Beware the experimental herbalist!

It's that Nora ... again! The Nora Langleywho's happiest concocting various healing substances, setting bones, and generally physicking those around her. The same Nora who in 'While the Duke was Sleeping' had inadvertently given her sister something to alleviate her menses pain that ended up having an aphrodisiac effect. That was an interesting factor in the mix!
Well Nora's still using her healing abilities. This time however she ends up using ducal heir Constantine Sinclair with as a test subject using just a touch of her ahem! pain medicine, and once again the path of mischief opens up in unexpected new ways.
Con, formerly an army colonel had been communicating with Nora's father so imagine his horror when he realizes he's been bearing his worries to a woman! Not the feted Doctor--but his charlatan (in Con's eyes) daughter.
He does give her the chance to assist with the problemsof chronic pain debilitating the woman he looks upon as a mother, the Duchess of Birchwood. That experience, taking Nora from her laboratory to polite society does leave some in doubt. And testing the mixture on Con, well that's not something that was planned, but then even the best of plans can go astray, and after all this is Nora!
Nora's story is highly amusing, as one would expect.
An enjoyable read!

A HarperCollins ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

I had a real good time with this book.
Nora is such an intriguing character to me. Headstrong, smart, and wants to see everyone happy while she works with her medicinal recipes.
Constantine never expects that his close confidant is actually the daughter of the person he was writing to. She doesn't have a medical license, because women can't have them. He wants to expose her for the fraud that she is.
Their chemistry is electric, and I enjoyed myself with this read.
I knocked a star for the slight cheating element to the story, because it was just unnecessary.

Sophie Jordan is one of my favorite authors! While Nora's story was not the best of the series I still really enjoyed it. The romance was slow burn and my only real complaint was I wanted a bit more out of Nora and Con. I didn't quite believe the romance but still loved the HEA. At the end of the day it was a quick enjoyable read and I look forward to more from this author in the future.

Constantine “Con” Sinclair had been serving in the army for years when he got the letter he never expected to receive – his uncle, the Duke of Birchwood is calling him home, all three of Con’s cousins have died and as improbable as it seems, Con is now the duke’s heir. He returns to London and throws himself into learning all there is to know about the dukedom and will do whatever it takes to please the duke and duchess, who took him in and raised him when his parents died, even marry his cousin’s betrothed. He is feeling overwhelmed and when the duchess suffers from one of her “spells”, Con recalls a doctor he corresponded with while he was in the army. He sets off to the home of the Duke of Warrington in Brambledon to talk to Dr. Langley and hopefully convince him to treat the duchess.

Eleanora “Nora” Langley now lives with her sister Marian, the Duchess of Warrington at Haverston Hall and has taken over her father’s role of doctor in the community. She has also continued to correspond with some people, using his name. She wants to be a doctor, but it is not possible for her to study medicine at a university in Britain. Instead, she uses the knowledge she learned from her father and from studying to offer aid to those in need. She has become quite proficient with pain management and had concocted many a remedy – to varying and in the case of her sister Charlotte, surprising results. Much to her sister’s dismay, she really has no interest in marriage or men. But all that changes when she comes across a very naked man swimming in a pond on Warrington’s estate – after falling in the pond herself, she firmly tells the man he is trespassing and demands that he leave. She returns home and is informed she has a caller asking for Dr. Langley. She enters the drawing room to learn the man from the pond is none other than Col. Constantine Sinclair, a man she has been exchanging letters with for years under the guise of her father.

Con is enraged when he learns the truth and refuses her offer to help – in fact he is so angry he says he is going to expose her deception. Nora can’t let that happen and even though he refuses her offer for help – she follows him to London and insists on treating the duchess. She will prove her worth and return to the country – because no matter how handsome Con is, he is not for her – or is he?

