I enjoy historical romances, especially those with a bit of intrigue and mystery. I find that heroines written in this era to be fascinating, mostly because of the obstacles they face within the society and within themselves. It's a testament to these women, in fiction and in reality.

Not the Duke's Darling is simply about secrets. With a blight in an unfortunate past, Freya has had to alter her future. She is a chaperone living her life with a false name, a member of the the secretive Wise Women, and disgraced from nobility and the ton. The Duke of Harlowe, Christopher has been threatened with blackmail if he does not pay for those secrets. To keep them safe, he attends a party to end his troubles. And so starts this adventure.

I enjoyed Freya, her tenacity, and her gumption. It isn't everyday that I read a story with a secret order composed of Women. This story is filled with secrets, and Freya slowly reveals those secrets one detail at a time. Christopher was fun to get to know. His past certainly increased the intensity of the plot, but I felt there were a few tidbits here and there that didn't need to be largely focused on.

I enjoyed the overall plot of secrecy, spies, and scandal, but felt that there was something missing. Compared to Hoyt's other stories, this didn't have the romance that I was used to. And maybe that is unfair of me to say, but it is also something that I had come to expect. The relationship between Freya and Christopher wasn't filled with the heat and passion that I needed.

I appreciated the story and the plot. Overall, I enjoyed it, and would continue to read the series.

*Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Freya de Moray is hiding herself in plain view using a fake name, working as a lady’s companion while fulfilling her duties to the Wise Women and she’s happy to have as much freedom as this allows her.

That is until she runs into Christopher Renshaw, the Duke of Harlowe, a man she blames for the downfall of her family. A former friend of her brother, Harlowe has now what Freya’s brother was denied by the tragedy of his past and she wants revenge.

When Harlowe finds himself the victim of blackmail and is forced to attend a house party at his brother-in-law’s, he doesn’t expect to find the woman he helped amongst the guests nor to find out that the woman is actually a ghost from his past. Intrigue and romance are the makings of this story at the masterful hands of Ms. Hoyt and she doesn’t disappoint.
This book was a great start to a new series and I really like the fact that this time is a secret society of women. I fell in love with Freya’s character and independence and the fact that she’ll go to any lengths in order to remain in control of her life. She came across very stubborn, but IMO it’s a character to be admired nonetheless. She’s fierce and more than a little crazy, but I found her relatable to any woman of this century.
I also liked the fact that this couple has a history, how they come to meet again and what they mean to each other and their respective lives.
In a nutshell, I liked the storyline, the characters and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Not the Duke's Darling introduces a new series by Elizabeth Hoyt, whose long-running Maiden Lane series is one of my favorites. Freya is a so-called Wise Woman, who has been secretly trained in controversial topics like healing and women's health. A group of politicians have decided that witch trials should be legal again, and the Wise Women should be tried as witches. As Freya frantically works to find a way to stop them, she comes face-to-face with the duke who was responsible for maiming her brother and destroying her family. Christopher doesn't recognize her at first, but he knows she's up to something at the house party where they find themselves together. And neither can deny their intense attraction.

Dark and emotionally satisfying, with smoldering chemistry. Hoyt sets up a number of intriguing secondary characters, who will hopefully have their own stories soon. I can't wait for more books in the series!

This is the the first book I have read by her Elizabeth Hoyt. I liked the characters well enough but something about this book didn’t jive with my reader brain. I think that the aspect of this secret order our main character belongs to was underwhelming for me. I enjoyed it for a quick distracting read but I was not immersed like it was book-crack. I rated this historical romance three stars but do feel the first in a series can sometimes be a rough start laying the groundwork for that “world”. I am interested to see what book two brings to the table.

