Not my favorite of the series but still enjoyable. Lady Delilah Montebank came off as too scatterbrained at times but I did like the match with her best friend, Lord Thomas Hobbs, Duke of Huntley,

Wonderfully written story that hooks you in from the first page, great characters too.

I received a copy via Netgalley and I am voluntarily leaving my own honest opinion

A one-eyed cat, a male parrot named Miss Adeline and a love potion gone awry.

The misadventures in matchmaking for of a group of young ladies of the ton. Lady Delilah Montebank and Lord Thomas Hobbs, Duke of Huntley have been friends for a long time. Lady Delilah has a deadline imposed by her evil mother. Thomas needs to convince her that the reason he has never married is because he has always had his eye on Delilah. Madam Rosa supplies Delilah with the Elixir of Cupid and its application does not go as planned. Shenanigans ensue. The ending is a large wedding attended by all their friends.

No Other Duke But You is a fun, light book with endearing characters that you can't help but adore. Delilah was delightful in her eccentricities and Thomas was so lovable in his loyalty and devotion to her.

The plot was a charming and unique, although I didn't love the love potion bit. It seemed to detract from the story for me.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to whatever Valerie Bowman has in store for us next.

I absolutely loved this book! It was so lifelike in that here are two protagonists, Delilah and Thomas, who grew up sharing many daring escapades together and were like brother and sister with everything in common! Perfect together but ‘clueless’ in that they couldn’t quite see they were made for one another! But I digress.

Lady Delilah Montebank is a treasure, only her mother doesn’t see it and has hounded Deliliah to find a husband – or she’ll find one for her! After being picked on once too many Delilah pronounced she would have the most eligible Duke of Branvile up to snuff by her birthday - within weeks of her announcement!

Her best friend, Lord Thomas Hobbs, the Duke of Huntley, thinks Delilahs quest to become a Duchess is ridiculous. Naturally he was a confirmed bachelor. But with Delilah thinking her ‘love potion’could possibly win over Branville, Thomas switches rooms whereby Delilah mistakenly gave Thomas the potion.

With room switching and ladies attempting to compromise other bachelors at the house party, the story gets pretty hilarious at times. But when push came to shove it would be Dukes to the rescue, but who would win the prize of Lady Delilah?

To find out I highly recommend you read the book!

Marilyn Rondeau

I am so happy I got into this series! I’ve only read a random few but was easily able to get caught up into this one. Adorable and corny love story. Although it’s obvious how it will end up, it doesn’t take away from the story. The only reason I took off stars was because the whole “love elixir” thing was so unrealistic that they believed so wholeheartedly in it. This IS in the past though so maybe I’m just thinking too much into that. Love this book and so happy I received a free copy through netgalley as well as a goodreads giveaway !

I had mixed feelings about this story, generally I enjoy "friends to lovers" stories but this one seemed to be dragged out and the humor was very sparse, the person who treated her horribly got pretty much no punishment. I could go on but I did read it all, I may have scanned a bit because the story needed more life and did not get it. I have never been a fan of plots where 5 minutes of conversation could solve all the problems and this was one of those as were some of her other books. Lack of communication or misunderstanding associated with them are poor plot devices IMHO so I give it 3 Stars for a decent story but at the end of the day it was not the story it could have been with a bit more effort.

Meeting Thomas and Delilah in previous books i was really looking forward to their story. Watching them fall in love was a sweet and captivating story. I loved the touch of Midsummer night dream thrown in to make it even more magical and perfect.

This is first time reading a book by this author and for me it was just ok. There are some humorous moments in the book but otherwise for me it was kind of blah. I liked the characters for the most part and the author certainly has the writing skills and talent to make one hate the mother in the story. I felt like the French sentences and saying did not add anything especially since the main character was not French. I did read through to the end so it was not that bad just nothing I would spend money on to buy this book.

What a great, fun read!

When Delilah is forced to married, her competitive nature has her determining to marry the most eligible man of the season. Having experience at matchmaking, it should be easy enough. However, she finds herself fumbling and bumbling her way through introductions and every other step of the way – the very behavior her mother constantly berates her over. When things get desperate, she turns to a more unique means of making the match…a little bit of magic.

Thomas has been in love with Delilah forever. She’s always claimed she would never marry and so he stood by her side through all of her quirky misadventures, happy to have her in his life even if not the way he ultimately desires. But when she announces it’s time she marries, he’s ready, except even as she shares her news, she also shares who the man will be. And with the plan to be the man in front of her when marriage arose dissolves into despair, he sets out to show her that he has all the qualities she needs in a husband.