This was a well written, fast paced story with an interesting assortment of characters, a very slow burn romance, that has lots of obstacles keeping the lovers apart. I really have mixed feelings about this story, on one hand it was well written and the storyline was fresh, but Nora was not easy to like and Con really didn’t impress me. In addition to that, their romance – if you can call it that – was seemingly out of the blue and I don’t even know if they would have ended up together if the woman Con was courting didn’t basically tell Con to marry Nora. All in all, it was a fast, easy read, it is the seventh book in the series, but they are very loosely connected and can each be read as standalone titles.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an uncorrected eARC that I requested and was provided to my by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.*

Okay, I really hate this so here goes. You might remember Nora – she is the healer who wants to be more but unfortunately at that time she could not. I was looking forward to her book. I admired her for her work and that she was not married to being married. But I do not think she got a good enough story. I am still on the fence about Constantine. Do I like him? Not really sure. He is very cold. I am okay with slow burn romances but this was slower than slow burn and when it happened it was kind of odd. I really love Sophie’s stories and even gave the last book a five rating. Hopefully this was just a fluke. Sophie writes beautiful and light stories that are just the thing when you need it.

I have to admit, I had higher expectations for Nora's book. There was a way to play Nora's deception that didn't involve extreme naïveté—she was entirely too intelligent to be so surprised when her deception blew up in her face, so that being a major plot point felt contrived. The plot itself felt fairly lackluster, with a few intriguing parts—Nora proving herself as a healer, Con and Nora's antagonistic beginning—that just didn't go anywhere. Con himself doesn't get much development at all, and I never developed any affection toward him.

While the aphrodisiac contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the previous book, The Virgin and the Rogue, its effect here was dampened quite a bit—both in terms of how little it made sense to be included in this plot, and in terms of the resulting sex scenes, which didn't hit quite as well as they did in the previous book.

I received a digital advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is book 7 in the series ,The Rogue Files. We've watched Nora grow up in 2 of the previous books. I was so happy to see her get her own story.
The book had a great beginning. Nora falls out of a tree ( while collecting willow bark for her herb supply) and into the pond, where a naked Sinclair is now swimming. Sinclair is a Colonel and an heir to a Duke. What a way to meet your hero. The next time they meet doesn't go much better, but you can feel the intrigue there.
Unfortunately the book after the first couple off chapters falls flat. Several things didnt sit well with me. Although Sinclair objects to the current Dutchess trying to set up and force Nora's hand in marriage, he basically does the same thing. He purposely seduced Nora and then says they must marry.
Also I felt the plotline of Nora being there to help the Duchess with her pain was just dropped. Doing an epilogue 10 years in the future, I thought would encompass her whole family, since they were in the previous books. I understand the importance of showing Nora following her love of medicine and enrolling in school to become one of the first female doctors. But personally I would have liked to see her sisters there as well to support her.
A little disappointing but still a good story.
3 1/2 stars rounded up.
I want to thank Netgalley for the chance to review this book.

After the previous book and seeing more of Nora, I was basically beside myself at the idea of her getting her own story. Sadly, this was a huge let down

I love Nora. She’s smart and inquisitive and unapologetic for what she wants out of life. Con has potential, but I don’t feel like we even scratched the surface...perhaps it’s because there were only a few chapters of his POV. I didn’t see any sort of attachment between the two of them, except for a passing lust.

Plot wise, it was bland. There’s no real conflict, so there doesn’t seem to be a purpose. Nora and Con rarely speak to each other, so I don’t know how they were supposed to be in love by the end. I could have even been satisfied with a mention of off the page conversations, but there’s no indication the two of them spoke more than a handful of times. And that’s where it faltered the most for me.

Overall, I kept reading for Nora and Nora alone. I feel like she got cheated out of a full story.

**Huge thanks to Avon for providing the arc free of charge**

Nora Langley loves science, botany in particular. She considers herself a healer, doing her late father's work as best as she knows how. When a young man shows up asking for her late father's help, Nora offers herself in his stead. Unfortunately, masquerading as her father for years might just be her downfall.

Constantine Sinclair is angered when he learns the doctor he's been writing is actually a fraud. He is determined to expose Nora if she doesn't give up what she's doing. When Nora follows him home to prove she knows what she's doing, Constantine reluctantly gives her a chance. What he's not counting on is developing feelings for her. What will happen when it's time for Nora to return home?