Not the Duke's Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt is the First book in the Greycourt series. This is the story of Christopher Renshaw, the Duke of Harlowe and Freya de Moray.
Freya thought at the age of 12 that Christopher would be the person she would marry but he ended up being the person that ruined her family she thought. Now about 15 years later she is working under an assume name as a companion and chaperone. Has become a member of the secret society of Wise Women. When she happens to meet Christopher who is there when she needs assistance is upset that he doesn't remember her but she keeps her identity a secret. Thinking never to see him again. Christopher is now a widower and just return to England about two years ago. When he is confronted
by a blackmailer he is told to attend a house party where he can get the incriminating letters in exchange for money. At the house party he sees Freya again and knows she isn't who she is pretending to be. Things don't go so easy for this couple which leads to some adventures.

a new series from elizabeth hoyt is most certainly a gift, so it's appropriate that not the duke's darling has published just before christmas. freya de moray is a wise woman, or rather a *wise woman* part of a sect of women who have dedicated their lives to helping other women in need. as the macha, she provides the organization with vital intelligence to help the people they are charges with protecting.

when she encounters christopher, duke of harlowe on a mission, her anger and resentment for the wrongs her family suffered that she lays on his door nearly overwhelms her. he wears her brother's ring, and it's such an outright insult even as he fails to recognize her that she can barely contain her rage. when they cross paths again at a house party she is determined to get her revenge.

it takes a while to suss out what happened the night of the greycourt scandal. not the duke's darling actually includes a third point of view, beyond freya and christopher's that actually doesn't clarify anything at all. messilane's story will clearly continue in book two, so why she takes up as much real estate as she does in book one is unclear to me. regardless, i liked her as a character and will happily read on to see where she ends up. so if that was the point, mission accomplished.

at first, i found this story to be slow-going. it wasn't until freya and christopher actually begin communicating that i felt like the story found its ground. part of the slow start surely has to do with building this new world of characters and setting up the conflict between the dunkelders and the wise women. but so far i'm not finding it as compelling as the lords of chaos and the ghost of st. giles from the maiden lane series. but i'm willing to give it time, hoyt is so very good at what she does.

my other little nitpick is that i could not stop thinking of freya bedwyn from mary balogh's bedwyn series, and how that freya also has a brother named ranulf. it's not like the names of characters in romance books are never repeated, but the bedwyns are so memorable, it's hard to compete with that.

**not the duke's darling will publish on december 18, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/grand central publishing (forever) in exchange for my honest review.

With the publication of the final book in her Maiden Lane series last year, I was wondering what Elizabeth Hoyt was going to do next. Maiden Lane started dark and got darker, ending with the destruction of a secret cult that prided itself on the degradation of women and children.

Not the Duke’s Darling is a solid, fast-moving start to Hoyt’s new series. This is an enemies-to-lovers-with-a-second-chance romance (one of my favorite tropes!) that also dabbles a bit in secret societies (although these two doesn’t go in for sex cults, thank goodness) that pits women and women’s knowledge against some wild-eyed witch-hunters. Hoyt starts off with a bang, almost literally, with an undercover Freya rescuing a small child from his nefarious uncle then off to a house-party to investigate the identity of a politician bent on restarting witchcraft trials. Along the way Freya comes across an old friend-now-nemesis the Duke of Harlow (Christopher), who is bent on stymieing a blackmailer and getting Freya to tell him what she’s up to (good luck with that). And then there’s a murder….

I quite liked Freya as a character but I also really liked how Hoyt dug into questions of how women were treated in marriage – legally – in the 18th century and how Christopher chooses to allow Freya to make up her own mind without getting overly possessive or seducing her into agreement. This not-quite-a-beta-male hero is a welcome relief to a sea of heroes who growl, stalk, and generally act overly possessive. I hope Hoyt gets a bit more into the Wise Women in future books of the series.

Plus there’s a cute dog, which is a bit of a requirement in a Hoyt novel anymore.

This book is charming, with a spitfire heroine I loved, and the Wise Women are a concept I can't wait to see explored in later books. Freya de Moray is an aristocrat currently working as a companion after a scandal left her brother maimed and her family disgraced. She burns for revenge against her brother's childhood friends who betrayed him, especially Christopher Renshaw, the boy she had a crush on. As an adult and a member of a secret society of women, she encounters him once more at a house party. Freya is there on a mission to find out what happened to a missing friend of hers (in order to blackmail a politician who wants to pass a new Witch Act), while Christopher is attending to recover blackmail evidence against his deceased wife. When they meet again, the animosity and heat between them are palpable.

