Maya Rodale is a new author to me, and I am always excited to pick up a new author in the hopes I will have a new romance author to glom. This week, I had the opportunity to read: THE TATTOOED DUKE, which is the third in the Working Girls series.

The Working Girls series lives up to its euphemistic name. Four young women are column writers for the most popular newspaper in town, The London Weekly. Of course, since it’s 1825, such a career (so to speak) is scandalous in the extreme, and the women are kept secret, though London knows there are women who work for the paper. Already we know we do not have our typical shy, retiring wallflower trope in the Regency (slightly after) setting. We have trailblazers.

This heroine, Eliza Fielding, is having a bit of writer’s block and knows her next column better work or Knightly, her boss, is going to fire her. She needs this job (the reason is not made exactly clear right away, but it is clear she’s not as well off as her other Writing Girls friends, who have married into the gentry or ton.) She is offered a position to research and write about a newly-back-in-town scandalous duke who is a well-known explorer, traveler, and heartbreaker. She immediately applies as his housemaid (since no one with sense would want to work for such a scandalous man and there are many positions available) and begins her research.

Then the snowball rolls down the hill.

Eliza writes a most delicious column; it is published; the duke is even more infamous—and things get better and worse. The duke—Sebastian, the Duke of Wycliff—is dying to get some money (he has none) and go back out adventuring to find the city of Timbuktu. Eliza’s columns get more popular—and she’s getting paid more and being taken more seriously as a writer; however, her columns are ruining the duke’s reputation, and soon he is out of the running for being eligible to head the expedition to find Timbuktu. She feels bad (she now likes him), so she writes another column—and as you imagine, it just keeps circling down the drain. Hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.

Meanwhile, there are a couple other characters available to keep our hero and heroine busy and wreck their lives. There is no rest for the wicked, and the duke and Eliza are not perfect people by any means. Also, it’s a well-known fact that when one part of your life starts to implode, the rest explodes with it. It does keep things very exciting and keeps you turning the page to see what will go wrong next.

All in all, Maya’s author voice is compelling and keeps the reader engaged, and the pacing of the story was such that it made for a quick read. However, hard-hearted stickler I am for historical plausibility and emotional depth of characters, the story fell short on those aspects for me.

So while this story didn’t work totally for me, that is not to say it would not work for other readers. If you enjoy historicals where the heroines are a bit more modern and more relatable to the modern world; if you like plot twists and reveals that make your jaw drop (mine did a few times in the story—it did keep me guessing); and you particularly like the trope of CEO and secretary (which is where I think Lord and housemaid fits), this book will probably be a funny, engaging read for you.

I did see a glimmer in a couple of the other characters in the story, the last Writing Girl writer, Annabelle, and Knightly, the owner of The London Weekly. She's in love with him, and he barely seems to acknowledge she exists--so while the Lord and housemaid trope did not work for me (mostly on a political level *LOL*) in this story, I am looking forward to reading other books by Ms. Rodale, checking out the previous Writing Girls and finding out if anything happens for Annabelle and Knightly.

So this week, let’s discuss: What are your favorite and least favorite tropes? Are you a stickler for historical plausibility or do feisty heroines mean more to you? Has anyone else read this book and has a different take? I’d love to hear from you!