The Duke's Quandary by Callie Hutton
The Duke's Quadary scored points just by using the word "quandary" in the title. It's a fun but awkward work and it suited this novel perfectly. Most of the book revolves around two fun (but awkward) people trying to navigate the haute ton to varying degrees of success.
First we have Miss Penelope Clayton. She is a bit of a hermit, a future blue stocking, and set against marriage and all the restrictions it may impose. Then we have the Duke of Manchester, or Drake, who seems to have a stick so far up his butt most of the time that I'm not sure how he manages to sit without injuring himself. When you throw these two together, along with a houseful of unmarried sisters, and you have quite an interesting story.
Callie Hutton does a good job of throwing some fun things their way, but they are drawn to each other no matter how hard they try to stay away. And no matter how many times they swear not to let anything happen, it does anyway. This was the biggest downfall of the story - their professions of un-love for each other, their promises to stay away and remain proper - got a little tiring and I think there could have been less of those conversations.
I loved how Penelope was a scientist and it led to a very great sequence of scenes near the end that had me chuckling. Drake's sisters are all very dear and sweet and trying very hard to remove the stick from his butt - the perfect background characters to help push things along. Drake's mother is a sweet lady as well and maybe there will be stories of her finding great love matches for Drake's sisters as well.
*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*