Of course, hate leads to passion, and once Christopher realizes Freya's mission puts her in danger, he wants desperately to help her. Freya, of course, wants no help from any man, much less Christopher. But the heart wants what it wants, and the two find themselves bound together by not just the sins of the past, but the hope of a happier future.

This was an enjoyable read, and the sexual tension between the main characters was great. Freya's independence was refreshing, and it was wonderful to see a woman in a historical who's so staunchly anti-marriage.

That said, it isn't as strong as Hoyt's earlier work. Part of this is because it's the first in a series. She's clearly laying the groundwork for the next books, but there were so many peripheral characters that were introduced too quickly. The conflict between the main characters lasted far longer than it should have, and it was never explained why Freya hates Christopher most of all, when he merely witnessed the attack on her brother. The overlapping plots--childhood trauma, Wise Women, missing woman, Witch Act, blackmail letters--felt like too much crammed into too small a space.

That said, I will eagerly read anything Elizabeth Hoyt writes. I look forward to seeing where the series goes.

Right from the opening lines, I knew I was going to enjoy Not the Duke’s Darling. There is mystery and intrigue, but more importantly, there is a wonderful, well-written romance between two passionate characters.

When she was only 12, Freya Stewart de Moray’s family was torn apart by a horrible tragedy. She and her sisters went to live with their aunt in Scotland and were raised to become agents of the ancient secret society of Wise Women. Five years ago, Freya returned to London under a pseudonym, working as a Wise Woman and protecting the women and children who most need it. With a proposal on the table to make witch hunting openly legal and encouraged, and since many believe the Wise Women to be witches, Freya must find a way to stop the legislation from moving forward.

Christopher Renshaw, Duke of Harlow, has been back in London for two years after a 13-year exile in India. He prefers to live a solitary life as penance for his role in the Greycourt incident, but when a despicable man from his past threatens Christopher, he’s forced into attending a country party where he runs across a mysterious woman from his past.

Freya and Christoper’s romance is years in the making. While she may have only been the little sister of his best friend, Freya was always part of Christopher’s young life. But after the Greycourt tragedy, their lives fell apart, to include Freya’s estrangement from her best friend, Messalina Greycourt. In Not the Duke’s Darling, we learn of the whos and whats of the misfortune of fifteen years ago. The author does a marvelous job creating an intricate backstory for these three families, while giving glimpses as to the impacts it had on each character’s life. I have the feeling we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.

While I adore the romance between Christopher and Freya, there is so much more to this book. A mystery surrounds the death of Lady Randolph, something Freya must unravel in order to save the Wise Women. The story is interesting and exciting, with a surprising twist. However, it is the character development and interactions that makes the book so hard to put down. The author creates interesting, multi-dimensional personalities that seem to fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

I absolutely loved the combination of an almost meant-to-be romance with the mystery surrounding Lady Randolph’s death. The Wise Women aspect is wonderful, and I truly hope it is a common thread within the series. I love a strong-willed woman who is supported by an open-minded man. The romance between Freya and Christopher is grand – something in years in the making, even though tragedy and time separated them. I love that Christopher was so open with Freya, that he loved her so much he was willing to let her go. While the witch aspect was downplayed for most of the story, I do hope we get more about the women and the rolls they play in society. It’s just a delightful and engrossing tale the had me deeply invested in the outcome.

My Rating: A- Enjoyed A Lot

First book I read from this writer and I'm already in love. First because I love historical romance, second because I love a good suspense, third because I love enemies-to-lovers.

Freya is the type of woman determined, trained to be a relentless warrior, who suffered greatly from her family's past and carries a great sorrow from those who turned back on her.

Christopher also brings a lot of heartache in his soul, regrets of attitudes that have marked his life forever.

The reunion between them promises a twist in their lives. Will Christopher be able to redeem himself? Will Freya be able to forgive those who hurt her?

