After reading One Dance with a Duke my first impression is that the title should be changed to The Alpha Horsebreader and the Lady who loved him, but wanted to kill him at times.

This alpha horsebreader being the hero Spencer Dumarque, Duke of Morland. Now Spencer is the alpha and he’s not afraid to let you know it. He titled, large, and always in charge. So far he’s gathered seven of the ten “Stud Club” tokens and is determined to have them all. Most of all he wants the stud horse Osiris. Spencer, being the lover of all things Equus ferus caballus, knows a good piece of horse flesh when he sees it and Oisiris is a good piece of horse flesh. Spencer also knows how to be theaterical. For the last month he’s been gracing parties at the stroke of midnight and dancing with one girl. He then departs and is not to been sceen again till the next stroke of midnight. On a night in June in 1817, he shows up at a ball ready to choose a wallflower, but instead gets choosen by a Miss Amelia d’Orsay. His troublesome night gets worse when he soon learns that the founder of the Stud Club has just been killed. He goes to talk to the founder's sister. Unfortunately for him Amelia wishes to go with him and she’s not taking no for an answer.

Amelia d’Orsay is quite on the shelf. Near the age of thirty and not possessing great beauty, nor wealth, nor thiness, she’s quite given up on ever marrying. During a rather dull ball in June 1817, her happy thoughts of going to the family summer home are rudely interruped when her brother Jack tells her they have to rent out the family summer home to pay back his gambling debt to the Duke of Morland. With this knowledge, Amelia sends Jack away and becomes determined to make the Duke release her brother from his debt. So determined in fact that she decides to make herself his partner for his nightly midnight dance. Come hell or highwater, the Duke will release her brother from his debt. The one thing Amelia didn’t plan on is a sudden murder.

I sort of have mixed impressions with this book. I really liked Amelia and I was cheering with her like “you go girl *snap snap snap*”. I really loved the fact that Amelia did not put up with any bull from Spencer. He might be the alpha male, but he sure knows she is the alpha female. She knows what to say and just how to say it. She is the perfect woman to go against such a strong alpha male. I also liked that she isn't a thin women. Her description had me imaging her as looking like January Jones. I believe that if Amelia could come up with a saying about herself it would be “Real heroines have curves”.

There was other times though I was like “what are you doing? Kick him where it hurts”. One of these later moments happened on pages 258-261. This incident moved the book down from an eight to a seven. A brief bit of information for this scene. Amelia said she wouldn’t bed Spencer till his innocence was proven in Leo’s death and that could only be done by finding the “Stud Club Coin”. Spencer then said he would take everything from her and there was nothing she could do. Well Jack had it and Spencer won it from him in cards after hitting him from a supposed insult to Amelia. In this moment, Spencer has just thrown Jack out of the house and Amelia is pissed. I was like you tell him! Don’t let him control you. Then Spencer said “I AM YOUR HUSBAND” and then basically had angry sex with Amelia in which I didn’t feel Amelia consented. I don’t like it when men force themselves on women. I felt Spencer forced himself on her since she was in a very emotional state and not thinking clearly. I have no tolerence for men forcing themselves on women and this single incident knocked the book rating down in my opinion.

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Another one of my pet peeves was that Claudia, who had the opportunity to be a really good character basically transported herself into Sense and Sensibility. Funny enough since I had just watched the movie the night before I finished the book. Basically Spencer turns into Colonel Brandon and Claudia into Eliza Williams. I mean really turned into. Claudia and Eliza are the same age (15), run away, and both end up pregnant by a man who had claimed to love them. The only thing missing was Willoughby. I found myself scratching my head since the similarity is extremely striking down to the fifteen year old being a ward of a bachlor man. I really didn’t like this at all. I understand taking things from other books and Jane Austen is a good inspiration, but there was too many direct simialiries for me to overlook.

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All that aside, I really rather liked Spencer and Amelia’s relationship. I found it rather cute how they started to get to know each other after their marriage of convience. I also really loved the witty banter between them. It really made for some interesting and funny scenes.

I really only had two problems with the book. My issues with the book might not be issues for other people. I would highly recommend this book to those who like Sense and Sensiblity mixed with a bit of The Seducation of Sara by Karen Hawkins. ~ Melissa