A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole

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Title: A Duke by Default
Author: Alyssa Cole
Series: Reluctant Royals #2
Published by: Avon
Release Date: July 31, 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 384
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Award-winning author Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals series continues with a woman on a quest to be the heroine of her own story and the duke in shining armor she rescues along the way…

New York City socialite and perpetual hot mess Portia Hobbs is tired of disappointing her family, friends, and—most importantly—herself. An apprenticeship with a struggling swordmaker in Scotland is a chance to use her expertise and discover what she’s capable of. Turns out she excels at aggravating her gruff silver fox boss…when she’s not having inappropriate fantasies about his sexy Scottish burr.

Tavish McKenzie doesn’t need a rich, spoiled American telling him how to run his armory…even if she is infuriatingly good at it. Tav tries to rebuff his apprentice—and his attraction to her—but when Portia accidentally discovers that he’s the secret son of a duke, rough-around-the-edges Tav becomes her newest makeover project.

Forging metal into weapons and armor is one thing, but when desire burns out of control and the media spotlight gets too hot to bear, can a commoner turned duke and his posh apprentice find lasting love?

My Review:

3.5 stars — I struggled with bits of this book, but on the whole it offered me so much.

Portia was one of the biggest mix of conflicting traits I’ve ever seen.  She had moments where she was spunky AF, and I was all “YEAH!”  But then she would get into her head and would reinterpret things…and suddenly I could see how frustrating that was from an outsider perspective.  It’s like I got her, but we share similar bad habits/traits and that was hard to watch in someone else.  But I seriously loved her delight in learning…I got excited with her.

Tavish could be both adorable and infuriating.  His inability to communicate seriously frustrated me on more than one occasion.  His intentions were good, but man was he ever going about things wrong.  But I did love that he really saw Portia, and even though he was terrible at it, he tried to get her to see it too.  And I really could understand how crazy things got once the Duke stuff came into play.

Portia and Tav’s chemistry was definitely on point once we finally got there.  I loved that there was playfulness mixed in with the steam.

I will admit, I thought I was going to love Jamie and Cheryl more than I did in the end.  I loved them on the surface, but when it came down to it I don’t think they helped…I think they hindered.  Honestly, there were a lot of characters that felt very self-involved in this book, from MCs down to secondaries.  It was…a frustrating look at what is likely very realistic.

The royalty stuff got a bit out there at times, but nothing unusual for royalty books IMO.

I loved the deep dive into the world of sword making, and all things historical.  I also loved the look at ADHD that this book gave, especially since I could vibe with a lot of the way it presents.

I think in the end I had a hard time following the choices characters were making at times, and so it took me out of the book a bit.  I’m not saying it was wrong, I just couldn’t connect.  But that’s not going to stop me from wanting to go back and read Ledi’s book, and then check out Nya and Johan.