With lots of adventure, cute, hot and romantic moments, Elizabeth Hoyt creates an engaging plot full of surprises. Bringing a strong heroine and a young man willing to do everything to win the heart of his beloved.

I loved Christopher's relationship with Tess and Freya's relationship with the Wise Women.

Highly recommended.


5/5 stars

I am a long time reader of Elizabeth Hoyt’s works, and her delving into actual history that relates directly to her story and her characters is one of those many reasons that I return for her next book and the next. I’m not only entertained but I learn fascinating unknown to me facts as well. There is world building in Not the Duke’s Darling, there has to be for a series that involves historical facts as well as fictional characters and their reactions to those events. I didn’t find it overwhelming, yet there is a lot going on in this story, and in the stories to come.

Freya and Christopher are intriguing characters, both with their own demons to battle. And it’s obvious that Christopher has played a part in Freya’s personal family history and events. Although their shared history is there between them, the attraction is even stronger. Each has an agenda that could work for or against their relationship. It is, frankly, fascinating to watch it being played out through their romance… and, at times, heated exchanges

I had never heard of the Wise Women sect in this particular reference, that is a fascinating bit of history that played quite well in this story. The danger to Freya is very real, and while she is bold and feisty, a woman who can take care of herself she is also a woman who can stand equally beside her man. Christopher is that man. Considering the gender roles of the time period, Christopher is a gem among men. He can let Freya fly, be herself completely and not feel one bit intimidated or ‘less of a man’ because of her personality. I quite fell in love with Christopher, a man far ahead of his time.

I would be very easy to say too much, so I’m going to wrap this up with one simple statement. This is a romance with mystery, danger, forward-thinking people and steamy moments between two people who are meant for each other. I enjoyed myself immensely and cannot wait for When A Rogue Meets His Match to become available. If you enjoy your heroines strong and determined, if a man who will let you take the lead without a second thought is your ideal man, if touches of mystery and danger only add to a romance in your opinion… then you’ll love Not the Duke’s Darling. I would recommend this story to Historical Romance readers, but also those who enjoy Mystery and Intrigue mixed in with their Romance (no matter the time period) as well.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Hoyt's new series starts off with a compelling romance that's equal parts steamy and suspenseful. I liked the idea of the Wise Women, and hope that readers will learn more about that plot line throughout the series. A great start!

Freya de Moray has a lot going on. First of all, she’s a member of a secret order of “Wise Women” for which she has assumed a leadership position of sorts. This group of women is ancient and is associated with witchcraft so unfortunately, even though their mission is simply to right wrongs for women, there is another order of men whose entire purpose is to expose the Wise Women and kill them. (*womp womp womp*) But Freya is ALSO the daughter of disgraced nobleman and thus she’s living under an assumed name, working as a lowly chaperone. She’s got a lot of rage, people and much of it is directed at one Christopher Renshaw, the Duke of Harlowe.

Once the childhood friend of Freya before tragedy divided their families forever, Christopher has his own drama. In an effort to protect his own secrets he finds himself thrust into Freya’s path once again. Of course, Freya knows everything he’s trying to hide. Also, he is pretty into her. And people are trying to kill her. What’s a duke to do?



My Thoughts
Phew! There really was a lot going on in Not the Duke’s Darling. I can’t say that I LOVED it. But I liked it a lot. Because, obviously, Elizabeth Hoyt could probably write a great book in her sleep, right? But there were times where I felt like I couldn’t quite keep up with all the elements at work in Not the Duke’s Darling. Secret society? Witch hunters? Wait, murder mystery? Hang on a minute now… But, then again, maybe my mom-brain is just overly scrambled. Life has been a bit insane in the membrane lately. I miss sleep…

Also, sometimes Freya was kind of a turd to Christopher. I mean, yeah, she had her reasons to be angry. But there were times I was annoyed by the way she treated him.

