Review: The Duke’s Rapier by C.H. Admirand

The Duke’s Rapier is nothing short of inspiring and surprisingly deep for a romance novel. There are a lot of characters but so much camaraderie among the men of the Duke’s guard. The men are mature, while women tend to be the opposite. Through this and the hardships that the women face, Admirand shows a good contrast between good and bad men within the story.

Title: The Duke’s Rapier

Series: The Duke’s Guard (Book 10)

Page Count: 269

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.

How the Duke’s Rapier Relates to the Connected World

The Duke’s Rapier is the tenth book in the Duke’s Guard series. The Duke’s Guard series is a spin-off of the Lord’s of Vice series. Altogether, there are now 14 books in this connected world. I have read them all, so to say I am a little bit invested in the series is an understatement. While some of the books are books you can jump in and read without reading any prior books, I’d say this is not one of them. The Duke’s Rapier is a book where having some previous knowledge of the rest of the series is helpful. The Duke’s Rapier is set in Summerfield-on-Eden at Baron Summerfield’s Estate. In this book, you will see the main characters from The Duke’s Saber,  Redirecting the Barron’s Greed, and some of the other side characters who’ve been mentioned previously.

Summary of The Duke’s Rapier

The Duke’s Rapier features O’Malley, head of the Duke’s guard at Summerfield-on-Eden, as the Hero of the story. He starts by being a literal hero as he rescues Caroline Gillingham from a room where his cousin left her so that she wouldn’t “get into trouble.” In the cousin’s defense, she is a little bit headstrong and already has shown a tendency by the book’s first few chapters to get herself into trouble. After the rescue, the trio rode through the night back to the vicarage, where Caroline, nicknamed Caro, was going to live with her uncle. Over the course of the story, the villain from The Duke’s Saber reappears to seek his revenge after being released from prison. While this action unfolds, the Duke’s guard is doing what they do best: coordinate guard duty, guarding, and courting injured lass. Caro gets injured on a small outing with her cousin, and she is confined to the house for some time. O’Malley steps up to cheer her up and eventually seeks to marry her. Over the course of the book, while all this is going on, the story’s finer points are unveiled. These include things like Caro’s tragic backstory, O’Malley’s friendship with the guard, and even the cousin he doesn’t really like becoming pretty chummy with him.

Of course, like in many of the Duke’s Guard books, the Hero sustains an injury, and O’Malley’s is pretty bad. It is touch and go there for a while, and everyone is worried that he will die. However, he pulls through in the end, and they get their happily ever after.

Who is this book for?

This book fits into Hero’s and Bluestocking’s trope. There is so much camaraderie between the men of the Duke’s guard with their conversations that provide elements of the backstory and showcase their familial history and connections. The entire Duke’s guard hails from Ireland, so there are elements of their history in many of the things they do and say. In this book, the men are all mature, manly, sort of men, while the women are more immature. However, many of the women have experienced hardships at the hands of men in the past, such as various mistreatment, intimidation, and abduction. While their fear is shown in the story, so is their strength. Also, the current men in the Duke’s Guard stand up for them, which is heartwarming. It shows a good contrast between good and bad men within the story. There is also a touch of prayer and Christianity mixed into the novel. Overall, this book is for anyone who has been keeping up with the series or who likes regency romances about the gentry class.

Bookish Mood Board

All of the series’ covers coordinate so nicely with one another, being in greenish browns, browns, and blueish greens. Honestly, it reminds me of the color pallet used for the Minecraft copper block line. The covers feature the men of the Duke’s Guard standing outside with nice manor house-style backgrounds. So, obviously, I had to create a bookish mood board for it! In the book, O’Malley always takes very good care of his horse and gives him an extra cup of oats, so I had to include a horse that looks a bit like the character himself.

The story itself has a subplot between O’Ghill and one of the other women in the story. The subplot is very strong within this book, and a lot of time is given to it, so the song that feels like the inspiration for it is Young Love by Kip Moore.

My Favorite Quote’s

There were a LOT of quotable moments within The Duke’s Rapier. But, I will show you a few of them here, so I only give away a few spoilers. Some of these really show how confident O’Malley really was, and others show how caring he was.

Review Summary

Just as a disclaimer, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my review on Netgalley! However, this is a completely honest review. I read the other books in this series through Kindle Unlimited; some are even featured in various reviews on my blog. I was utterly ecstatic, however, to get the chance to review this book before it hits shelves!

If I had to sum up The Duke’s Rapier by C.H.Admirand in just a single word, it would be camaraderie. True to form, it featured Admirands classic headstrong heroes and feisty heroines, in the form of men who knew exactly what they wanted and women who were a little wild and immature at times, really capturing their youth. It offered a powerful image of the contrast between good and bad men. If you enjoy hero and bluestocking tropes in Regency romance, this book is for you!

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