I always enjoy author Sophie Jordan's novels. They always provide a great escape, not to mention relatable characters and a captivating storyline. Her latest book, THE DUKE EFFECT is a welcome addition to her Rogue Files series. Nora meets her match in Constantine. I really enjoyed their story. I give THE DUKE EFFECT 3.5 stars.

Nora is an herbalist and sister-in-law to a duke. When her father, a doctor, passed away, she continued his correspondence while failing to mention he was dead. Then one of her correspondents turns up at her door - a young, handsome colonel. Who is not at all old. He's upset, she doesn't want her secret revealed, there's a duchess in pain, a bargain is struck.

I read the previous book in the series, in which Nora doses her sister with a painkiller that has a strong aphrodisiacal side effect (a potion that reappears here). And, to be honest, I found Nora more compelling in that book.

I liked the meetcute - pond swimming and falling out of trees are involved. And I was with it through the first half, but I had more issues in the back half.

While I liked this book and enjoyed reading it, I was discontent with some elements. Minor spoilers in this list.

- I didn't really get the hero's motivation. Duty, I guess? He wasn't fully formed for me.
- Nora runs away to London. It seems that her family doesn't even try to contact or locate her during that time, which is not what I would expect, given the sisterly relationships she has.
- Nora is meant to help the duchess. She does, a little, but then doesn't continue on with her work to improve the treatment, as I might have expected.
- The scene in which the aphrodisiac was tested was really weird. I did not buy into that as being sexy.
- The hero seduces the heroine, but to me it seemed as if he was doing it to force her to marry him. Clearly they were both into it, but there were undertones there that didn't sit right with me.

I'm not sure if this is just a miss in a hit-or-miss situation, or what. I'm not so much mad as just disappointed...

I received an ARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Going in knowing this was going to be a happily ever after, it still rubs me the wrong way when authors go out of their way to describe their main character as someone never wanting to marry and never wanting children, only to change her mind when she finds the love of her life. Of course that's to be expected because that's all women in this time period are good for, right? Despite that, I liked Nora and her progression through this book. She knows who she is. She's smart and independent, but willing to grow and change. What I thought was an absolutely ridiculous plot in previous installment of the Virgin and the Rogue (aphrodisiac elixir) seemed to work in this book but only because it was just a scene and didn't center around it. It's a quick, light read and if I don't have anything else worth reading I may go back and read the rest of the series.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was deeply disappointed by The Duke Effect, and while my expectations weren’t sky high, I did enjoy the prior book, in which this book’s heroine, Nora, played a major role, so to have this book fail so epically for me was a letdown.

Nora for at least the first part of the book, is still fairly intriguing, as I like that she isn’t interested in marriage and has taken over her late father’s role of physician in some respects. However, once the romance really picks up, I felt this aspect (and all conflicts with Con as a result of it) were dropped a bit too hastily.

Con was just not likable at all. He wasn’t offensive, but I just never warmed up to him. He does have a decent relationship with his distant (?) relatives, the Duke and Duchess of Birchwood, but I never felt he made a strong case for himself as a romance hero. And the transition from being at odds over Nora’s deception to a romance felt awkward and forced, and I couldn’t get invested in any of their intimate moments.

And while it does not impact my rating at all, I love how it took until the final book for it to be confirmed a Victorian series, a bombshell first conveyed subtly with a passing mention a few books back. While I don’t look to Jordan for extensive historical detail, I find these “vaguely Regency” series that end up being set far outside that time period a bit frustrating, even if it’s purely for marketing purposes.

I didn’t love this, and this is a further indicator that Sophie Jordan is a hit-or-miss author for me, at least in my experience of her historical work (I haven’t experienced enough of her other work to be certain as a whole). I think, if you love her work more consistently, you’ll enjoy this one.

The first book in the series was good but the second book was a 180 that included the happy couple being brought together by a powerful aphrodisiac. It was hard for me to get passed this as a plot device but I thought I would give the third book a try. But once again, the aphrodisiac plays an important role. Prior to its appearance, the main characters had chemistry and potential romance was building. There were so many other, more plausible ways to bring them together. All in all, the book started off strong but faltered and never recovered.

