One Dance With a Duke by Tessa Dare (Stud Club #1)
May 25, 2010
Historical Romance
Paperback, 384 Pages
Ballantine Books


Why I read: I requested an arc from the publisher because I loved Tessa Dare’s previous trilogy.


Favorite Quote: He kissed her. Without warning, without permission. Without even deciding to do it, but simply because he couldn’t have done anything else. He needed that breath she was holding. It belonged to him, and he wanted it back.

The ladies of the ton are in a titter over Spencer, the Duke of Morland. Rich, handsome and single, Spencer has started making it a habit of showing up at precisely midnight to each ball, selecting one dance partner and then leaving. The gossipers have fondly nicknamed him, The Duke of Midnight. Each mother has high hopes that one night he will pick their daughter and declare it a love match. Amelia d’Orsay could care less about this Duke of Midnight, that is until she discovers her brother Jack lost four hundred pounds to him in a card game. Four hundred pounds poorer, which means they will not be able to afford to go to their beloved cottage this summer.

Determined to rectify this situation, Amelia forces her way through the crowd and demands a dance with Spencer. Once dancing, Amelia finds the courage to demand Spencer forgive the debt – but he will hear nothing of it. He knows Jack is a wastrel and forgiving the debt will further enable him to keep gambling. Plus, Spencer has something much bigger on his mind – The Stud Club.

The Stud Club was created by his friend Leopold, each member earning a brass token allowing that token holder to be able to breed with the famed horse, Osiris. Spencer doesn’t want to breed with Osiris, he wants Osiris for himself for very personal reasons which he refuses to share with anyone. With ten total tokens out there, Spencer is determined to collect them all. This token can neither be bought nor sold, only won through a game of cards. When Leo turns up dead, and his token gone, Spencer, along with fellow members Rhys St. Maur and Julian Bellamy start investigating who was involved in the murder. When the three men must deliver the news of Leopold’s passing to his sister Lily, Amelia demands to help, knowing these men don’t have the softest of emotions. Amelia soon finds herself in the company of Spencer, and the Duke of Midnight grabs her attention.

Tessa Dare’s books are always so rich and full in the romance department that as a romance reader, you feel like you won the lottery. One Dance With a Duke is the first in her Stud Club trilogy and a really great one at that.

She gives us a hero and heroine who are both very intense and passionate. Spencer is all haughty Duke, with evil stares and cold demeanor. Amelia comes on the scene very sure of herself, and very put off by the attention Spencer appears to be reveling in as the Duke of Midnight. But when she is forced to spend a night with him – out and about informing Lily of her brother’s death, she sees a glimpse of a different man and she finds a new side to herself.

At some point this evening, between surrendering her last few coins to Jack and claiming the Duke of Morland’s hand, Amelia had stepped outside herself, somehow. Or stepped outside that quiet, unassuming, plain, and proper shell she’d been inhabiting all her life. Scolding a trio of intimidating men was only part of it. She’d confronted a duke, even flirted with him during a sensual waltz.

Spencer is oddly enamored with Amelia. He notices she embroiders a handkerchief for no one else’s amusement but her own. She makes him “chatty” as she likes to tease him and he is baffled by why he enjoys her company so much. He needs an heir, he needs an adult female in his life to help guide his young ward Claudia, so he makes that step, very early in the book to make Amelia his bride. While I thought Amelia’s acceptance made sense, the next day, her sudden fear of him being Leopold’s murderer seemed a bit silly. She wasn’t forced in any way into marrying Spencer, even having her brother very wary of the arrangement. I felt her mistrust of him a bit misplaced.  However, their relationship takes on a very slow, and sensual journey until they really get to know each other – and it is fantastic.

Tessa Dare can write foreplay like no one’s business. She spends and entire page on just the act of Spencer removing his gloves so he can kiss Amelia properly. And then – the kiss. This may be one of my favorite kisses ever:

“Now we can do this properly.” 

A surge of excitement flooded every inch of her body. And it didn’t come from the heat of his breath on her lips, or the firm pressure of his hands bracketing her face. Its origin was that tiny word: “we.” Now we can do this properly. 

It wasn’t that he would kiss her. They were going to kiss. 

His lips brushed hers, slowly, sensually. And in an abrupt, volcanic explosion, Amelia d’Orsay’s world gained a whole new continent…… 

….But this kiss…now, this kiss was a conversation.

Between that passage and my favorite quote at the beginning of the review, I swooned in my chair. Who cares if they have sex, just make them kiss some more!! Wait, what?

Truly a lovely story and the next two books in this trilogy, Twice Tempted by a Rogue featuring Rhys St. Maur and Three Nights With a Scoundrel with Julian Bellamy come out back to back. One Dance With a Duke gives you a rich, romantic story that I definitely recommend.


Rating: 4/5

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