The combination of plot fatigue and wanting to read more inclusively means that I simply don’t read that many historicals. Mary Beard and the rest of twitter completely owned the guy, but there seems to be a persistent belief among white folks that people of color just weren’t a part of history except as slaves or servants. For example, last summer, a dude freaked out on twitter because the BBC put a black Roman in a kid’s cartoon. To be fair, this isn’t a romance specific problem. Smarter people than me have explained this problem, such as Asha Ganesan in this piece from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. The couple’s emotional journey can surprise me, but the details are always circling the drain of the marriage plot: Can, will, should they marry? Who approves or disapproves of the marriage? Who is preventing or what is impeding the marriage? What emotional baggage do they each bring to the marriage? It’s not my favorite thing.Īnother thing I really struggle with is how the entire sub-genre is so whitewashed. Maybe I’m reading the wrong historicals, but it seems to me that the relationship road is always straight, narrow and leading to a single destination: matrimony. The first reason is more from the story perspective. I think there’s two primary reasons that I struggle with historicals. When it comes to romance, I’m just more of a contemporary girl. Is their love strong enough to withstand not only the Lords of Chaos but also Raphael's own demons? But when Iris discovers that Raphael's past may be even more dangerous than the present, she falters. Soon he's drawn both to her quick wit and her fiery passion. Much to Raphael's irritation, Iris insists on being the sort of duchess who involves herself in his life-and bed. But now with the Lords out to kill them both, he has but one choice: marry the lady in order to keep her safe.ĬAUGHT IN A WEB OF DANGER. Rescuing Lady Jordan was never in his plans. only to find she may have been a trifle hasty.Ĭynical, scarred, and brooding, Raphael de Chartres, the Duke of Dyemore, has made it his personal mission to infiltrate the Lords of Chaos and destroy them. When one of the masked-and nude!-Lords spirits her away to his carriage, she shoots him. Her captors are the notoriously evil Lords of Chaos.

Refined, kind, and intelligent, Lady Iris Jordan finds herself the unlikely target of a diabolical kidnapping.

Elizabeth hoyt duke of desire