Every Duke Has His Day is a charmingly mannered slice of Regency era romantic comedy. It’s light and fluffy, touched with mystery and longing. Not my absolute favorite Enoch, yet it’s still a really fine little romance.

Michael Blumley, Duke of Loriton, is much more interested in scientific matters than those of the heart or the ballroom. Yet he does love his family, and therefore he finds himself taking care of his aunt Mary’s poodle, Lancelot, while she’s away. All is going smoothly – until someone kidnaps the beast right from under his nose.

Elizabeth – Bitsy – Dockering is a popular belle of the ton, enjoying all of the magic her second Season has to offer her. She goes everywhere with her poodle, Galahad – who is so protective of his mistress that he’s apt to bite her suitors. It turns out that one of Bitsy’s flirts is so determined to get her poodle out of the way that he hires a man to kidnap the dog. Unfortunately, the thief gets confused and kidnaps both Lancelot and Galahad in succession. Michael and Bitsy team up to search up their lost pooches, but can true love bloom fiercely between such unlikely parties?

Every Duke Has Its Day is a very charming romance with a fun mystery, but sometimes the mystery subsumes the romance in a way that feels frustrating and leaves the audience wanting more of it. You have to love a scientific hero and a flibbertigibbet, even if some of the beats feel easily predestined.

I liked Michael more than Bitsy, but Bitsy still manages to escape being a simple-minded Regency ditz. They’re both fun people, total opposites. You get bumbling crooks and a low-stakes, low-tension mystery that’s fun for reader and protagonists alike to encounter. You get a nice tour of Regency London to boot as they go looking for their dogs.

The romance is fine, but the novel does have one big flaw; it pushes the mystery a little harder than the romantic aspect, so it feels as if the pacing of their developing connection is slightly off.

If this doesn’t matter to you, Every Duke Has His Day will enchant and amuse, making it a perfectly cracking early fall read.