recall–awakens on board ship and well out to sea…and in the arms of a stranger, an enchanting and most proper lady. The Art of Duke Hunting is funny, sexy, and wonderfully romantic, as fans of Karen Hawkins, Elizabeth Boyle, and Victoria Alexander will most assuredly agree. And unlike the members of the Royal Entourage, you will happily recall every delicious moment of it.


This second novel in the “Royal Entourage” series features characters who are a part of the close inner circle of the Prince Regent of England, a man who lived “high on the hog” and whose excesses are the stuff of historic legend. Unlike many historical romance novels, “Prinny” as he was called is an active character. His close friends have really screwed up this time–a bachelor party for one of the highest ranking dukes was so out of bounds and actually destructive that the unwashed masses in England (as they were often characterized) have finally had their fill. As a means of reclaiming any modicum of his people’s loyalty, Prinny has decreed that his circle are ALL going to be married and being living staid and proper lives with wife and babies and such. Here the Duke of Norwich, best friend to the Duke of Kress (who is a main character in the first novel) has disappeared as far as his chums are concerned. Actually he ended up on a passenger ship bound for the Continent and he is scared spitless. A long held and well-known curse rests on his family and he just knows he is going to die by drowning. Thus he has determined that he will never marry and the line of succession will end with him. Obviously, someone of the female persuasion has a different idea as she has determined that the duke is going to be around for awhile. If that were not the case, we wouldn’t have a story, would we?

This is a truly fun novel and lovers of historical fiction will find lots here that will please. The heroine is a woman of strong will and self-determination. She is a widow and she knows what she wants and it is, first and foremost, her own independence. That is, until she offers “comfort” to the duke while they are caught in a storm that could have easily sunk their ship and ended their lives. Out of this sexual encounter comes the necessity of a marriage–of convenience, to be sure, but a marriage that the duke is determined will never produce an heir. The new duchess is an artist of note and while she wants to proceed with her original plans to tour distant lands and their artistic treasures and museums, she has developed a “connection” or perhaps it is safe to say a sense of affection for her erstwhile husband, even though they have agreed that they will lead separate lives. In this case, that agreement appears to be in trouble.

This is another fine novel from a writer that has given romance lovers some fine novels and this book will not disappoint. The two main characters are people of the kind that we would probably love knowing, in spite of their aristocratic station. They have set goals for their lives, want to live productively rather than while away their days playing, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for the families who depend on them for their livelihood and future prosperity.  The duke is a man who also has an artistic bent but it has been ridiculed out of him by a hard and unloving father.  Yet he uses his talents to develop a new method of bring fresh water to the citizens of London.  In the midst of their strange relationship is the knowledge that the Prince Regent’s popularity is nil and the Duke of Norwich’s marriage is still a well-kept secret–on the command of Prinny himself.  So there is political stuff here, romance of a rather strange nature, and two people who have difficulty coming to terms with the situation in which they find themselves.

The series:

Judith’s review of Between the Duke and the Deep Blue Sea (Royal Entourage #1) by Sophia Nash

Nash presents the first book in her clever new Royal Entourage series. A Regency-era version of the film “The Hangover,” the series follows a royal entourage after a night of unheralded extravagance–and very foggy memories. Original.

The Prince Regent whose presence gives this historical period its name, is a man who loves to party.  He is a man who is far more into “playing” than he is into ruling and were it not for the presence and continued life of his ailing father, he would be king outright.  Yet his inner circle knows his penchant for fine wine, beautiful women, and as much loud celebrating the public can tolerate.  Well, folks, this series begins the tales of those inveterate players–bachelors all–who made up the inner circle of Prinny and whose loud, boisterous, drunken playing has now managed to offend aristocrat and commoner alike.  Not only that, the hero of this novel has managed to lose his entire fortune after only possessing it and the title for a very short period of time.  In order to reclaim some semblance of his people’s loyalty, Prinny has decreed that ALL the dukes will marry–they will each choose a bride from a list the Prince will provide–and they will do it as soon as possible.

This initial offering in this series has some wonderful characters.  The main characters are a man who has no interest in marrying yet must do so as a result of the fallout from the bachelor party–an evenings festivities that caused such damage that the groom never made it to the church.  Now the Duke of Kress is sent to the lonely sea coast of Cornwall to repair his ancestral castle and take all the other partying dukes with him as well as the simpering misses who are hoping for a ducal title and that little band of gold (and the fortune to go with it).  Who would have imagined that Kress would come upon a woman who is hanging on to almost nothing half way down a sea cliff, staring at her possible death on the rocks below, and whose presence at his home would cause all the rather strange circumstances that develop because of her being there?  Yet that is the crux of this story and as in some of the finest historical novels, the dialogue and goings-on of the guests are the most entertaining aspect.

The heroine–the woman saved from certain death at the bottom of the cliff–wants to move on with her life.  She knows that her greedy husband has left her to die if not actually managing to arrange her fall in the first place.  She is attracted to the duke but understands that Prinny has commanded and so he must do.  She was certainly not on Prinny’s list of potential brides who were acceptable.  Yet as is most often the case, little if anything goes according to plan, and we all know that human emotions and sexual attraction top the list of unpredictable aspects of human living.  So it is here, and the circumstances that are constantly causing the duke and our heroine to face their feelings for one another are many and much resented by both.

I think you’ll like this novel;  you’ll find yourself chuckling often and sometimes laughing outright.  It is fun, entertaining reading and is the kind of historical romance that moves away from the ordinary sufficiently to capture even the jaded interest of those of us who read mountains of books.  The heroine is the kind of woman who is willing to live according to the dictates of society–to a point.  Yet she now knows that no man is going to be allowed to diminish her sense of herself as has her husband.  I guess facing one’s death as one hangs off a cliff can change the way a person is willing to live in the future.  The hero is also a man who finally faces up to the necessities of his rank, yet there is still that sense of wanting life on his own terms.  Thus, these two independent and strong-willed individuals has a tough time finding their way toward one another and when they do, they still have problems.

This novel is good reading from beginning to end.  I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
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This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.