The Duke

Cowan sets her ambitious sophomore romance (after Untamed) in an alternate 1800s Europe where aristocratic titles can pass to women and queerness is broadly tolerated. Kate, Duke of Howard, comes of age after a childhood marked by an act of treason that wiped out most of her family. Years later, the past returns to threaten her carefully constructed authority. In Paris during the French Revolution, Kate meets Celine Genet, a noblewoman seeking to escape the violence, and their immediate sexual chemistry leads to a night of passion, after which Kate abandons Celine, assuming they will never see each other again. This early tryst establishes the novel’s emotional stakes before the narrative jumps to England, three years later, where political intrigue takes center stage. Rival aristocratic families maneuver in the House of Lords, proposing legislation that challenges women’s right to inherit titles, while a bill recalibrating control over coal mines ignites issues of wealth and class. When Celine arrives in London with a compromising letter about the duke’s past, the two are bound in an uneasy alliance that tips between desire and destruction. While the language in some of the sex scenes can be stilted, the chemistry between the leads is strong and Rowan’s feminist reimagining of the Regency gives the novel a bold, unwavering edge. Readers will find this refreshing and impressive. (Apr.)