Title: The Duke’s Rules of Engagement

Author: Jennifer Haymore

eBook (paperback is also available)

Pages: 384 (on my NOOK version, the actual story ended on page 273 with an excerpt for the next book in the series.)

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

ISBN: 9781649372918

Release Date: 9-27-22

Book Details: This was an eBook, so I was able to customize my reading experience.

Where To Find It: I got my copy at Barnes and Noble.

Time that the story takes place? Spring of 1817

POV? Third person

What caught your eye? Well, we’ve got a Leading Lady that’s a matchmaker, a bit of a grumpy duke, and honestly . . . I think this might have been advertised at a reduced price on Bookbub. But the sample chapters were just lovely and into the cart it went!

Did you enjoy it? I really did.

Was it predictable? A bit of yes and no and then absolutely no.

Was it sexy? Tame? We went from tame to quietly sexy to out right sexy.

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? I found it very charming. No laugh out loud moments, but it was incredibly entertaining.

Would you read it again? I do believe I would. In fact, I’m already considering buying a physical copy of this book for my library.

Is this part of a series? It is, The Lions and Lilies, and would you believe this is book one? I can’t believe it either, I actually started with book one!

What a delightful read! This was seriously a lovely book. I don’t want to say I’m a sucker for a matchmaker book, but I’m kind of a sucker for a matchmaker book. If only for the fact, that we the reader know from moment one that the matchmaker and client are going to fall in love. 

And that’s fine. I’m all for it, in fact, I live for that stuff. So as far as asking, was the story predictable? This aspect of it was a given, but I find that comforting.

We’ve got a great Leading Lady, Joanna “Jo” Porter who is a professional matchmaker going by the name of “Mrs. Porter,” because she’s a spinster at the ripe old age of 27 and works to support her small family. The family being, her mother, a family friend and two servants that are dear friends of the Porters. It’s a nice little set up.

Jo prides herself on the fact that she can find the perfect match for anyone. And by perfect, I mean a love match. All of her clients have found true love and had blissfully happy marriages. She’s actually pretty highly recommended. While she’s not rolling in piles of money because of her skill, she does get a fair amount of coin for her services.

Enter Matthew Leighton, The Duke of Crestmont. And he’s every bit as difficult and Dukey as you can get. There are points during his first meeting with Jo that you had to wonder if this dude is being obtuse on purpose. Thankfully, Jo has the patience of a saint and powers through. I loved how Matthew tells her that he needs to find the perfect woman to be his Duchess and he needs this all to happen before he leaves after the season is over. He then gets up and tells Jo that he expects a list of suitable candidates by the end of the week and makes to leave.

Jo is like, “Uh, no . . . that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.” And basically tells him to sit his ass down for a bit of a chat. She wants to know what kind of woman he’s looking for.

“Duchess like,” is his best answer.

The entire first interview is rather hilarious as Jo, as I said before has the patience of a saint, and with every vague answer he gives her, she questions him in what that particular answer means. She also asks if he’s buying a horse or looking for a wife as terms such as “Pedigree” come up more than once. 

Of course, Matthew is taken aback. He’d been picturing this little old lady that would give him tea and cakes and tell him that she’d find him his perfect Duchess and not to worry about a thing. Duke Boy didn’t expect to actually have to do any work himself.

Now, I’ve probably given you a bad impression of Matthew and the truth is, the man is truly delightful. He’s just protective of himself. He’s suffered some rather bad blows: the death of both is parents, the betrayal of a woman he thought he loved, the ridicule of an older uncle who is also his heir (I didn’t even know that was a thing, but it is), and doesn’t have the easiest time trusting anyone outside his closest three friends—which we see rather frequently in the book and they’re all interesting lads.

Matthew has a vast interest in weather. He studies it intensely—and now that I think about it, seeing as the weather played a part in the death of his parents (a flash flood that swept their carriage off the road) that’s probably why. I’m sure that was mentioned in the book, but I truly can’t remember.

He’s also an avid rower and boatbuilder with his three friends. We often see Matthew working/helping build a boat that one of the friends has designed. And it’s rather nice to see a Duke actually doing something. So often in these novels, Dukes don’t really do much, or rather, we don’t see them do much. 

That was one of the refreshing things about this book, the people are doing stuff. Not just the men, but the women as well. Jo is of course a matchmaker, however one of the women that lives with her, Lilly (who was basically adopted by the family at a young age) is a skilled designer of buildings and such. She fills notebooks and notebooks with her ideas. Jo’s father was actually her mentor. 