This book was so entertaining. While this couple seemed a bit immature for their age at times, I’m a lenient reader and set it aside and made myself believe they were younger. (It’s my prerogative. Lol) With that issue dealt with, I really enjoyed watching Delilah as she bounced about trying to win the only man her mother would approve of. And I adored watching Thomas as he struggled with his feelings of jealousy and possessiveness. He just wanted to claim her as his own but knew that with her background she would never accept that he had always loved her.

I truly loved just about everything about this book. It has a great pace and before I knew it I was finished and so very satisfied. All the crazy shenanigans were exactly what I was needing at the time. The steam level is low and while there are a couple of scenes where this couple kiss, the smexy didn’t strike until the last ten percent of the story.

I think this is my first book by this author and I’m excited to check her backlist and find other fun reads.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

No Other Duke but You is a historical best friends to lovers story with a heroine who makes a love potion and a hero who accidentally drinks it. Delilah wants to marry the Duke of Branville and has concocted the love potion to make it happen. Her best friend, Thomas, the Duke of Huntley thinks the idea is crazy and he wishes Delilah loved him instead.
The book has such a cute premise! I really liked Thomas and his devotion to Delilah was endearing. Delilah was a bit immature though. She is really quite clueless and it came off as kind of ditzy. I struggled with her as a heroine because I wanted to smack her. But, the story is light and fun, which helped a bit. And Thomas is great. Also, the supporting characters are enjoyable too! While Delilah didn't work for me, the rest of the story was refreshing. Its not often you get a friends to lovers story in a historical romance, so I enjoyed that!

Sometimes when I read I laugh out loud. That was the case with Valerie Bowman’s newest book, No Other Duke But You. Lady Delilah Montebank is the main female character and she is often an accident waiting to happen. Breaking things, falling, tripping - if there is a way to embarrass herself, she can do it. On top of that, her mother has decreed she must marry and the person her mother proposed is not acceptable in any way. So Delilah in her moment of anger, tells her mother that she is marrying the Duke of Branville. Not that he knows she is alive.

Lord Thomas Hobbs, Duke of Huntley is Delilah’s best friend and has loved her for many years. However, he has been waiting for her to realize the obvious. Meanwhile, he has helped her with all of her schemes while trying to get her to see him as he is.

The two circle around each other while putting on a play and participating in all the ton activities, but the love potion is the final straw, if only Delilah opens her eyes. No Other Duke But You by Valerie Bowman is a fun (laugh out loud) historical romance!

This series has been fantastic and funny and overall wonderful! I highly recommend Valeri Bowman if you love historical romance as you will not be disappointed!

I enjoyed this light-hearted froth of a novel. Yes, Delilah was young, but that is historical. People married young. Yes, she was immature, but I felt like Thomas was able to look past her assumed airs to a girl that he loved for all the right reasons. Delilah’s mom and step-father were pretty awful, and that isn’t unheard of either.

This was a fun, friends to lovers romance.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An entertaining, funny read from Valerie Bowman! I really enjoyed Delilah and Thomas's story! A quick easy read that made me regret that this is the last book in the Playful Brides series. Wonderful characters in a friends to lovers story.

Laugh out loud funny! Delilah and Thomas are the best. This cast of characters written by Valerie Bowman is unforgettable. They are like friends you haven’t seen in awhile but fall right back in sync with in just a second. Delilah is delightful, cheerful and you can’t help but root for her. Thomas is everyone’s friend, loyal and deserves nothing but love. This was the love match a long time in the making and it did not disappoint.

This delightful story begins in June 1827, London. It’s a cleverly written story of the romance of best friends with the underlying story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as both a theme and part of the plot.
Without doing too many spoilers, let me tell you how this sets up.
Lady Delilah Montebank (I love that name) is a wonderfully free spirited twenty-two-year-old with a mother who is seemingly fashioned from the personality of Cruella Devil. Her mother plans to secure herself a marriage and secure a husband for her daughter as well. At what cost? She doesn’t care.
If Lady Delilah doesn’t secure an offer better than the one her mother has arranged, she will end up married to the plump, sweaty little heir to an earldom. She and her friend Lady Lucy Hunt have been matchmaking for seasons for many of their friends. So, Delilah feels sure they can accomplish the match for her. She tells her mother she has set her sights on the Duke of Branville.
Thomas Hobbs, the Duke of Huntley is Delilah’s best male friend. He has decidedly not made a match for himself and feels he will never marry. Thomas’s father died when Thomas was only eighteen. Since then, Thomas has taken care of the family holdings and his mother and sisters. He must also see to arranging a marriage for his overbearing, somewhat thin sister, Lavina. Their younger sister, Alexandra was already married to Thomas’s good friend Lord Owen Monroe. He has not been receptive of a match for himself, because he’s secretly in love with Delilah.
Delilah asks Thomas to help her win the affections of the Duke of Branville. He agrees reluctantly, but only if she and Lucy will find a match for his sister. Meanwhile, he plans to woo Delilah for himself.
All this is going on while Delilah and her friends are trying to accomplish a play for charity. Since her mother would disapprove of such a thing, they must accomplish doing the play in secret. What is the play? Ah, the plot thickens…A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
That’s the basic setup. The great fun of this story is in the plans within plans. Webs to ensnare, ensnare the wrong people. It’s both laughable and sometimes heartbreaking. However, author Valerie Bowman has woven a clever and intricate story that is thoroughly entertaining.
Grab a copy of this clever story and enjoy the fun of reading it for yourself.

