Always Be My Duchess is about a duke who runs into a beautiful dancer and decides to hire her to pretend to be his fiancée so that he can try and secure a business deal. Of course, he never planned to fall head over heals for the woman, Geneviéve Valery, and he has to deal with the fact that he can't control his feelings around her the way that he's been used to doing for his entire adult life.

Lysander (our duke) is the victim of emotional abuse from his father. The man was set on making sure the young man understood that emotions didn't have a place in a duke's life. He took away any chance of happiness when he was a young boy, and continued to try and ruin any of Lysander's plans up until the day of his death. This sets up a big challenge for Lysander, now the Duke of Montcroix, to ever seek joy. Even when he meets Geneviève, it requires multiple instances of his emotions seeping through before he ever starts to accept his feelings for the woman. Despite the fact that the book follows the fake dating trope, the main obstacle in this book is the trauma that Lysander has to overcome so that he can be honest about his feelings for the woman he falls in love with.

The characterization of both Lysander and Néve is so well-written! I love that Lysander is a neurodivergent hero, and the pasts that bring these two together really make the relationship work in a beautiful, unlikely way. The chemistry between them from the jump is OFF THE CHARTS. Sometimes the idea of the hero of a romance constantly being turned on around a woman feels like a little much, but I think that Howard made it work in a way that was believable (primarily because he didn't, erm, take care of himself in private and just continued to let things build up) so that when they end up together, the reader is almost as excited as the characters who are actually getting some, haha.

I also loved the side characters. From the servants to the antagonists (Charlotte and Treadway are THE WORST!!!) to both Lysander and Nève's friends, nobody felt entirely two-dimensional and I wouldn't be surprised at all if I found out that Howard did a lot of character work with all of these side characters. I also adore the Hell Kitties Club and cannot wait to read future books in this series starring these wonderful ladies!