At an RWA conference, a bestselling author advised that one way to guarantee that a novel would sell is to “put a duke in it.” Apparently, an earl or marquess won’t do. (She did say that a billionaire would suffice in a contemporary romance.) With apologies to Jack London, then, here is an attempt to revisit the classics by the addition of a duke.

Buck, the spoiled and discriminating Duke of Ravenswood, is kidnapped on his way to America by a pack of miscreants afflicted with gold fever, including sassy but virginal Mercedes. Shedding the veneers of aristocracy, Buck comes to terms with his manhood and conquers the Yukon–and Mercedes, who heeds her own call of the wild.