This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖
Ending:🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨

First Impressions
The Duke Starts a Scandal is the fourth installment in the "Duke Hunt" series. This is a book that I had been highly anticipating and I will admit that I grabbed this one due to the cover. So I did have some expectations but I know this author has gone a bit modernist so I was more apprehensive and I will admit the first half of the book threw me a curveball because I didn't expect in what I got in the second half. There will be some readers where this book will really work for. And if that is the case, then I am really happy for you. However, I am really tired of all this modernism in historical's and what we get in this book turned me off in the end and really affected my overall enjoyment of the story. There are some positive aspects to the story other than some issues I had that kept me invested in the story.

First Line
It was her own fault, she supposed.

Summary
The Duke Starts A Scandal is about two people who couldn't be more opposite from each other. We first have our hero, Duke of Penning, who doesn't get off on the right foot with his housekeep, Susanna Lockhart. Both Susanna and Lucian tolerate each other at first, and even though there are most definitely sparks between them, there is also a huge class difference which only adds to the forbidden to any kind of relationship that they could ever have. But when Susanna is forced to take the duties as his valet, they are forced into a more intimate setting with each other and having to face up to their hearts....but will they end up fighting for each other or letting their love go due to the scandal that would ensue?

What I Loved
There were most definitely fabulous aspects of the story that I truly enjoyed here. The "Meet Cute" that happens between these two was just delightful. It honestly had P&P vibes to it. I really loved their bantering and how they help each other even when they aren't getting along. And then we have the whole mistaken identity aspect with Lucien which was a bit glossed over, but wasn't really needed to be further explained. It wasn't the focus of the story of any of the conflicts that build. However, I can see this aspect being an issue for some readers. Then we have the bickering between Lucien and Susanna and its highly entertaining. The way that they interact is just delightful. They are both so proud in their positions and have such strong spirits and it creates for some fun atmosphere. Then we also have the side story with Lucien's sister falling for his valet who gets injured. And yeah the fallout of that was so lively and had me laughing all over the place. The humor that is placed within this story is magnifique and you can definitely feel this author's witty style that has been there since she started writing.

What I Struggled With
Alright so this is the difficult part because this was a ARC copy so I really struggle with delivering the negative elements, but it needs to be said. So first off the first 60% of the book is AWESOME and will really engage the reader. So no worries there. However, the last 40% of the book is a huge flop and I am not sure where the author was going with this second half of the story. But the romance just fell apart when it didn't need to. There were other factors that come into play that I truly think affected the quality of the relationship being developed. This is also where some of the "modernists" aspects get placed and I don't think authors realize that when they get a bit preachy in these topics in their stories, how much it affects their stories and it completely turned me off. But lets be frank, the romance fizzled completely out and it was so disappointing. This couple had such promise and it faltered and it made me so sad because of how much I fell hard for the first half of the story and the two couples. Now also, I do think Lucien's sister and the valet could have had more focus in their parts. It felt a bit too vague and not enough focus. There could have been more attention brought to them without detracting from the primary couple of Lucian and Susanna. Now also there was no satisfying end to Lucian's sister. None at all. All we see is that they end up married. So we go from him wanting to kill his valet, to suddenly being happy. There was no evolement or storyline on the progression of that change. We also had a weird scene with Susanna's aunts who are in a f/f relationship. Now I don't have problems with this other than the fact that it didn't felt evolved with the story. It felt like it was placed there for diversity points and nothing else. There needs to be more connection with characters and a story and not just one scene and the focus of that scene being their sexual preference. It just felt so oddly placed and didn't fit with the rest of the story at all. I would have liked to see more connection of the aunts to the rest of the story so that it was a smoother transition but also would have delivered more dimension overall.

Overall View
The Duke Starts a Scandal was a story that although not perfect, delivered on the humor, fun situations and easy characters you can get behind and want to cheer for. A solid finale to the Duke Hunt series.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Historical Romance/ Time-Victorian England
Character Types: Dukes, Housekeeper(Servant)
Themes: Class Difference
Tropes: Rags to Riches, Opposites Attract, Forced Proximity

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
A Mix of both

Recommendation For Reading Order
You can read as a standalone

Steam/Spice Explanations

Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes. ( )