Two characters see each other for who they really are and fall irrevocably in love for it: that trope is at the center of K.J. Charles' new novel (a duke goes on an incognito month-long trip during which he meets a 'gentleman of uncertain fortune' who will assist him in his quest, both lifting each other up and falling for each other along the way). I love KJC's books in general and this one has definitely become one of my favorites. The Duke at Hazard is everything KJC does best. If you love smooth, intelligent writing, vivid characters, adventure, self-discovery arcs, dramatic reveals, hot smut, angst with a happy ending, and heart-melting romance, this is the book for you.

I have enjoyed every KJ Charles book I've read. This is a story about two men who are both looking for love and acceptance. They both struggle with very public images that are not true representations of themselves. This is a road trip story with high jinks along the way as they get to know each other. It was a joy to read.

KJC never misses - and this was no exception!

An excellent romance between a Duke pretending to rough it, and a Gentleman who has fallen on hard times. Truly enjoyed the interplay between the two of them, as well as the secondary plot that involved revenge on another truly heinous villain (KJC does villains so very well!)

Brilliantly written, fabulously witty, and beautifully romantic. What's not to like?

Another delightful and well researched historical romance from KJ Charles. A duke (disguised) and a disgraced gentleman grow close while rattling around England in search of stolen property (and a purpose). Lovely character work and communication in the relationship

The Duke at Hazard, as with any KJ Charles novel, is delightfully well paced, moving quickly through a snappy plot. This novel in contrast to a lot of Charles’ others tends less towards the heavy and more towards a straightforward uplifting romance which is ultimately less to my taste and made the chemistry between the two leads a little dull, especially when there was space for a lot of conflict regarding class. On that same topic of class, the ending also fell rather flat to me as while the duke came to further recognise the privilege of his position, it still ended in him using his power to restore the privilege of another, upholding the structures of class. The novel felt like it was held back in properly interrogating the relationship between a duke and anyone “below” him.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full and honest review.

A Duke undercover. A man who left society and is now cutting out silhouettes for money. After being robbed, the Duke must get his duval ring back.
It’s a road-trip. There’s a rescue in the middle.
It was fun and an easy read.

I absolutely adore everything that KJ Charles writes, especially when we get to meet some characters from previous books (don't worry, they are cameos only). I also like when the books involve characters being vulnerable with each other, gentle and funny plots and just enough right of smut. So, The Duke of Hazard ticks all the boxes for me as a light and cheeky sort-of-sequel to The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting in which we meet a very titled and impressive duke (despite nondescriptive looks), who is also very bad at dealing with day to day matters. While hunting for a stolen ring, he meets a disgraced gentleman, who becomes his guide in the ordinary world. The pair throws themselves into a journey across England which features many public carriages, inns, and cathedrals. Altogether, a fun read from a favourite author.

Nothing like a wildly chaotic road trip, organized by the cute upperclassman with a bad reputation from your Eton days to soothe the soul of a stir-crazy Duke.

After an ill advised tryst that left the Duke of Severn robbed of his clothes, dignity and most importantly his heirloom Severn ring, he returns home to the general mockery of his relatives. They don't believe he would be able to survive in the *real world* without the luxuries that comes with being part of the nobility. So a wager was struck between the Duke and his cousin Leo: He must survive on his own for 1 month, with no valet, no fancy clothing, using a different name and worst of all, taking public transportation.

A month of living incognito is the perfect time for the Duke AKA Cassian to go looking for his stolen ring. He has very little to go by, besides an average looking man probably going by a fake name, wearing a mulberry coat. The search seems doomed on arrival until he meets up with Daizell Charnage. A former gentleman of fortune, until his parents robbed and killed members of the ton and abandoned him to the consequences. Daizell's fall from grace has left him penniless and wandering, never certain if his skills with paper cutting will be enough to afford food and a place to crash. When out of the blue this rich stranger going by the name Cassian hires him to help him track down some stolen property, for a staggering payday of 50 pounds! No brainer, he accepts.

So the two embark on a road trip/treasure hunt that takes them all over England, battling out of control carriages, kidnapping, elopements, and corrupt officials. Will the Duke win his wager? Will they find the ring? Will they find anything else along the way... feelings perhaps?

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I loved this book. This is KJC at her finest. If you loved The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting, this is a must read. It's not a sequel, but you may see some familiar faces. A seriously fun time all the way through.

