A Duke in Shining Armor audiobook

I really liked this one, but not quite as much as I did the 2nd book in the series Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, which I actually read 1st. Because I'm badass like that and don't bother with pesky things like the correct order. And since this is a romance, you can get away with that and not affect the enjoyment level of the individual stories much, if any at all. Ok. So Olympia gets pressured by her well-meaning (but broke) family into accepting the offer of marriage from Ashmont, a Duke with a bad reputation as a drunken idiot, best known for ridiculous pranks. In her family's defense, he really seems to think Olympia is amazing.However, on the day of the wedding, Olympia imbibes a bit too much brandy, decides the thought of spending the rest of her life with a grown man who has the self-control of a drunk toddler isn't for her, hurls herself out a window, and goes full-on Runaway Bride. Fortunately, Hugh (Ashmont's best friend) sees her tipsy take-off and chases after her to save the day.So, of course, after hanging out with the adorable Olympia on a comically prolonged road trip, he secretly falls in love with her and she, naturally, secretly falls right back in love with him.Complications arise. Mostly, just that she's still technically engaged to his childhood BFF, and Crazy Ashmont probably won't take the news that Hugh has snaked his girl out from underneath him very well.But lots of romance-y things happen and Hugh decides that it's a clear case of Hoes before Bros.And luckily, the boys manage to solve their problems maturely. Pistols at Dawn!But hey, this is a romance, so don't worry too much about someone dying from a bullet wound.I haven't really been seeking out stories by Loretta Chase, but the two books in this series are making me sit up and take notice of this author. Recommended!

I had a really odd reaction to this story. On the one hand, three dukes of the same (marriageable) age all good friends and with the same (horrible) reputation strained credulity quite a lot (though I make allowances since I laughed out loud the first time I read "Their Dis-Graces", and yes, I'll admit to that even though it's terrible). I mean, there weren't that many Regency era dukes (A couple dozen, mostly older, though three would have been under 35 in 1833) so the title inflation of period romances is alive and well here. And that's only the start of this hand/quibble. Ripley is kind of a lost soul, a little unmoored from his life and has just returned from "foreign parts" and is examining how he fits into his world. Which is kind of odd for so high a title, particularly as he has explicitly managed his wealth well enough to be very well-off. I guess this boils down to the setting feeling unusually thin, even though the characters and background were richly portrayed.On the other hand, I really enjoyed the characters and background. Ripley and Olympia are outstanding and I fell in with both their conflict and journey of mutual discovery. Olympia's growing impatience with her own choices and desire to explore options previously unthinkable worked well even given her milieu and the social restrictions on unmarried women (those kinds of things often strike me as anachronistic and I think Chase did an excellent job making them fit, even though I found other aspects of the setting more problematic). Ripley (re)gaining confidence in his own future and coming to assert himself in things he finds that he does, in fact, care about was equally engaging. And the two of them bouncing off each other was absolutely outstanding. Chase does those character interactions very well, indeed, and I loved seeing them grow in understanding and emotional connection, even though the timing of the whole story was very tight (a few days, really).So the relationship works and the conflict and resolution are well-earned and I was extremely interested with how things would turn out (and satisfied by the result). So the quibbles were strong enough to knock this down nearer three stars than it should have been, I'm rounding up to four because the things I really care about (the romance and characters) were just that engaging.A note about Steamy: There are a couple explicit sex scenes, landing in the middle of my steam tolerance. Battling lust as a character motivation doesn't work for me terribly well and in this case, it served to disengage me mildly from Ripley. Yeah, he has a history of self-indulgence, but by the time came for things to step up to physical intimacy I felt he'd gone far enough to make an active choice. Having him still conflicted and feeling like he was just giving in to his baser self felt like a cop-out, even though it was only in his head.

So-so first half. Super second half. My initial reaction is that I couldn't love this quite as much as I wanted to. However, it is Loretta Chase, and that's never a bad thing. I'll want to think about this for a while.Also, she has set this up so that the two remaining dukes' stories should be very interesting.

