#grace burrows

You see, I wanted to do really in-depth book reviews on this blog, and then pepper in fun things and research papers and cool stuff that might give people a laugh, but sometimes I get myself in over my head because I’ve started trying to review a series with nine books individually and as a set with a TV tie-in, started a modern goddesses and gender studies research project, and am still looking for a job. In this case, I want to be able to give you a quick review of a book I had a lot of fun with, but without much to think about because hey: we all need a break.

Enter “Trash Reviews”! Reviews of not-trash books done in a trash timeframe.

Today’s is: The Trouble with Dukes by Grace Burrows

I found this book because I used to work in a used bookstore and someone brought this in with a batch of other romance novels- but this one had the tagline “THEY CALL HIM THE DUKE OF MURDER.” 

Which of course means I had to read it.

Apparently, I’m allergic to reading things in order because this is the first book in the Windham Brides series BUT that series is actually a continuation of a series that Burrowes did previously also following the Windham family that chronicles how the main character’s cousins got together. You don’t have to read those first, but her cousins and their wives are minor characters in the book (but ah, if you don’t think that there is a wedding at the end of a romance novel, you obviously don’t understand this genre, so I’m not going to say this is a spoiler.)

The book revolves around Megan Windham who is very much NOT interested in getting married, a creeper that she went out with like ten years ago who is blackmailing her into a wedding, and Hamish MacHugh, a newly minted Scottish duke, war hero, and guy I would 100% invite to my next barbecue despite the fact that his nickname is “the duke of murder”.

I can’t tell you much about the story or I’ll spoil the entire thing but here are some character highlights:

Megan is super blind

Apparently, ferns are makeout spots

Clydesdales are not appropriate horses for a ride in the park

Creeper McCreeperson cannot get any lower, but he ALWAYS DOES

Everyone in this family is disgustingly in love and I love it

Grace Burrows obviously understands the big family dynamic because she NAILS IT and both the MacHughs and the Windhams are delightful

The sequel to this is called “Too Scott to Handle”

My favorite things about this book are that it’s funny, it’s genuine, and it’s really well thought out. Nothing is just fuller it all feels like it needs to be there, but it’s just a light, easy read that makes you happy. Also Burrows is really very much aware of the time she is writing in- the prejudices, the money, the social climbing, the way things had to look ‘normal’, but also things like how most of the men were home from the Napoleonic wars and PTSD was a widespread problem that men were dealing with and trying to do so without talking about it or without really understanding it. There is just so much depth and life to these people, even the smallest characters, that I adore it. 

I bought four more of these immediately.