I really enjoyed this book. It really rollicks along at an amazing pace, the characterisation is great, and I am very here in support of the main couple. The cameos from previous books are also a delight.

My first KJ Charles romance, and certainly not my last. This book is increeeeedible. Beautiful writing & perfect pacing & SO funny & a gorgeous exploration of these characters’ wounds. I’m a KJ Charles truther now!!!

This is a Bridgerton-esque MM romance where an incognito Duke enlists the help of a disgraced gentleman to find his stolen heirloom. The writing sounded of the times, and took some adjusting to get used to. I laughed out loud a few times at the wit and banter between characters. I enjoyed both main characters and thought their romance was believable. It felt like quite a long book for a romance, but that could be just because of the historical writing style that I’m not used to. Overall, it was a fun time with a little spice and a lot of charm. Recommended for historical romance fans.

Vernon Fortescue Cassian George de Vere Crosse, the fourth Duke of Severn is a quiet unassuming gentleman. After his father's death when he was just six the Duke was brought up by his uncle. His uncle has always impressed on the Duke his obligations to the title and his dependants, whilst also impressing upon others how important the Duke is. As a result the Duke has been both cosseted and constrained by what is expected of him. When an anonymous encounter leads to him being robbed in his sleep of clothes, cash, and the Ducal Severn ring he knows he must recover it before his uncle discovers it is missing, what symbolises the Duke of Severn more than his ring?

When his cousins mock him at dinner for being unable to fend for himself, they enter into a bet, the Duke will live incognito, travelling alone as an ordinary gentleman by stagecoach instead of hiring a private carriage, carrying his own bags, for a month. At first the Duke makes a complete hash of things, he doesn't know how to order himself dinner at an inn, or request a room, he drops his clothes on the floor expecting a valet to pick them up and clean them, he doesn't know how to book a seat on a stagecoach. Then he encounters a man he knew vaguely at Eton who was disgraced when his father lost all their money gambling and killed a man before escaping abroad. The Duke knows this man, Daizell Charnage, is considered disgraced, tarred by the same brush, but he is clearly living on his wits, so in an impetuous moment the Duke begs for his help in finding the thief and his ring, introducing himself as plain Mr Cassian. Daizell can't believe his luck, this man will pay him £50 for a week's travelling (including food and board) which will keep him afloat for months if he is careful and leave him less reliant on the hospitality of friends and the small sums he can earn from cutting out paper silhouettes of people.

Together they career around the English countryside looking for a nondescript man who most certainly gave a false name. Travelling incognito forces the Duke to suffer various slights and indignities, a stagecoach crash, sharing a bed with Daizell. The pair also get embroiled with a runaway heiress and her reluctant swain, a vindictive guardian, and a corrupt magistrate.

I can give no higher accolade than to say it reminds me strongly of Georgette Heyer's writing, if she had written open door LGBTQIA+ romances. Some elements are similar to The Foundling in which the Most Noble Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, seventh Duke of Sale travels incognito under the name of Rufford to retrieve some letters for a relative.

Anyway, gentler than the characters in the Doomsday Books series, Cass is more like Jeremy KIte in Death in the Spires in terms of our romantic MMC.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, as I have all books by KJ Charles.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

KJC is so hit or miss for me that I think it might be really saying something that this was a hit!

I am never going to get over the historical concept of an English gentleman. What do you mean it taxes your person to lay your shirt across a chair rather than throwing it on the floor where you stand? It's preposterous and in this one KJC seems to me to be very much aware of that fact and managed to poke fun at the concept without presenting Cassian as a loathsome figure. Dude just doesn't know how to take care of himself and KJC has us more laughing with him than at him.

Additionally, the misadventures of these two MCs are absolutely and without a doubt completely ridiculous. Yet KJC has a way of drawing us along from one event to the next that rather than seem ridiculous, each pickle these guys get themselves into only makes sense.

My only complaint is the third act. This book hits a deep lull around 70% and wallows in it for another 15% or so. I knew from the beginning that Cassian and Daizell would eventually have it out over the fact that Cassian is a Duke and lied about it. But I felt like each character’s response to that scene was inconsistent with their previous actions. I didn't think either of these guys were the type to go OTT with it, with all the wailing and the gnashing of teeth.

And afterwards, for a good long while, these two spend pages and pages individually thinking about the events of the book. They think about it, they recount it to others, and then they think about it some more.

Fortunately though, it picks back up again around 85% and has a very strong finish, complete with HEA.

