This is a two-parter – I read both Sense & Sensibility AND A Lady for the a Duke this month, which both take place in the same general time period. I liked Sense & Sensibility, but not quite as much as Northanger Abbey – I think the core issue is that Jane Austen’s true talent (describing an annoying guy in a profoundly timeless way) was applied to simply too many people in this one. It’s a lot of guys who suck, and very few people who are just alright! Also, as someone who has absolutely no cultural exposure to Austen beyond Pride & Prejudice and thus no prior knowledge of how the book was going to end, I was a bit thrown by who the sisters end up with in the end, which I could rant about for ages.

But that’s not the star of the show. The star here is A Lady for a Duke, an absolutely fabulous romance that I loved every second of. I am relatively new to the romance genre, but I have read enough to know by now that if there’s anything I love, it’s yearning.

This book has a lethal amount of yearning in it. My God, at the mid point I was thinking that Gracewood might actually die of sheer longing. And Hall keeps it going for like two hundred pages! The whole book is simply a delight, and I think Viola and Gracewood are the protagonists of the ages.

“Get lost, you wouldn’t recognize a goddamn vampire if once jumped up and bit you on the end of your fucking dick. So get off my back.” (peels away in a sick sports car)

Pure cyberpunk, emphasis on the word punk. Three vignettes, each focusing on a different criminal forced to do the Tough Crimes Normal Cops Won’t Touch. It’s classic hard boiled stuff, complete with the protagonists all being complete assholes. Watch the dub, it’s a real treat. And free on Tubi!