Last Duke Standing: A Historical Romance (A Royal Match, 1)

Once again, Julia London has written a delightful book, full of well developed characters and a plot that depicts a haughty and insecure princess who fears that she is not worthy to one day be queen. In this book Justine has always been uncomfortable around crowds of people since childhood. She suffers panic attacks when too many people are in here presence. Growing up her father offered her wise counsel on how to lead, as she was his heir to the throne. She wants to be a confident ruler like ancestor Queen Aleta, however her social anxiety and her mother's lack of confidence in her,causes her to doubt her ability to rule effectively.Justine is sent to English to learn from Queen how to rule effectively. The most important thing she learns from the queen is to choose your consort carefully, you would want someone you are compatible with both in and out of the bedroom. Justine and Williams relationship follows the trope of enemies-friend to lovers. Initially, these two are wary of each other as Justine is suspicious of Williams intentions and projects the "haughty royal" and I am always correct" demeanor continuously. William is polite but he responses with an attitude of "I am not impressed with your lofty title". He quickly sees through Justine's protective mask and offers her insights regarding her suitors. William is a honest and noble man. He tries hard to be a dutiful son and save his family's legacy from his father's financial mismanagement. When he assisted a pregnant child unwed young woman back in Scotland his reputation is ruined.As one can predict they come to view each other differently over the course of the book. They share many similar likes, there exists a physically attraction, and they generally like each other. Justine is attractive, but she possesses a beauty that radiates from the inside out. She is generally an astute judge of character. She is aware that the Bauderline couple are reporting everything back to her mother. They are very self serving. Her beauty sister Amelia is immature, vain and reckless, but she is loyal to Justine. Amelia behaves with the mind set of " girls just want to have fun". At times her antics are annoying, but she is still young.The characters of Beck, Beck's wife and Donovan were a wonderful addition to the book. These individuals helped to provide levity and a distinct contrast between the "gilded cage" of Justine's household and the wonderful chaos of the Beck home. Lady Lila was unpretentious, methodical and devious in her matchmaking attempts. She correctly suspected that Justine and William were perfect for each other. Therefore, Lila introduced totally inadequate candidates to Justine. Lila's goal was to show the future queen that she had already meet the man destined to be her consort. William's love provided the support that she need to overcome her anxiety and be the leader she is meant to be.This series is well worth reading. I look forward to Amelia's story..

Authors don’t seem to realize how much a title sets up an expectation… even before you read the blurb (let alone the book!). If you’re a reader of historical romance, you’d assume from this title that the hero was a duke… and that perhaps there was a competition between a group of dukes for the heroine. Neither was true. I believe there was only one duke in this entire book, the hero’s father… who remained decidedly alive (and not in contention for the heroine!) throughout the entire book. The hero is a marquess, heir to a dukedom..Aside from that annoyance, I mostly enjoyed the book. I found the heroine’s sister a bit much at times, and I wasn’t wild about all the people who did not have the heroine’s best interest at heart, including her mother, her country’s prime minister, and some pesky courtiers (the Bardalines). I thought the hero was utterly swoonworthy, though the author didn’t portray him in the best light at the beginning, making the reader think he was more of a scoundrel presently than he was. What made him swoonworthy? He treated the princess better than anyone else in the story. He listened to her, was always honest with her, and was her true champion--the perfect potential prince consort. I felt sorry for the heroine. Most people in her life treated her poorly. She couldn’t be forgiven a youthful indiscretion, was not understood because of her inherent shyness and wariness around crowds, and was not allowed to wear glasses publicly when she desperately needed them. The couple had enough chemistry that I would actually be interested in reading what their life would be like when she rules as queen. Hopefully, she’ll get rid of the Bardalines and put her mother in her place!

Given that my biggest gripe is the Princess name ( Justine ????!!!!!), I have to rate this book highly.So there's a few other tiny things that vexed, but not horrendously.I enjoyed the characters and the London they inhabited.The romance was sweet and relatively slow build.There's 2 scenes wherein the princess gets frisky wth fore play, which was shocking and unlikely but not Bridgerton level of fanciful and inappropriate.Overall, pleased with the author growth as a writer, she's really gotten much better since earlier books.

Last Duke StandingBook 1 in the A Royal Match SeriesRating: 3 stars (2.5 stars)Thank you to the author/publisher for the ARC given through NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own.Last Duke Standing is the first book in the series. This one tells the story of Princess Justine from Wesloria who is need of a husband. She is sent along with her sister to England to find one. She is assigned a Lady in Waiting, a matchmaker and Lord William Douglas to serve as an escort to society events.It is when she is presented with suitors that Douglas begins to realize that maybe he could be the right one...Why the 2.5 stars?To begin with I am a fan of this author, but this one was close to being a DNF story. I struggled with it since the beginning because I really didn't like Justine. I didn't like her personality, especially with Douglas at the beginning and even in some parts later in the book. Some of the comments she made were so snobbish ( I get that she's a princess, but a little humility would of served her well). I understand that she's the future queen, but still... I would of liked to have seen Justine talk with her father, the king. She made comments on how he was the only one who understood her, maybe that would of shown another side of her.I liked Douglas. I think he made the best of the situation that he was placed in by his father. To be honest Douglas was the only character that I really liked. He was so sweet and he really helped Justine show that being her true self served her better.In the end it was an okay read.

I am a huge fan of Julia's and have been for several years - I have loved her Royal series so far and I was no disappointed with Last Duke Standing. Even though there are brief appearances from one or two characters from previous books, this new novel can absolutely be read as a stand alone.As soon as the heroine, Princess Justine entered I wanted to be her friend - she is strong and knows who she is, but there is also a vulnerability about her that endears and made me immediately root for her happy ever after. THEN we meet William, Lord Douglas, a scottish aristcrat who constantly put me in the mind of Jamie Fraser from Outlander...which was absolutely fine by me!All too soon, they are thrown into tense and humoruous entanglements as well as plenty of smiles, laughter and romantic moments which really make this couple leap off the page. The electricity between them is palpable and believeable which is vital for me as a reader.Overall, Last Duke Standing is another fabulous historical romance from an equally fabulous author and I very much look forward to the next instalment, The Duke Not Taken coming in September.

An enjoyable read . I look forward to the next book