The best though was when the MCs visit Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Stratford. I was there just last year and it was then just as it is described in the book:

“The half that remained a house was populated by aged dodderers who offered to show them Shakespeare’s own chair, his cradle, his wife’s cradle, his tragically lost son’s cradle, his pipe, or whatever other tatty old rubbish they had to hand, and who were all ready to recount their great-grandfather’s many stories from when he was the best of friends with the Bard. This was the sort of thing a gullible man, or an excessively polite one, could be caught in for hours.”

Excessively polite. Is me! I spent a good ten minutes listening to a woman tell me the story of glass in a window at Shakespeare’s Birthplace that has since been removed and replaced. And even though she was describing a thing that was no longer there, I felt it would be too rude to walk away mid-story. Ha!

KJC has a real talent for evoking the English countryside, in all its quirks and inconsistencies.

KJ Charles can do no wrong. Absolutely adored this one and loved the balance of these characters so much. This was fun from start to finish, with the perfect elements of surprise and predictability to make it a thoroughly enjoyable romance.

Thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really wish the formatting would’ve been better on this and if has preventing me from going forward with reading. I also couldn’t bring myself to get through 20% of this.

This book was an absolute delight to read. It was funny, heartfelt, and kept me entertained and engaged the entire read - I did not want to put it down! 

MCs Cassian and Daizell meet while Cassian, aka the Duke of Severn, is living amongst the common people as a wager he made with his cousin, and also trying to recover his stolen ducal ring. Cassian hires Daizell to help him find said ring, but leaves out the whole Ducal bit (which would of course be against the terms of the wager).

Shenanigans ensue as Cassian and Daizell try to recover the missing ring. There are country inns, many public stage coaches, elopements to aid, horses to calm, and a villain to out. Cassian learns how to do for himself, Daizell learns he is of value, and together they are a bundle of mush and it was absolutely fantastic. Until that Ducal secret finally rears it's head and Cassian has to fix his errors. The ending was very satisfying, as Cassian and Daizell find a way to their HEA in spite of a Dukedom resting on Cassian's shoulders and the reality of being gay during the Regency.

The Duke at Hazard can absolutely be read as a standalone with an entire new cast of characters aside from some minor cameos. It's my favourite KJ Charles to date and I highly recommend it if you're looking for something a little soft, and a lot fun!

Thank you to Orion for an eARC via NetGalley. Opinions are my own.

(Review will be posted to Instagram closer to pub date)

K J Charles delivers another exciting and satisfying romp around the Georgian coach trails, as a Duke in disguise ropes a disgraced gentleman into a hunt to recover his stolen signet ring. I loved the Duke in this, he knows he's out of touch and scaffolded by privilege and so in a bid to gain some autonomy and independence he sets off on his own without his Dukely trappings. His determination to master the simple art of booking an inn room and navigating coach trips was very endearing. It all builds to him effectively throwing his Dukel weight around in a massively entertaining confrontation with the villain. It was great to see past characters from the series witnessing the chaos unfold, as you can't help but read it all with your jaw on the floor. If you want a fun adventure from the master of historical romance, then pick this up immediately!
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been loving queer regency romances lately, but this one had a lot of boring moments in between action that would hook me in. The relationship was cute but I didn't connect with either character. If you like queer regency romances I'd still recommend

This review is going to be incredibly short because the crux of the matter is just that this was not the kind of romance that suits me. It’s entirely probable that this is an outlier of a review and opinion and I’m perfectly happy with that. There are other K. J. Charles books that I have loved and will come back to. My YMMV issue here was simply that I prefer my romances to have a bit more bite to them. If you enjoy two big ol’ softies being big ol’ softies to one another, then this could well be the book for you.

I snatched up an ARC of KJ Charles' latest without even knowing what the story is about. I'm such a fan and loved diving right in. Thank you to NetGalley and Orion for providing a copy to me ahead of the publication date.

This historical m/m road trip romance took takes us on a journey on romantic discovery between the two main characters and of course also across England.
And despite talk of previous assaults and murder, current danger, threats and violence, I perceived this is a rather gentle and kind read overall with a colorfully painted background cast, an unlikely Duke who's described as unassuming, an a wronged gentleman with a kind heart who's trying to make the most of his misfortune.

While I found it a tad slow to get in to, the pace picks up considerably once Duke is on the road and the adventure begins for real. I loved how everything wrapped up at the end but would have loved to read an epilogue for the happy couple a decade down the road.

Can't wait to read the next KJ Charles book.