Falling for a Beastly Duke by Sally Forbes

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Refreshing Bloom in a Garden of Stiff Formality

There is something utterly delightful about a lady who takes matters into her own hands—and her inkwell. Persephone is no wilting flower; faced with her family’s mounting debts, she proposes to the scarred, greenhouse-dwelling Duke via letter, and the result is a charmingly pragmatic success.

It is a rare treat to find a "ton" marriage where the characters behave like actual humans rather than caricatures of Regency expectations. The Duke, for all his scars and eccentric notions, meets his match in Persephone. She doesn't just tolerate his solitary nature; she cultivates a genuine friendship and a love worth fighting for, briskly weeding out his stranger ideas along the way.

Watching a smart man recognize a brilliant woman, talk to her, and actually marry her—without three hundred pages of unnecessary misunderstandings—was incredibly refreshing. Their emotional reactions felt authentic and grounded, proving that a marriage of convenience can indeed blossom into something far more passionate when the participants are as well-developed as these two.