This latest and last installment in the Playful Brides series is thin on plot, as it serves as less than an actual story than a vehicle for bringing all of the previous pairs in the series out for a final bow and a quick where-are-they-now update. That will be lots of fun for those who have read the series start to finish. Those coming later to the play (as this reader did) will notice a distinct change of tone from the last two books. Whereas Marc and Nicole, spy v. spy, and Regina and Daffin, unlikely adventurers, mixed action, suspense, and plenty of near brushes with death into their books, Delilah's chief challenge is getting the love potion on the eyes of the right man.

Which, of course, she doesn't. The device of the book--that Delilah has secured a love potion to make her duke of choice fall in love with her (Delilah has several dukes to choose from)--actually doesn't enter the story until at least 2/3 of the way through. Before that comes long buildup and a series of play rehearsals as Delilah realizes she needs to marry (or else her mother will wed her to horrible Clarence Hilton, non-duke), Delilah gets saddled with requests from other friends to flex her powerful match-making skills, she and BFF Lucy set to trying to force affection between people they think are suited for each other (no matter what the subjects themselves think), and Thomas, the Other Duke, sits up and realizes that the chance he's been waiting for--for adolescent, self-involved, really amazingly clumsy and clueless Delilah to decide she wants a boyfriend--came and went, since she's decided on the dratted Duke of Branville when he wasn't looking. How to convince her that he's the duke for her?

As Regency romps go, this one relies heavily on the reader's affection for previous series characters to carry them through. As a standalone, the characters are astonishingly lacking in roundness, depth, or any real motivation. But that's not the point of a romp. The point of a romp is to get titled people in glamorous formal wear wooing and wedding each other, with adorably out-of-place flourishes like bad French, evil manipulative mothers, and squirrel chases. That's right--there's a squirrel chase. It's in the first scene, and nothing in the rest of the book quite lives up to the very bizarreness of that premise. Who cares? There are dukes aplenty! If you're looking for a completely non-taxing genre historical with vague references to a Shakespeare play, dive right in.

This was an entertaining, well-written book. Lady Delilah Montebank has a plan to win the Duke of Branville, but her friend, Lord Thomas Hobbs, Duke of Huntley, thinks it's ridiculous when she barely knows the Duke of Branville. Things get mixed up, and with Lady Delilah Montebank's hobby of matchmaking for other ladies she knows, there's no predicting what will happen! I enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more books by this author.

I struggled a bit with the star rating on this one, because there are some mechanics type issues with the writing that made me want to say 3 stars, but it also gave me SO MANY FEELS (I laughed out loud at least once and cried more than once) which made me want to rate it at least 4 stars... I ended up settling on a rating of 3.5 stars. This is such a fluffy read, but also made my heart hurt.

Thomas is such a cinnamon roll and I love him forever and a day. (Also, virgin hero alert!) I liked Delilah less, mostly because she's just SUCH a mess and that seemed to really be her defining characteristic, along with being stubborn and so focused on her goal that she doesn't see anything else. But then I also felt for her and her terrible relationship with her mother, so... 5 stars for Thomas, and like 3 for Delilah, but together their relationship is the BEST friends to lovers story ever!

It's so fitting that the characters are putting on a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream because it really reflects to relationship dynamic in this book. Rebecca wants Thomas, Thomas loves Delilah, Delilah wants Branville, Emmaline wants Branville, and who KNOWS who Brandville likes! It's rather madcap and hilarious, and if you like the antics in A Midsummer Night's Dream, you'll love No Other Duke But You.

This is the 11th book in the Playful Brides series, but can be read as a stand alone. There are a lot of couples from earlier books in the series that make an appearance in this book, but nothing that keeps you from reading this one and understanding it all without reading the previous book. Beware the EXTENSIVE cast of side characters that are couples from the previous books, though!