Blog Tour Review & Giveaway: Four Night with the Duke – Eloisa James

Shannon’s Thoughts

FOUR NIGHTS WITH THE DUKE reminded me of why I fell in love with Eloisa James books.  She creates these heroes that can be such bastards on one hand and undeniably attractive on the other that the reader is just as torn about the hero as the heroine.

There was something about these characters that immediately drew me in and reminded me so much of the very first Eloisa James book I fell in love with (Potent Pleasures).  Mia and Vander had history with each other, most of it rather unpleasant, but I think that added to a certain element to their relationship.  They way they married may not have been a happy occasion, but I think even somewhat under duress Vander knew Mia was his girl.  His temper and harsh mouth may have made Mia think otherwise, but you could see hints of a man who was changing despite what he thought he wanted.

I love Mia.  You always want to root for the wallflower, have her prove to everyone that she was someone worth noticing.  She may have felt unnoticed and unappreciated, but she poured herself into her secret identity and basked in the knowledge that she had fans that adored her.  She does, eventually, learn to love herself.  That helps her in dealing with everything with Vander and to finally stand up for herself and realize she’s worthy.

Vander was truly a great hero, but his mouth made me want to smack him on several occasions.  His temper often caused him to speak without thinking and then immediately regret what he’d just said…especially with Mia.  It took him a while to recognize he was punishing her for the past between their parents.  He wouldn’t be a great hero without realizing he isn’t without flaws and knowing who/what makes him better.   He eventually figures it out.

There are some truly laugh out loud moments that lighten some of the emotional ones (Vander using that sharp tongue with Charlie, testing out ridiculously mean nicknames.  Any scene with Vander’s uncle Chuffy).    Eloisa James has perfected interjected those laugh out loud moments….just when you need them.

If you’ve not read an Eloisa James book before, this is definitely one to pick up.  The author has created a storyline and characters that is truly entertaining and an absolute pleasure to read.

Chapter One

Thirteen years later

~ from the offices of Brandy, Bucknell & Bendal, Publishers ~

August 27, 1800

Dear Miss Carrington,

I am writing to inquire about the prospect of receiving your new novel. As you know, we had hoped to receive the manuscript some six months ago. We are all most sympathetic as regards the tragic death of your father and brother a year ago. But I would be remiss not to tell you that letters begging for Miss Lucibella Delicosa’s next novel are piling up in our offices. Your title, An Angel’s Form and a Devil’s Heart, has proved so enticing that subscriptions already exceed sales of your last two novels added together.

With deep respect, and anticipating a favorable reply,

I remain,

William Bucknell, Esq.

Brandy, Bucknell & Bendal, Publishers

P.S. I am including Miss Julia Quiplet’s latest novel. I believe you said that you had not yet read her work, and we are persuaded that you will find it pleasurable.

~

September 4, 1800

Rutherford Park,

The Duke of Pindar’s country estate.

Mia hated to admit it, but she was trembling like one of her own heroines. She generally put her poor ladies in Mortal Danger, standing at the brink of icy waters, for example, pursued by a lustful landlord, knees knocking pitiably and delicate hands shaking.

Her readers expected Mortal Danger. In capital letters.

She’d happily choose a plunge over a waterfall to the humiliation that lay ahead of her.

Her own less-than-delicate hands were trembling, so she curled them into fists, watching as her groom announced her name. Vander’s butler—or, to be exact, the Duke of Pindar’s butler—glanced down at her, patently surprised that a young lady had arrived without a chaperone.

Did intense humiliation count as Mortal Danger?

No, because if it were possible to die of humiliation, she would surely be dead by now. After all, she had survived the mortifying poetry incident in Villiers’s library all those years ago, then she’d failed on the marriage market, only to go through an even worse humiliation: being jilted at the altar a month ago.

The truth was that as an author she was always kind to her characters. Mortal Danger never included jiltings. What’s more, thanks to her heroines’ thin, wispy bodies, they always floated safely downstream, too light to sink. Another author she knew had caused a character to be pecked to death by pigeons. Pigeons?

Not in a Lucibella novel!

Her readers knew that there would be no bloodthirsty birds, no one left at the altar…

She had never forced any of her heroines to propose marriage, let alone to a duke.

Gentlemen fell at her heroines’ feet, not the other way around. It was a strict requirement of the genre. Lord knows, Lucibella Delicosa disappointed her readers at her own peril: a torrent of indignant letters would pour through her publisher’s door if she were to shame one of her heroines the way Mia was about to be shamed.

But at least, Mia reminded herself, she was not, in reality, falling at Vander’s feet.

She was in charge.

In control.

Print Bundle of the entire backlist of the Desperate Duchesses series, books 1 – 7, Including, Book 1: Desperate Duchesses; Book 2: An Affair Before Christmas; Book 3: Duchess By Night; Book 4: When the Duke Returns; Book 5: This Duchess of Mine; Book 6: A Duke of Her Own; Book 7: Three Weeks With Lady X

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