But. I still would recommend this book because it’s definitely fun. And sexy. Not the Duke’s Darling releases TOMORROW (December, 18 2018) and it will include a bonus novella. Woooo! Thank you NetGalley and Forever for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

Sadly, I was unable to finish this book. I tried for almost a week to read it, hoping I would get past my disconnect to the story and characters. Eventually I couldn't force it any longer. The secret society called the Wise Women that Freya was a part of was a vague idea that felt odd and out of place in a historical romance. I knew she was some sort of spy, and there were elders in the group called Hags. They were mistakenly accused of being witches, and were fighting a group who was trying to pass a "witch act." This is the first book in the series, so readers start out knowing absolutely nothing, and it's imperative that they have history and backstory explained to them so they're not floundering in confusion. But the little details we are told made me feel as if I had stepped into a fantasy novel by mistake. Assassins are called nemains, their enemies were called Dunkelders, and spies were machas. Why?? I kept asking this question to myself a lot, and it didn't help that Freya's personality grated right from the start. It's really hard to become invested in a story when you can't care for the characters.

I've heard so many great things about Elizabeth Hoyt's books, but this one in particular I had to accept that it just wasn't for me.

Murder, betrayal, revenge, trauma, blackmail, mysterious orders, politics, secrets, danger, and romance… Not the Duke’s Darling is a whole lotta story packed into one book. Elizabeth Hoyt dives headfirst into the intriguing world of the Greycourt family and the result is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, I liked many of the elements to this tale. On the other, there was so much going on that everything felt incomplete.

At the center of Not the Duke’s Darling are Freya and Christopher. Christopher was once the best friend of Freya’s brother, Ran de Moray, until the night Ran was accused of and beaten nearly to death for murdering Aurelia Greycourt. It’s been fifteen years since that night, and Christopher is still haunted by it. He’s also carrying invisible scars from the death of his wife and his time as a prisoner in India. Christopher had the potential to be an intriguing hero. All the elements are there – a young man who made the wrong choice and is still suffering for it, PTSD, an adorable emotional support dog, his yearning to feel alive again – but his character development felt stifled by the abundance of plot and I didn’t get as deep a sense of him as I would have liked. Freya suffered the same fate. She’s a Wise Woman and a spy and I wish I could have learned a lot more about that part of her life, 99% of which takes place pre-book. She’s brave, independent, and definitely (humanly) flawed, but she also has a warm heart that shows in moments when the plot lets her breathe.

The romance between Christopher and Freya is enjoyable, but could have been so much more if it had been given room to grow and time for passion to be explored. Instead we are shuffled from one plot point to the next. To start, there’s the Dunkelders – men who think the Wise Women are witches and want to murder them – and their mustache-twirling plot to introduce a new era of witch hunting. The ignorance and sexism that’s innate to the Dunkelders could have been more ominous if – at the risk of repeating myself – they had been given more page time. There’s also the matter of Christopher being blackmailed, Freya’s initial quest for revenge, and looming over everything, the question of who murdered Aurelia Greycourt all those years ago. Neither Freya nor Christopher are Greycourts, but the titular family of the series is featured heavily, mostly in the form of Messalina Greycourt. Messalina is the third point of view in Not the Duke’s Darling and she’s a wonderful character who had the characteristics of a classic Hoyt heroine.

I’m a longtime fan of Elizabeth Hoyt’s which makes this book a bit difficult to put a rating on. Had it been by another author or had I been new to Ms. Hoyt’s work, I might have liked this book better (though at the end of the day, I did enjoy it). But I know Ms. Hoyt’s writing – her passionate, unique, flawed characters and their liveliness on the page – and Freya and Christopher were just missing some of that ineffable zing. I was, however, completely fascinated by some of the secondary characters. From Messalina to the mysterious Gabriel Hawthorne to Freya’s lovelorn charge, Arabella Holland, there are plenty of characters who have me excited to read more Greycourt stories. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Ms. Hoyt has in store for readers, especially given the way things ended in this book. So while I may have finished Not the Duke’s Darling wanting a bit more from Freya and Christopher, I did enjoy it and I think there’s great promise to the Greycourt series.

I liked this romance, although it seemed a bit overstuffed, maybe in part because it’s setting up a new series and the characters who will be featured in later books.

