Review: All In With The Duke, from Ava March (Gambling on Love, #1)

Warning: this book is about a male homosexual romance in the 19^th century. If you don’t like this gender, you should stop here 🙂

Hello, guys! Today I’ll review one of my favorite books all-time and one of the May Favorites, once I started my Instagram account before the blog (by the way, follow me :D). All In With The Duke is the first book of the Gambling on Love series and the last one, Viscount’s Wager, will be released on August 10^th, so I’m going nuts, haha!

my precious baby ❤

The book tells us the story of Max, a duke who suffered a huge amorous deception and decided to never love again. Max is not the kind that falls often, but when he does, he dives in deeply and Johnathan, his former lover, left and blackmailed him. After such a disaster, Max shuts himself down for other relationships and only considers it again after his friend Rawling thousand nudges. All Rawling’s sweating wasn’t in vain and Max goes to Rubbicon, a brothel, that his friend assured him that could fulfill any wish Max had.

There, Max mets Tristan, a young man that has a giant debt with the owner of the place and a closet larger than Paris Hilton’s. Ok, just kidding, but he loves clothes ❤ Their first night together is explosive, even with just hands and mouths involved. Max gets addicted to Tristan’s body in the act and Tristan was shocked to realize that he wanted very badly to see Max again – and he usually couldn’t care less about who was on top of him.

Used to controlling everything beyond his reach, Max believes that he has power to control heart as well, so he makes an indecent proposition to Tristan that would change their lifes for good.

It’s one of the bests M/M historical romances I’ve ever read. Ava is the kind of writer who shares the characters’ love with the readers, you know? Their feelings are so true, so intense, so hot that you can feel it on your skin while reading, it’s pure magic. I loved Max since the first scene. I have a weak spot for powerful and confident men who know exactly what they want. He was so manly and unpredictable that it was love at first read, haha! Tristan also surprised me a lot: I thought he was going to be submissive and frail, but he has an unbreakable spirit – I dare to say, even stronger than Max’s. The plot is brilliant and almost gave me several heart attacks – thanks to the mutual stubbornness of the couple.

Another great point is the lovemaking. Their nights together were pure art, romance and with not even a hint of vulgarity. However, I have to say that this is a trademark of Ava’s: her characters always burn with such a passion that the reader feels like he belongs with then, right there. There were also some scenes that led me to tears – some of pain, some of joy, as I wasn’t seeing any way for them to be together with their differences. We also get to know Jack, one of the protagonists of the second book in the trilogy, which is pretty cool 🙂 I love this kind of book where there the stories are all happening at the same time, but you have a different perspective at each time – Grace Burrowes also does that greatly.

That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading 🙂 Did you know Ava March or read this book?