S1 E18—The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran with Melissa (@adcuhessinside)

I had such a great time chatting with Melissa this week about my first Meredith Duran, THE DUKE OF SHADOWS!

In this book deep dive for September, we are talking about the bold choice to not only set this book in India, but also in the midst of the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. We appreciated the way Duran condemns colonialism while still presenting the violence on both sides of the conflict, and the brilliant way she set up both of our characters to be able to deal with this traumatic event.

And as always, we talk about what makes historical romance so great and why we love this genre so much!

Follow Melissa on Instagram (@aduchessinside)

Learn more about Meredith Duran and her books

And support the podcast on Patreon to get my upcoming novella, STAY HERE FOREVER —out 10/2/2026