I NEVER FORGET A DUKE is now available!

Hi friends! Long time, no message. I’ve been working on a mid-year in review post with some book recommendations, but you may have noticed that we’ve slid on past the mid-year mark. I’ll get that to you shortly, but I’m postponing in the interest of not spamming you.

Because TODAY’S THE DAY! This is my first novel-length release since 2022! Let’s talk about it!

Well, let’s get this out of the way: In I Never Forget a Duke, the Duke of Swynford is hit over the head by a shadowy person who wants to do him in, and he wakes up in a less reputable neighborhood with amnesia. He’s nursed back to health by Adele, the paid companion of a countess, and Adele must help the duke (who does not know he is a duke) rediscover his identity. She Florence Nightingales him, they fall in love, but his mother does not approve, and someone is still trying to kill him, so they have some challenges to solve!

This is the first book in a series that centers on four male friends who grew close at school and still socialize with each other at their gentlemen’s club every night. This is a planned trilogy (I’m actually finishing up Book 3 now), and there’s a secondary romance between one of the friends and another man that spans all three books, so I do recommend reading these in order. 

Buy it here! 

So, that’s the book. I wanted to talk more about its inspirations!

I have long been a historical romance fan. I’ve had a lot of false starts on the way to writing one. I’ve published two in the past, although these are outliers. (Such a Dance is set in the Jazz Age and is a romance with a vaudeville performer and a mobster with a heart of gold, and it’s a bit darker than my usual work. Ten Days in August was marketed as more of a historical mystery because the main plot revolves around a murder, and I think it’s probably the most literary of my novels.)

So how did a fairly traditional (with some twists) Regency trilogy come about?

In 2020, a friend of mine was moving and sent me a box of romance novels she was getting rid of. This is how I ended up with Judith McNaught’s entire backlist. So while I was stuck at home, I read all those books, then I read a bunch of old Julie Garwoods. And I think there has been a marked change in historical romance in the last 50 years. For one thing, gender politics have changed. Maybe that seems obvious, but the “forced seduction” trope from those old school bodice rippers comes primarily from an assumption that women couldn’t be seen wanting sex too much. I’m very glad we’ve gotten over that. But there are elements of that in the old McNaught and Garwood historicals.

But aside from that, I think modern romance novels are more… streamlined, for lack of a better word. This isn’t limited to historical; I think in general the plots have gotten simpler. There is usually only one romance plot, without a secondary subplot. This obviously varies by sub-genre; romantasy has a lot of complexity (which appeals to me as a reader). But a lot of the romances I’ve read in the last five years or so have fewer subplots and secondary romances than the older books did. (We can talk about why, but that’s a different essay!)

So, basically, Judith McNaught inspired me to write an old school bodice ripper.

I also love bonkers tropes. Give me your soap opera drama, your lost memories, your secret babies, your shadowy mysteries. I collect old Harlequins, and one of my favorite things to do is haunt library and garage sales and pick out the ones with the most outlandish titles. The Tycoon’s Secret Baby? Yes, give it to me. 

So the series started with me thinking about tropes. 

In this first book, I gave a duke amnesia. At the end of the book’s first scene, he gets hit over the head, and he wakes up the next morning with no idea who he is.

I realize that this is probably not how real amnesia works, but I watched The Muppets Take Manhattan a zillion times as a kid and it imprinted on me, so just be glad I didn’t cure the duke by hitting him on the head again. (If you haven’t seen the movie, you should go watch it immediately, but for context, Kermit is hit in the head and lands in the hospital with amnesia and ends up with a job in advertising and a smarmy vocal affectation, and he’s about to miss his big Broadway debut, but then he hits his head again and remembers he’s a frog who wrote a musical. It sounds goofy, but it’s my favorite Muppet movie.)

Anyway, I Never Forget a Duke has a mystery plot, because as Hugh, the duke, regains his memory, he also has to figure out who tried to do him in to begin with. I hesitate to call it a suspense novel, because it is primarily a romance, but there are mystery elements. (My working title for this novel was Regency Amnesia Caper, which I think probably gives you a feel for the plot and tone.)

In Book 2, one of Hugh’s friends gets entrapped into a marriage, kind of, and he installs his new wife at his estate in Wales and then goes back to London because they both intend to live separate lives. But then they start writing letters to each other and fall in love through the mail. However, she’s keeping some pretty big secrets from him, and everything comes to a head when he at last returns to Wales.

In Book 3, another of Hugh’s friends realizes after his best friend gets engaged that he loves her, because these two idiots didn’t realize they’re in love until it’s almost too late to do anything about it. Unfortunately, the fiancé has ulterior motives and refuses to end the engagement. dramatic music

Meanwhile, there’s a secondary romance with the fourth of Hugh’s friends and another lord, and they start off as just a hook up, but then they fall in love, but then they break up, but don’t worry because they get their HEA in Book 3.

So that’s the series! I’m pretty excited for it. I hope you enjoy it, too!