I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

How her old friends in society would laugh to see the woman once hailed as the diamond of the Season dreading going to London.

Dukes Do It Better is third in the Misfits of Mayfair series and I would recommend reading at least the second in the series before this. Events that happened in the second weigh heavily here, I've read the first but not the second in the series and though I thought the author did a good job relaying what happened, I felt disconnected because I hadn't read what the characters went through. Our heroine Emma seems to have been a former diamond of the water, with some mean girl leanings, trusts and gets seduced by a Lord Roxbury who turns heel when he finds out she's pregnant. With the help of, who turns out to be her future sister-in-law, they concoct a plan that leaves Emma a respectable widow and gives legitimacy to her child. This all happens in the second, this starts off 5 years later with Emma having retired to a cottage on the sea and with the death of her father, is finally going back to London to celebrate her nephew's birthday.

The man with those eyes had been compelling enough to divert her from the restrictions she usually lived under. And what had happened? Emma let loose for a few hours and landed in a sailor's bed.

Captain Malachi Harlow is a character that has also shown up here and there in the series, he plays a part in the second with helping Emma's brother, with forged papers, transport the villain of that book. After spending 15 years in the Baltic, regulated there because his father is a Duke, his older brother dies and as the new Duke of Trenton, is being forced to land. His mother always favored his brother so they have a strained relationship and she's embroiling herself in a blackmail scheme to keep the Admiralty from sending him back out to sea. Mal's father was a spy and had a blackbook of secrets, which his mother is claiming she has and willing to spill some secrets if her bidding isn't done. So Mal's in London to try and find the blackbook to stop his mother so he can go back out to sea, he wants nothing to do with the dukedom.

Alarm bells signaled in his brain like the warning cries of centuries of sailors who'd fallen to sirens before him.

How in the world are these two supposed to meet, you ask? They already have! In what would have been a great prologue, but instead we get from Emma and Mal's reminiscing, a few months ago, Mal was offloading some more treasure to his vault he has hidden by a cliff side town. Guess who's cottage is on that cliffside? Emma and Mal met at an assembly dance and shared a steamy night together, they both thought the other was a simple widow and sea captain but when Mal comes upon Emma in the park in London and rescues her from the baby daddy heel, they both learn of their titles. Besides missing out on getting that steamy first night scene, it's a pretty good setup (add in a mysterious widow's journal that Mal found on the beach and reads every night to fight his loneliness at sea) but the carryover from the second book's plot took up too much of this book and I struggled mightily with characterization.

No, she could never see Malachi Harlow again. How she'd manage that, she had no idea.

Mal has been a sea captain for 15 years and even though we don't get any buddy scenes with his crew, it's fairly alluded to that he was a good captain who feels a sense of duty towards them. So I'm to believe that he's a man who takes his responsibilities seriously but he feels nothing towards his family's dukedom? I get there was favoritism and he's got hurt feefees over that with his mother but he's going to let it all go to hell, abandon the people that rely on that estate? It's never even emotionally dealt with, he basically just meh's away any responsibility he may have towards it. There was absolutely no reason this character needed to be a duke, the title in no way served the character or the story. Maybe if I had read the second I would have understood Emma better but, my understanding, was that as a diamond of the first water who grew up a marquess' daughter, she's had a conventional upbringing in the glittery world of the ton. The spoiled factor and not thinking of consequences fits with her sleeping with Lord Roxbury as does her working with her sister-in-law to concoct a story, shows she's very aware of society censure and her living in a cottage out of London. I was under the impression that she lived a fairly quite life in this seaside cottage, so when she's giggling about dildos with her sister-in-law and then when her brother walks in, keeps laughing and talking about them, I'm thrown a bit. I'm fully aware that women used dildos during this time period but where in the world does a character like Emma grow so lackadaisical about mentioning them with her brother? What was going down in this seaside town? Her speech also threw me out of the story at times, especially towards the end, it does come off pretty modern. Again, I'm aware of historical aristocratic women that threw around curse words, I'm saying what I know of Emma's character, it doesn't fit it her.

Emma and Mal's romance had the foundation of their shared steamy night, that again, reader's don't get to see, and that, more or less, is what we get from them, trying to find a way to sleep together again. There's some mystery and suspense plot with all three book couples entering the picture as they're getting blackmailing notes. Is it the illegally transported former villain, push back from Mal's mom threatening to reveal her husband's blackbook secrets, or the heel baby daddy making demands? The ending reveals all, gives a sudden and, again, doesn't fit the characterization that has been laid out, character one-eighty, a late misunderstanding, and our happily ever after. I generally like this author's tone of writing but, for me personally, it doesn't fit in historical. ( )

There is a LOT going on in this book and I believe you’ll want to read books 1 and 2 prior to reading this one. Otherwise, you might never understand what is going on, especially with the plot against our intrepid group. Our couples from the first two books get a fair amount of page time along with our current couple and even an additional couple.

When I first met Lady Emma in earlier books, I definitely did not like her. She was spoiled, inconsiderate, and thoughtless. Just a few short years after the events in West End Earl, Emma has changed. Now widowed, she and her son, Alton, live in a lovely cottage by the sea – along with a goat named Leonard. Emma has embraced motherhood and has no use for London – or men. Her life was celibate and quiet until one night when she met a pirate captain. They agreed to one night of unbridled passion, then they’d separate and never see each other again. No problem there – right? So, why does she continue to think of him?

Captain Malachi (Mal) Harlow has long resented his parents who treated him as if he didn’t exist. His mother cared nothing for him while doting on his perfect brother, George. He thought to remedy that by running away and joining the Royal Navy – only to find that his father was still managing him. Mal wanted to be part of the war and help defeat Napoleon, but instead, his father, the Duke of Trenton, had him and his crew assigned to areas well away from any of the fighting. Then, his father died, and later, his brother George died leaving Mal as the new Duke of Trenton. Oh! How he resented that! He resented his manipulative mother who pulled strings to have him brought back to London and temporarily relieved of his command. His mother insists he must do his duty to the title by taking up the duties of the Dukedom and, of course, marrying. Ha! He’ll never marry, but there is a woman who haunts his memory.

When Emma and Mal cross paths again, they agree to resume their affair. Things quickly escalate though and they each come to care for the other, but neither wants to admit it. Each has secrets to keep at all costs and just simply cannot let anyone else in. But, when blackmail rears its ugly head, it appears that all the couples will be drawn into it. Who would hate all three couples so much they’d want to blackmail them and threaten them with ruin?

This was a good story and I mostly enjoyed reading it. Mostly? Forms of address are one of the easiest things to get correct in a period book, yet this author flubs it over-and-over-and-over. Each time Mal was referred to or introduced as Lord Trenton, it would just pull me right out of the story – and it happened so often, that I felt I was out of the story more than I was into the story. Aside from referring to Mal as Lord Trenton rather than Your Grace or Duke, the story ‘felt’ very modern in the casual way people acted and spoke. However, when you have goats wearing nappies, you just know you’re going to find a book filled with wit and humorous antics. I hope you’ll enjoy the read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )