The Truth About Cads and Dukes by Elisa Braden

The Truth About Cads and Dukes

by Elissa Braden

I’m still using my TBR game board and landed on Historical. I prefer my books on the spicier side, so I took to Reddit for recs and found this book in the comments. Lucky for me, it was in the “available now” section on my library app.

The short of it: the heroine Jane is “ruined” by a man she assumes is a friend. The reality was that her humiliation was the result of a wager he needed to win because he’s in debt. The friend’s stuffy, icy brother, Harrison, who happens to be a rich duke, offers to marry her to protect her from ruination.

Jane is bookish, shy, plus-sized, and on her third season. She and Harrison have never gotten along because well…he’s kind of a joyless, judgmental dick.

The setup to their marriage of convenience is slow. The book opens with the heroine’s humiliation and then backtracks a little to show how we got there. A bit unnecessary, if you ask me. There are also several side characters who are just the worst. Conniving women. Older ladies who can’t mind their goddamn business. People who just love to dunk on the heroine for being fat.

But the central romance was really sweet and I loved the main characters, and the friends and loved ones they kept close to them.

If you want a hero who is obsessed with his wife, I’d recommend this one. He has so much yearning and pining that he’s afraid to show out of fear of overwhelming her. He’s worried his sexual proclivities will scare her away and by proclivities, I mean he wants to have passionate sex with her with the lights on and get a blowjob from time to time. Meanwhile, Jane loves to push her husband’s buttons and there are several scenes where she sets up elaborate traps to get him to ravish her. I just really enjoyed their dynamic and their interactions often left me grinning like an idiot.

Jane is also painfully shy around strangers and a good part of married life is watching her find ways to become more comfortable as a hostess. Like practicing icebreaker questions for guests ahead of time. I liked seeing Jane find methods that work for her to make herself an equal member of the household.

This was an easy, breezy read with spice and a touch of darker elements in passing. It’s book two in a series and I was fine jumping in here, but I will definitely go back and read the first book. Judging from the descriptions of the other books in the series, the heroes all seem to have a bit of moral grayness to them or traumatic baggage, which is very much my jam.

– Amanda

His plain Jane is about to discover appearances can be deceiving…

When a wager goes wrong…

Painfully shy Jane Huxley is the furthest thing from a diamond of the first water. Bookish, bespectacled, and, well, plain, she never expected to befriend a dissolute charmer like Colin Lacey, much less agree to help him retrieve a lost family heirloom. Fortunately, he is nothing like his cold, rigid older brother. Unfortunately, he is not above deception if it means winning a wager. And that puts Jane in a most precarious position.

A formidable duke will marry a plain Jane…

For Harrison Lacey, the Duke of Blackmore, protecting his family honor is not a choice, it is a necessity. So, when his cad of a brother humiliates the unwitting Lady Jane, Harrison must make it right, even if it means marrying the chit himself.

And a marriage of convenience will become so much more…

Her reputation hanging by a thread, Jane agrees to wed the arrogant Duke of Blackmore, although she’s convinced it will result in frostbite. Only after lingering glances lead to devastating kisses does she begin to suspect the truth: Perhaps—just perhaps—her duke is not as cold as he appears.