I liked the leads, Freya and Christopher. She’s feisty, and he’s a good guy with some demons, and they make sense as a couple. Freya maybe took a little too long to realize marriage to Christopher wouldn’t necessarily mean that she would lose her autonomy as a person, the way some women might if their husbands turned out to be overbearing and disrespectful. It’s obvious to everyone else that a man who enjoys it when she speaks her mind isn’t going to be that way, but it takes Freya a while to wise up.

Christopher’s demons were more interesting than those in many romances, given that they tie into an actual event in British colonial history in India. I only had a vague idea about what happened and hadn’t ever really read about it, and the details were more horrific than I knew. No spoilers, though!
The back story of the two main characters was also intriguing. Christopher had been friends with Freya’s older brother until a horrific crime and its fallout sundered their relationship. It also caused Freya to lose her friendship with Messalina, the sister of another man involved in the incident. (I’m guessing that she’s going to be the heroine of the next novel, given how this one ended. I am curious about what happens next!)

So, a lot is going on already with the characters. Then add Christopher being blackmailed and some nefarious doings regarding the wife of another man who plays a role in the plot, and it starts getting even more complicated. Then on top of THAT, add that Freya is one of the Wise Women, a sect that predates Roman Britain, and that the women in the group are being hunted as witches by group of men called Dunkelders. It’s a busy book.

My favorite romance novel by Hoyt is her very first one, The Raven Prince. It’s fairly simple: two people who seem to be an unlikely match fall in love. I sometimes wish she would realize that it isn’t necessary to stuff so much intrigue into her stories for her to write a great romance.

If you like Hoyt’s later novels, though, you will definitely enjoy reading this one.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

Not the Duke’s Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt
Historical Romance
December 18, 2018 by Forever

Favorite Quote:
“They might have been lovers. Or enemies about to
kill each other.”

It must be ridiculously hard to end a long running, much beloved series. Elizabeth Hoyt ended her Maiden Lane series with the release of the last full length novel, The Duke of Desire, in October of last year. There were a couple of novellas released in November and December of 2017, but all the main storylines wrapped up with the release of Iris and Raphael’s book.

Not the Duke’s Darling is Ms. Hoyt’s first book in her new Greycourt series, featuring a all new cast of characters with a lot of history between them. Freya de Moray, our heroine, is in London under an assumed name, working as a companion to two young ladies of the ton. She is also there in her role as a Wise Woman. I would like to give a rundown of what exactly a Wise Woman is, but honestly, I can’t. I think it has something to do with helping women in need and furthering woman’s rights. But there is probably a lot more to it than that. Anyway, readers are introduced to her as she’s on the run, evading several bad guys and trying to keep an infant aristocrat out of the hands of his dastardly uncle. Which is how we meet our hero….

Christopher Renshaw, The Duke of Harlowe, doesn’t recognize the woman who jumps in his carriage with an infant and a nurse as the younger sister of one of his closest childhood friends. It’s not until much later, after they’ve verbally (and quite literally) sparred at a country house party that he realizes who she really is. He is there to meet up with a man who is blackmailing him, she is there to find out what happened to a local woman and hopefully find a way to stop legislation that would harm the Wise Women. They have a ton of history between them. Their families, along with the Greycourts, were once the closest of friends… until one terrible night which left Aurelia Greycourt dead and Freya’s brother Ranulf, heir to the Duke of Ayr, maimed and in mourning.

If that seems like a lot, it’s because it is. There is what seems like a million plot threads and side stories going on in this book. Secret societies, blackmail, family tragedies, the mysterious death of a friend and neighbor, PTSD, witchcraft legislation (which must be stopped), and last but not least, a romance. I mean WHEW. At one point there is even a third POV, and I did wonder if I would be able to keep up with everything.

I didn’t love the romance between Christopher and Freya, but I didn’t hate it either. Maybe with everything going on I didn’t fall into the romance like I usually do with this author’s stories. The chemistry between this couple didn’t really develop until well into the second half and even then it was just so-so for me. Freya is a strong willed, intelligent heroine who starts out hell bent on revenge against Christopher for what she views as his sins against her brother, but slowly softens towards him. Christopher is okay as a hero, he is honest about what he views as his mistakes and failings, and seems like an honorable, good guy. I just, for some reason, had trouble really getting on board with them as a couple.