4.5 stars. Duke in Shining Armor is a Regency romance - one I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved Lord of Scoundrels when I read it by the same author, and this one pretty much matches it. There are three Dukes - their Dis Graces as they are known. They are men in their late twenties, always out for a good time and one of their main goals is to ensure that life is not boring. This book puts the focus on Ripley, who somehow finds himself watching over the heroine of the book as she escapes out the window and over the wall from her pending marriage to one of the other Dis Graces and one of Ripley's best friends.Lady Olympia is a a blue stocking, most interested in sorting out libraries, she is regarded by many as boring, it has taken a number of seasons to marry her off. She has succumbed because she is aware she has a large number of brothers who could do with some funding. So a rich Duke is required! While she may appear boring there are hidden depths to this young woman and she is quite used to ordering the male species around - ask her brothers about that!The opening chapters are comedic, almost to the point of slapstick. I could imagine it all unfolding in front of me. What could go wrong does go wrong as a somewhat inebriated bride escapes with a "best man" endeavouring to keep her safe.This book has it all, fun characters, snappy dialogue, a plot that zings along with something happening in each chapter. There is some tension as Ripley struggles with his growing attraction towards Olympia. At times he was a little petulant and irritable, however Olympia is no newbie to male irrationality and copes with hardly a misstep. While Ashmont the almost Groom was a little bit of a hopeless case I can see that he will have his day of redemption now that he has been challenged with Olympia, and as well the third Dis Grace, married to Ripley's sister, seems to be having some kind of mystery marital difficulty. So there are two good setups for two more books, and quite frankly I am absolutely looking forward to them.

I really enjoyed this one!! I just thought the ending was kind of dumb but meh I'll get over it. I also took a star off because they were dragging on the time they spent together. I'm excited for the next book!!! A redemption of our shitty fiance???

Well, I see what people like about Loretta Chase! She's fun.I have been reliably informed that this book of hers is good, but not her best work. I can see that. Parts of it were incredibly enjoyable, and parts of it felt a little under-baked and overwritten.But first let's talk about the enjoyable stuff, because there was a lot of it. The premise here is really fun. Lady Olympia Hightower gets a little sloshed on her wedding day and decides, hey, actually I don't want to marry this Ashmont fellow, and climbs out the window. She is caught doing so by one of the groom's best friends, the Duke of Ripley (one of the titular Difficult Dukes, who are collectively known in society as "their Dis-Graces"), who has been tasked by Ashmont with making sure the wedding goes off without a hitch. Disappearing bride=hitch, so he goes after her. Chasing after a drunken, determined bride through the rainy streets of London turns out to be quite the adventure. He can't convince her to turn around and go back, so he follows her to make sure she's safe. In the meantime, he learns that well, actually, she's quite to his taste, and damn it, he's upset that his friend wants to marry her, because she's delightful and exactly the sort of woman he'd like to marry himself. It's pretty cute, actually, in his inner monologue, he's always thinking about how different characteristics of hers are "perfect for Ashmont", when actually he's lying to himself and what his brain really means is she's "perfect for him," and in reality, not suited for Ashmont at all, who is pretty useless at this point in the series (drunken, irresponsible, competitive, all lovely qualities). I laughed out loud when he finally realized what he'd been doing.And Olympia herself was a lovely character. Much as Ripley is known as a rake and a troublemaker, she is known as a wallflower, a bookworm who will talk your ear off about library classifications, but really, she's far from dull. As Ripley points out later in the book, nice girls don't run away from their weddings, or partake in all of the other spoilerish activities she and he get up to in the following days (most of which is not sexy!!). Ashmont wants to marry her because she's kind and different to what he's used to, and because everyone thinks he should, but doesn't deserve her. Ripley falls for *her*.But with all that said, I thought it was a little weak in spots, too. I noticed it during their sex scenes, how things felt a little overblown and overwritten, and looking back, I think it's because Ripley was slightly underdeveloped, so Chase had to resort to a bit of purple prose and cliché to get through what was supposed to be a touching moment (and she did it in his POV, too, which made it worse). I only really noticed it because the rest of the book was so crisp, and her writing so clever, her dialogue so bantery. We never really see why Ripley has decided to give up his ne'er-do-well lifestyle, or see much about his childhood, or his past with his three friends. We really only see him in the moment, and what we get is nice, but Olympia got so much development and backstory, they were out of balance with each other. (Interesting to note Chase narrowly skirts instalove here, but she gets away with it because: a) The characters have been acquaintances for some time and were previously attracted to one another; b) As they mention themselves, due to their little adventure, they actually spent more time with each other before their wedding than most couples at the time did; and c) Going through something intense and traumatic with another person can bring you close to that person really quickly.)Still, looking forward to reading Ashmont's book (book two), and Blackwood's book (Blackwood is married to Ripley's sister, but they seem to be on the outs with each other, so there is clearly something Dramatic going on there). [3.5 stars rounded up because it really was fun]

