Four Night With the Duke by Eloisa James (Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers #2)
Releases: March 31, 2015
Historical Romance
Avon

Reviewed by May

“Some women are greedy for a cock, and men love that,” he said, stepping back and rearranging his breeches because commanding his tool to go down wasn’t working. “It was a compliment.”

Evander (aka Duke of Pindar) grew up with his father in mental institutions and his mother openly having a relationship with another gentleman. Emilia (Mia) grew up watching her father so love the duchess, and having a wild crush on her son Evander. When her father shows Evander the “cute” love poem that Mia wrote about Evander she is crushed – and she stomps out that young love of hers never to look back.

The thing is – she now needs to marry someone immediately to protect her orphaned nephew and she has proof that Evander’s (mentally ill) father the Duke had been treasonous. She doesn’t want a real marriage and doesn’t need money. As a successful novelist she has no need for love or other trappings. She just needs to be married to a respectable man to rescue her nephew from their uncle.

“Let me make sure I have it right: you are being blackmailed with the threat of a charge of treason and loss of your dukedom into marrying the daughter of your mother’s paramour.”

“It sounds like Greek drama when you put it that way.”

Two things happen, of course. First Evander decides he doesn’t feel like going through the hassle of finding a second wife so he decides if she wants her nephew so badly she can stay married to him forever. The second is that, of course, this marriage of inconvenience becomes so much more.

She should struggle. She should hit him. She should stamp on his foot, or bite his lip.

Any of those things.

All of them.

But instead her mouth opened and her head tilted. Her arms went around his neck while his hands tightened on her hips. He brought their bodies together with a jolt.

Mia felt an ache move through her, slow as honey and twice as sweet.

Vander’s hands slid down, rounding her bottom. He pulled her closer, and ground his hips against hers. Her breath caught in her throat.

When he drew back, she blinked up at him and found his face completely unmoved. “My instincts are always good when it comes to women,” he told her, sounding as triumphant as a farmer who got a bargain on two piglets.

“Wh-what?”

“I like the way you wiggled against my cock.”

Mia’s mouth fell open and every bit of sultry warmth drained from her. “Did you just say that to me?”

“I did.” Vander held her gaze. “Why the hell not?”

Let’s get my one complaint out of the way – Mia has zero body confidence and thinks herself so gross that it made me want to punch her in the throat. She’s always whining about her big boobs and round stomach but everyone around her sees a petite knockout. While many women suffer from body image issues, to this degree and when it clearly is a beautiful woman being a whiny ass baby it pulls me away from the real story.

Even so overdone and out of proportion- this busty issue didn’t really detract. This book is a winner. Right from the start Mia has her own agenda and is totally independent and not at all in need of rescuing. Meanwhile Evander is raw, honest, and oh so masculine. He makes this book for me, because you see not only is he super smexy but his first love is horses (he manages his stables/race/breeding operation) and he is also amazing with children too.

I am a sucker for the hero who is totally unromantic (and yet is somehow the most romantic) and rough but tender where it counts. I loved Mia’s nephew in this story and how his part played out without getting in the way of the romance. Seeing Evander care for and be so great with Mia’s nephew really was a brilliant choice because it brought the boy into the story in a natural way but also let us see the tender side of the big dirty talking duke. He is the reason for their marriage in the first place, but I never felt like he got in the way of the romance which is hard to pull off.

In fact from the stallion who won’t be tamed to the evil plotting uncle all of the supporting characters and plot lines supported and helped the romance along. The real beauty of how this story was written is that the author put just enough to keep it moving and interesting, but always had the romance front and center. That is not easily done and too often I see books falling apart because too much was attempted and the story can’t deliver.

To sum this up- this book is Eloisa James at her finest. It is a light, fast paced read and she balances tender moments and sweet emotion with smoldering heat and dazzling dialogue too. She holds these characters oh so tenderly, and artfully writes them a happily ever after that I was only too happy to spend my time reading about.

Grade: A

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