Mariah Stone: Duke of Luhst

 Read in 2025

7 Dukes of Sin book 2  

Lucien Wrenn, The Duke of Luhst, is a ladies man he never stays with one woman long but he does take precautions so that he will not end up a father.  He is part of the friend group of dukes with names similar to the 7 deadly sins you get a bit of an introduction to him in the first book.  

Lady Chastity Perrin is his best friend's (the Duke of Rath (Dorian) from the first book) little sister and off limits.  Chastity is a brilliant scientist and has been researching how to better prevent infections with patients with healing wounds, turned away from the hospital used for the upper society she turns to helping a doctor in a bad part of town where she meets and helps those less fortunate. 

Chastity has always loved Lucien and even though she is under no illusion that he will change his rakish ways or ever marry her (not that she even really wants that) he has always been handsome and has always held a piece of her heart.  

Chastity is caring and kind but very socially awkward and hides behind glasses and dull colored gowns, she has been a bit of a wallflower over the years and now in her late 20's is fully on the shelf as a spinster.  Coming home one evening from working in the hospital she runs into the Duke of Luhst and does not want him to alert her brother as to her current activities (helping the doctor in the bad part of town).  In order to get him to stay silent they end up making a bet for the next 30 days at the house party they are going to, Lucien must remain celibate for the duration of the party and Chastity needs to secure a proposal of marriage... super easy right!

Throughout the book you see that while Lucien was her brother's best friend they were also friends as well and spent a lot of their childhood together and shared the common problem of having abusive parents who did a number to their emotional growth.  Lucien walls off his heart and uses his body to cover up for his low self esteem, Chastity covers up her beauty with dull dowdy gowns seeing that her beautiful mother was bossed around and bullied by her husband, she never wants that for herself.  

Lucien helps give Chastity a bit of a makeover by helping her with her social skills and picking out better colored dresses and in a "she's all that" or Disney movie make over just by dressing in brighter colors she now is the belle of the party attracting the attention of multiple men... she might just get her proposal after all and Lucien while wanting her to be happy can't help feeling sad at the same time because he has always loved her too but she's always been off limits and he's not good enough for her anyways everyone knows it even his best friend Dorian doesn't feel he is good enough for his little sister.

Some of the usual drama of a historical romance novel where our couple gets a bit closer and keep getting pulled apart by their own inner turmoil/demons and a bit of scandal that comes up at the end. Would her brother ever be ok with them being together?  Can they ever get over their childhood trauma to be together?  Will they realize that they are meant to be together too late to go after that happiness? 

I did like this book better than the first book and plan to read the next one in the series.  This series has been a bit darker for a historical romance.  I did enjoy getting to know Chasity and Lucien better and seeing them fall in love with each other all over again they are both likeable characters they just need to learn to love themselves a bit more.  

Have you read any books by this author?  which one is your favorite? 

*Older brother's best friend  *friends to lovers  * historical romance  *some spice (mild)  

*Duke  *makeover  *rake *house party  *bets  *spinster *happy ending

*Trigger warning: mentions of child abuse/neglect