4-Per sette anni è stata eletta la lady più noiosa della stagione e quindi Olympia, appassionata di libri , pensa che il vecchio Lord che gli fa la corte e che ha un'immensa biblioteca sia l'unica via per salvare la famiglia numerosa e scialacquatrice. Non aveva fatti i conti con le tre Dis-Grazie , tre duchi che ormai , visto le loro malefatte, non sono più benvolute dal ton . Il duca di Ashmont dopo averla conosciuta le fa una corte serrata e lei decide di accettare la sua proposta. Il giorno del matrimonio, grazie a una bella dose di brandy , Olympia decide di fuggire e sulle sue tracce si getterà il duca di Ripley che cercherà di convincere la sposa recalcitrante a tornare dal suo promesso sposo. Ma sarà proprio così?

This is the story of a runaway bride….and the best man she kidnapped.Olympia Hightower is boring, at least she thinks so. She is about to be married to a man she doesn’t love and can barely stand. The nerves and doubts get too much for her to handle, so she flees, but not before the best man sees her escape and chases her down to bring her back. Olympia will have nothing of it, and she refuses to go back. So Ripley continues to stay with her during her flight, vowing to himself he is only following her so he can return her safely. Of course, he can barely contain his own interest in his friend’s fiancé. Ripley finds himself becoming more and more attracted to Olympia. Olympia definitely reminded me of my nerdy self. I loved that she kept insisting on how boring she is, when in fact, she is anything but. The story was exciting until the end, and Ripley was enthralled with her from the beginning. Ripley was an unexpected duke, meaning he was a different character that surprised me. I was in love with him from the very beginning. I really liked this book, all the way down to the glasses perched on my nose. I loved the witty banter and the unexpected turns of the story. Loretta Chase never disappoints. I am so intrigued by the rest of the Dis-Graces that I just have to read the others in the series. ARC courtesy of publisher in exchange for an honest reviewFind me on

This is probably the funniest book I have ever read! The descriptions were marvelous, the dialogue hilarious and the romance one of those that just ends up working against all odds.Bookish wallflower, Lady Olympia Hightower is supposed to marry a gorgeous duke. To everyone's shock and amazement, he has proposed and she is now decked out in her wedding finery and ready to attend the service. It is the right thing to do in order to ensure her family's financial security. She knows this. And yet instead of going to join her groom, she makes her escape through an open window after getting herself thoroughly foxed.Hugh Philemon Ancaster, Seventh Duke of Ripley, is one of the three dukes the ton has dubbed 'Their Disgraces'. Miraculously, his best friend, who happens to share this moniker, has managed to get himself engaged to a respectable young lady, and has charged Ripley with ensuring that the marriage goes off without a hitch. This of course becomes a bit problematic when the bride enlists Ripley's help in climbing over the garden wall and even more so when he begins to develop feelings for a woman he knows he can never have.Full of humor from beginning to end, this story is sure to delight. Impossible to put down, Loretta Chase has crafted a tale filled with memorable characters and a romance that is bound to go straight to the reader's heart.

Clever writing, great characters and funny story. The bride runs off from wedding, the best man gets caught up in the getaway. On their adventure they fall in love, but mostly it’s a lot of fun. Loved it.