 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A historical novel
A Lady for a Duke, by Alexis Hall A Regency romance with a twist: the lady is trans. After being presumed dead at Waterloo, she takes on a new identity as a woman, names herself Viola Carroll, and settles in the household of her genial-but-dim brother (who has taken over Viola's former title as Duke of Marleigh), and his wonderfully tart-tongued wife, Louise. Viola reconnects with her former best friend, the Duke of Gracewood, who is struggling with PTSD and misusing laudanum while raising a teenage sister. Gracewood is suffering greatly from grief over the "death" of his best friend, until he discovers Viola's identity and they fall in love. Romance is an idealistic genre, and this one is decidedly free of angst (except over the horrors they witnessed in battle). Gracewood, his sister, and Viola's family accept her as a woman with a minimum of questions. Nobody slips and uses her deadname; we never even learn what it was. Gacewood has no hesitation or self-doubt about sex with Viola, even though he's only been with cis women before. The third-act crisis isn't a breakup; it's a scoundrel kidnapping Gracewood's sister in an attempt to arm-twist her into an unwanted marriage. Gracewood and Viola encounter obstacles on the way to their happily-ever-after ending, but they're mainly "us against the world" obstacles. It's a romance worthy of a daring lady like Viola.
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