Saturday, December 29, 2018

Review - Not the Duke’s Darling

Author:  Elizabeth Hoyt
Series:  Greycourt #1
Genre:   Historical Romance
Publisher:   Historical Romance
Format:  Kindle ARC
No. of Pages:  468
Date of Publication:  December 18, 2018
My Rating:  3.5 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Hoyt brings us the first book in her sexy and sensual Greycourt Series!

Freya de Moray is many things: a member of the secret order of Wise Women, the daughter of disgraced nobility, and a chaperone living under an assumed name. What she is not is forgiving. So when the Duke of Harlowe, the man who destroyed her brother and led to the downfall of her family, appears at the country house party she's attending, she does what any Wise Woman would do: she starts planning her revenge.

Christopher Renshaw, the Duke of Harlowe, is being blackmailed. Intent on keeping his secrets safe, he agrees to attend a house party where he will put an end to this coercion once and for all. Until he recognizes Freya, masquerading amongst the party revelers, and realizes his troubles have just begun. Freya knows all about his sins—sins he'd much rather forget. But she's also fiery, bold, and sensuous—a temptation he can't resist. When it becomes clear Freya is in grave danger, he'll risk everything to keep her safe. But first, Harlowe will have to earn Freya's trust-by whatever means necessary.

Features a bonus novella from New York Times bestselling author Grace Burrowes!

MY THOUGHTS:

Freya de Moray is a warrior woman. She has had a tragic past, and is living under an assumed name. Freya is part of a secret order of Wise Women and also serves as a chaperone for employment. She is also driven by vengeance for her brother, plotting to one day avenge the downfall her family suffered. To her great surprise, she spots the Duke of Harlowe while at a house party. Let the plotting begin.

Christopher Renshaw, the Duke of Harlowe, has some plotting of his own in mind. He is being blackmailed and he is finally planning to put an end to it. But then Harlowe’s plans are derailed when he spots Freya at the party. Freya could be Harlowe’s very undoing, in more ways than one.

Although the premise was quite interesting, especially since Harlowe’s and Freya’s paths had crossed once before, the challenges they faced in this story were a bit distracting. The history of the Wise Women, Freya’s reasons for wanting revenge against Harlowe, and her methods prevented me from being as engaged in this story as I would have liked. Also, the whole Wise Women aspect, and the related practices, when relayed, were a bit off-putting to me.

That said, there was plenty of action as well as twists and turns to keep me riveted enough to want to see whatever resolution the various circumstances could lead to. Another interesting factor was that Freya and Harlowe had to fight intense feelings for one another, especially when they had impossible situations facing them. The conclusion was satisfying, and I do look forward to the next book in this series.

Not the Duke’s Darling is the first book in the Greycourt series. The next book is When a Rogue Meets His Match, scheduled for release July 30, 2019.

Many thanks to Forever for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of historical romance, including reader favorite, The Raven Prince.

Elizabeth was born in New Orleans but grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. She was fortunate to be able to travel extensively as a child, visiting St. Andrews, Scotland; Germany; France; and Belgium. She spent a year in Oxford, England and was a summer exchange student to Kawasaki, Japan.

Elizabeth has a BA in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and, as a result of having no clue what to do with her life thereafter, a career history as a barista, a (terrible) sales clerk, a Wisconsin Revenue Service data entry slave, and an archeological field work grunt. Fortunately, Elizabeth married relatively young and produced two children who kept her busy until her mid-thirties. At about this time, when her youngest was entering Kindergarten, Elizabeth’s mother hinted that perhaps Elizabeth should get a Real Job.

Sadly, Elizabeth was so delusional she thought writing a romance novel might qualify as a Real Job.

But! Five years later, to everyone’s surprise, she actually sold that romance novel (The Raven Prince) and began a rather successful career as a Romance Novelist. This was most fortunate since Elizabeth is singularly unqualified to do anything else but Make Up Stories. Since then Elizabeth has written over twenty books to critical acclaim including three contemporaries under the pen name Julia Harper.

Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with three dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the ever faithful Mr. Hoyt.




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