The other women in the book, the Cherrington sisters are involved in several occupational hobbies such as archaeology, working with under privileged children, the arts . . . my point is, none of the women in this book are merely giggling behind fans. They all do stuff.

As per usual, I’ve gotten off track. 

So here’s the meat of the book. Lilly was to be married to Charles Cherrington and at the start of the book the women of the Porter household are planning the upcoming nuptials. However, a letter arrives during tea from Charles, telling Lilly that he cannot possibly marry her. He begs her forgiveness, but gives no explanation of the separation.

A few days later, Jo confronts Charles at a ball and demands to know what the hell is going on. Charles admits while his family is high in stature (he’s an Earl, I think) his father who is now deceased had gambled and drank away most of the family fortune. Charles needs to marry a woman of money. He’s got five sisters to take care of, none of which are married yet. He can’t marry Lilly as she’s poor.

That’s when Jo hatches her plan. If she can match Matthew the Duke with one of the sisters—I mean, there’s five, he’s sure to find one of them acceptable—then Charles and Lilly can marry freely. And if Jo can get a successful match for the Duke, that will not only bolster her own business as a matchmaker, but heal the sick heartbreak that Lilly is experiencing. Everyone wins.

Matthew sits for another interview with Jo, who presents him with several possible ladies that he might find suitable and tells him that three of the women—including one of the Cherrington sisters—will be at this particular ball. 

Fun fact about Matthew, he hates balls.

He hates this whole idea that he must find a bride in order to produce an heir. The man is a bit of an introverted nerd, he likes to study the weather, build boats, and spend time in either his library or his shed where he keeps all his weather stuff.

Balls, parties, soirees? Pass.

With all the interviews and party attending, Jo and Matthew actually form a rather sweet friendship. She’s truly interested in his hobby of weather. She’s curious about his rowing. She’s interested in him.

The love scenes are lovely. Never crass or crude, nothing happens that you’d have to consult the Kama Sutra about. 

My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that Matthew is the main character of the book. Jo is a matchmaker, and that’s about all we know about her. I never felt as if I knew why she wasn’t married, what happened during her Season? Or Seasons? She’s 27 and has never been kissed and more than once in her private ruminations, she talks about the lonely years ahead watching her friends get married and have families and how she’ll be the best godmother ever. She never speaks of loving someone previously. All we know about her is how good she is at her job, and how involved she is in it.

Jo lives for everyone else. Trying to make them happy, trying to help them find love and happiness. There is a crucial point in the book when Jo realizes how much everyone loves her when she discovers that . . . well, I won’t spoil it for you. But I think that was my one quip as I write this and reflect. To paraphrase a line from the movie The Holiday, “She wasn’t even the leading lady in her own story.”

Don’t get me wrong, Jo is very likable and lovable, I just felt that I wanted more from her. I just don’t know what that more would have been. I enjoyed the relationship between her and Matthew, watching that bloom and grow was probably the best thing about the book and the whole reason why they can’t be together was equally satisfying. She also delivered one of the best thoughts/lines in the story, when Matthew admits he is trying to seduce Jo—during an unexpected passionate embrace—she tells Matthew that she’s worth more than that, that her heart is worth more than that, she won’t allow herself to be seduced. I really respected the entire scene as it shows that while she’s admittedly lonely, she’s not going to just fall into bed with a man she’s obviously falling for, because she knows she’s not what he’s looking for.

This was such an enjoyable read. I loved every minute of it and was never once bored. All of the characters, secondary included, were just as fun to watch as the main ones. I especially liked Jo’s other client, Mr. Pellegrini, he was just so full of life and joy, I kind of wished we could have seen his romance as well. Seriously, this dude was a hoot.

If you get the chance to read this, absolutely give it a go. It was such a refreshing take on the classic Regency novel. I’m looking forward to the second book that comes out in November 28, 2023. Nothing to be Cautiously Optimistic about, just Optimistic!

*One of the most interesting things that takes place in the book is a visit to Vauxhall Gardens, which until now, I’d never heard of. I actually had to look up while reading. And damn, it looks like it was rather amazing. If I remember correctly, I think they even called it Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, as there are fire dancers, rope walkers, fireworks, mechanical creatures, food and drink, like Disney World without the Disney.

Seriously, look that one up.