Tag: KJ Charles

Review – The Duke at Hazard

Posted November 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Duke at Hazard

The Duke at Hazard

by KJ Charles

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 336
Series: The Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The Duke of Severn is one of the greatest men in Britain.

He's also short, quiet, and unimpressive. And now he's been robbed, after indulging in one rash night with a strange man who stole the heirloom Severn ring from his finger. The Duke has to get it back, and he can't let anyone know how he lost it. So when his cousin bets that he couldn't survive without his privilege and title, the Duke grasps the opportunity to hunt down his ring-incognito.

Life as an ordinary person is terrifying... until the anonymous Duke meets Daizell Charnage, a disgraced gentleman, and hires him to help. Racing across the country in search of the thief, the Duke and Daizell fall into scrapes, into trouble-and in love.

I don’t why it took me so long to get round to reading The Duke at Hazard, because I pretty much always love KJ Charles’ work — I think it’s mostly that my expectations are always so high now, I get a little nervous that it won’t stand up… and/or I try to save it for “the right moment”. Anyway, I’m glad I stopped hesitating about/saving The Duke at Hazard, though I wish I’d read The Gentle Art of Fortune-Hunting again first, since there are cameo appearances it’d have been nice to fully appreciate. It’s not necessary, though, and I enjoyed this very much.

Cassian’s a sweetheart. He needs a backbone (which he develops) and the strength to speak up about his own preferences, and fit himself inside the role of the Duke of Severn (or fit the role inside of him), but he genuinely adores Daizell and always means to do well by him. And Daizell… has been dealt a bad hand, isn’t entirely a gentleman, but deserves so much more than he’s had so far. Together, they both get chances to prove themselves, and it’s lovely — even if the inevitable misunderstanding part was unavoidably awful, and Daizell’s absolutely right that Cassian owed him more of the truth.

My favourite part was probably Cassian’s enthusiasm about churches etc, and Daizell finding them interesting because of Cassian’s joy in it all. Now that’s a love language I know well!

The supporting characters are quite fun too, like Miss Beaumont and Leo, and Cassian’s character shines through there as well. I especially love the affection between him and his family, though: it would be easy to villainise them for the ways they messed the poor guy up, but it’s clear they did it with the best of intentions, and with true affection for him.

I love the way it all works out as the people Cassian cares for — and has stuck his neck out for — each bring a piece of the puzzle to get the truth out there. It’s all very satisfying.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Copper Script

Posted October 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – Copper Script

Copper Script

by KJ Charles

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 269
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Detective Sergeant Aaron Fowler of the Metropolitan Police doesn’t count himself a gullible man. When he encounters a graphologist who reads people’s characters and even actions from their handwriting with impossible accuracy, he needs to find out how the trick is done. Even if that involves spending more time with the intriguing, flirtatious Joel Wildsmith than feels quite safe.

Joel’s not an admirer of the police, but DS Fowler has the most irresistible handwriting he’s ever seen. If the policeman’s tests let him spend time unnerving the handsome copper, why not play along?

But when Joel looks at a powerful man's handwriting and sees a murderer, the policeman and the graphologist are plunged into deadly danger. Their enemy will protect himself at any cost—unless Joel and Aaron can come together to prove his guilt and save each other.

I’m a bit torn between a 3-star and a 4-star rating for this: I’ve enjoyed everything KJ Charles writes, but Copper Script isn’t a favourite. On the other hand, I did tear through it, and stay up to finish it: I don’t think it was bad.

So I guess I’ll mostly let my review speak for me! I enjoyed Joel’s character a lot, his lack of apology for everything he is, but was less taken with Aaron, who was… well, as Joel tells him, he’s very buttoned up. The chemistry between them worked quite well, but it felt like Aaron still kept a lot bottled up, and wasn’t entirely fair to Joel in the way he was blowing hot and cold (even if it was partly due to circumstances and not wanting to lead trouble to Joel, he clearly already was leading trouble to him).

Mostly, it felt like there was one pace at the start and then everything flat-out accelerated, and the pacing didn’t quite work for me as a result: the eventual ending felt like it happened way too fast after the build-up, and thus kind of fizzled. It’s not that it was totally lacking in consequences, since Aaron’s job is affected, Joel’s plan to get a prosthetic arm, and of course their relationship… but the tension and danger just sort of fizzled, and felt solved very conveniently. On the one hand, how it resolved makes sense — we know Joel can glean a lot from someone’s handwriting, that’s been kind of the whole thing — but it did somewhat shortcircuit some of the drama, I guess?

That said, I did love Joel, and here’s hoping he can undo all Aaron’s buttons, I’m sure he wants to!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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