Several authors have attempted to write novels that occur simultaneously, with mixed results. I have yet to see this work really well, though some are better than others. Unfortunately, The Duke Diaries is not one of the ones that goes smoothly.

This is the third in the Royal Entourage series. The jumping-off point for these novels is one disastrous bachelor party involving the Prince Regent and six of his royal dukes (think The Hangover in Regency England). In this edition, Rory Lennox, the first Duke of Abshire, wakes up inexplicably in the bed of Lady Verity Fitzroy, the sister of his former friend and current enemy (though I think “frenemy” may be appropriate here). He is not disturbed by this at all, and quickly comes to terms with the fact that he will have to marry Verity to save her reputation.

Verity is not exactly pleased with the situation. Her only crime was to sleep too deeply and not wake up when a drunken man stumbled into her bed, and she refuses to pledge herself to a man whom she believes can never love her in return. Verity has loved Rory from afar since she was a child, and has largely resigned herself to never marrying. She decamps to her brother’s ducal estate, and Rory follows to convince her to marry him. But things are complicated by the fact that someone has stolen her explosively revealing diaries and is publishing excerpts in the newspaper.

For a fairly straightforward plot set-up, there’s a lot happening in this novel– and I wasn’t sure about most of it while it was going on. Several important scenes happen off-page, and relevant events that happened in previous books were not summarized. Perhaps if I had read the previous two books in the series, I’d be less confused. But as a new reader, I felt constantly two steps behind the action of the plot. There were also a number of characters that were not introduced but who float in and out of the story, most of whom are the dukes and their future or current wives.

Speaking of the dukes: I had a really hard time suspending my disbelief regarding this Royal Entourage. I know the world of historical romance has a disproportionate number of attractive, young, unmarried, well-titled men, but six attractive, young, powerful, wealthy dukes seems excessive.

I also had mixed feelings about the writing in this novel. While some parts felt anachronistic and overly modern, the author also had some great passages.

Verity and Rory were both decent characters, but not particularly unique. Rory earned his dukedom doing some unnamed service to Prinny, and is not the rake his reputation purports him to be. Verity is “on the shelf,” one who observes from the sidelines more than participates, and writes everything down. She makes some pretty dumb decisions, though, despite very good advice from friends and family.

If you’ve read and enjoyed the previous two books in the series, you may like this one. I didn’t read them, though, and thus didn’t enjoy this one.