When You Give a Girl a Hot Duke

by Shana Galen

I write about dukes and spies and pirates during the Regency era. The word “hot” as used in terms of sexiness wasn’t in use in my period.But that doesn’t mean I don’t think about what it takes to make my classic heroes hot to modern readers.

Obligatory ab photo

In my upcoming book, When You Give a Duke a Diamond, the Duke of Pelham is not one of my typical hot heroes. He’s not a spy or a pirate or any profession associated with hotness. He’s a duke. He has a lot of responsibilities. He takes them seriously.

Perhaps a bit too seriously.

But I hope that by the end of the book, you’ll see that even a stodgy duke can have some pretty hot qualities.

For starters, he has really nice eyes. They’re blue, and my heroine absolutely cannot look at him without admiring his eyes.

He also has a nice house, and he takes care of it. When I was in college, nothing turned me off faster than a cute guy who had a disgusting apartment or dorm room. Dude, clean the toilet once a year! Yuck!

Lastly, he’s a protector. Yep. There it is. This is the essential hotness requirement in my book. I want a hero who is going to protect my heroine no matter what. Will, the Duke of Pelham, is that kind of guy. He certainly does not want anything to do with Juliette, but she’s also in trouble, and he can’t allow anything to happen to her either.

Do any of my duke’s qualities rank high with you on the hotness scale?