All that being said, I’m interested in finding out more about these characters and what really happened the night Aurelia died and Ran lost his hand. I adore this author and am looking forward to seeing how the develops this series in the future.

A new start to a new series is always a little tricky. I feel like there was A LOT of front loading in the first half of this book. Not only is there a complicated backstory between the hero and heroine, there's a secret society of women (some think they're witches!), another secret society of men determined to hunt and destroy the women---then, about a quarter of the way through, there's another female character who is an old friend of Freya's who enters the picture. The duke is being blackmailed, something about his wife, and he's suffering from extreme guilt over his past inability to do the right thing with Freya's brother.

IT IS A LOT OF PLOT. I'm not sure that's a bad thing, except that I found the romance really flounders in the beginning. It takes a long time for Christopher and Freya to come into contact with each other, and then it all escalates really fast, but I'm not sure it's satisifying. There's some interesting scenes--one where they duel, and I thought I'd be terrifically excited to see a woman and man dueling. But it just was like BOOM this happened, now let's trap them overnight together.

I know that's a lot of complaining, and I don't mean it to be. Once the story focuses more on the romance, it does smooth out. But so much is packed in for a future books in the series, and It really overwhelmed the main plot.

Freya is a great character and her strength and determination definitely kept me reading through all that exposition.

What a great start to a new series. There is a 15 year old murder mystery, a secret society of Wise Women, a missing wife, and a blackmailer to be exposed. All leading to a romance between a Freya, the Wise Woman, and Duke of Harlowe, who is part of the murder mystery that points to Freya's brother doing the murder. This kept me on the edge of my seat as some things were solved and some were left hanging.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

The majority of books in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series are my all time favorites so maybe my expectations were too high when I started reading NOT THE DUKE’S DARLING. However, there are several reasons I didn’t enjoy this as much as I was hoping. And here is why:

The heroine is part of a group called Wise Women. They are being mentioned but the explanation what they are comes to light at the 72% mark. Yep, that’s how long you can guess. Some may find this entertaining, but it left this reader confused, especially because the members had special names that didn’t make much sense. Macha was a spy, and the Crow…still not sure about her role…
The solution to the riddle was anti-climactic.

The heroine was a shrew for a loooong while. Look, I don’t mind prickly, spirited heroines and I understood why Freya disliked Christopher – the tragedy that crippled her brother and the role Christopher played in it – but once she fell in love with him the reason didn’t matter anymore, only her independence kept her from committing.

***She’d never before met a man outside her family who considered a woman’s being willing to act on her own decisions a good thing.***

She knew early on that Christopher wouldn’t cage her in and take away her independence. It just felt like an excuse and at some point I didn’t think Freya deserved Christopher.

The reason for Christopher’s actions that faithful night was never fully explained.. It may be a set up for their friend Julian’s book but if that is the case EH didn’t do this book a favor because how can I root for somebody like that? Miraculously I did, although I could never really forget what he did. I really liked Christopher who had a good heart and actually loved the heroine’s bristling.

“Don’t change. Don’t ever change. I like your prickliness, your scowls, the way you argue with me so fiercely.”

Christopher and Freya’s love was pretty instantaneous. They’d seen one another last when Freya was still a teenager and Christopher on the verge of becoming a man. When they meet again it takes only a couple of days for the hero to decide that he loves Freya and wants to marry her. And while I’m usually not too bothered by insta-love I have to at least feel the connection. Which I didn’t. I didn’t feel very invested in their relationship and it took me way longer to get through this story than it should have.

What saved this book was Elizabeth Hoyt’s beautiful writing and I do hope the next story in this series will be a little more plotted out and we’ll get answers we were denied in NOT THE DUKE’S DARLING.

***He looked at Freya’s sleeping face and wished he could cut open his chest and reveal his heart, because he hadn’t the words to tell her what she meant to him.***