I've enjoyed several of the books in Sophie Jordan's The Rogue Files series and particularly the build over the novels with sisters Marian, Charlotte and Nora. But something happened between The Virgin and the Rogue and this book. Marian and Charlotte have turned into smug marrieds (and only appear briefly early on), and Nora's story is disappointing overall.

As much as i loved the love potion in The Virgin and the Rogue, it feels like a retread here. And in the epilogue it turns out Nora isn't quite the feminist we thought she was. Epilogues that tag on kids as if an HEA isn't complete without them, ugh, I can't abide them.

2.5 stars (rounded up to 3)

The Duke Effect was an easy, but steam filled romance about Nora (and aspiring doctor) and Constantine (a military man with a strong sense of duty). Nora has been secretly corresponding with Con for years under a false identity and has to prove herself and her worth when the truth comes to light. Their romance was hot and fast, but I really wanted more depth between them. The fast seemed to take precedence over the development. I have not read the other books in the series and wonder if that would have helped?

"She had never cared enough to stop being who she was and change into someone else to be more likeable. She preferred being herself even if no gentleman liked her that way."

Nora is the strength of this book. She is independent and refuses to concern herself with the "rules" of society, instead spending her days learning as much as she can about the world of medicine, despite females not being able to be doctors in her time. Sinclair is harder to like. While we understand that his parents died at a young age and he spent half his life in the military, he's just a bit too rigid and unfeeling for too long. This is a super slow-burn that I'm not actually sure gets there in the end. Of course, there is the HEA but I didn't feel the chemistry and it was too quick at the end for me to believe that the feelings were there all along. I had wanted more from both leading up to their getting together and found myself very often annoyed with the hero. That being said, I read this in one sitting. It kept my interest and the writing from Jordan, as always, was solid.

While this book may not have been my favorite of hers, I am a huge fan of Sophie Jordan and will always return for more from her.

female in a time when women aren't allowed to be doctor's, Nora has taken on her deceased father's name in responding to correspondence about medical matters. But one specific set of letters comes back to bite her.
Formerly of the King's army, Colonel Constantine Sinclair's three male cousins have all died and he is now the direct heir to a duke so he's back in England to learn his new position. He is not happy to learn that the man whose letters he so looked forward to are from a twenty-year-old girl. But then she decides that she is going to insert herself into solving a family medical mystery and proving to Constantine that she really can do the things she promised.
I really struggled with the rating on this one because Jordan is an amazing writer but... I really disliked Nora. She was SO annoyingly headstrong, not listening to anyone else in the story. That can sometimes be overcome if a character's decisions make some sort of sense but Nora's aren't very logical to the context of the story.

Two and a half stars
This book come out October 27th
Follows The Virgin and the Rogue
ARC kindly provided by HarpersCollins Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

This is a 3.5 rounded up to a 4.0.

I've enjoyed this series from the start, but I feel like this book, as well as the one prior - "The Virgin and the Rogue' - were missing just a little something. In this book it was the sense of conflict; I never really felt there was a struggle Nora and Con had to overcome in order to find their HEA.

That being said, I did enjoy this book. Con is one of my favorite types of heroes - the man of good character who truly cares about the people around him. He is clearly hurt when he initially discovers Nora's deception with the letters, but soon comes to see she never meant any harm. And Nora is a delightful bluestocking, my absolute favorite type of heroine.

The secondary characters were.....fine. All the typical tropes - snobby aristocrats, servants who don't care of lesser folk, etc. I did enjoy Nora's much put upon maid, Bea. She was a fun character, and I really enjoyed her sass.

Overall, the book is good, and if you're a fan of Sophie Jordan or The Rogue Files series, you will enjoy it very much.

I didn't feel like the characters had any real chemistry. They just all of a sudden were together. This was a bit of a disappointment.

In Sophie Jordan’s latest installment in her Rogue Files series, Nora Langley has to answer for herself when it comes out that she has been dispensing medical advice via letter and signing her dead father’s name. Constantine Sinclair, a new heir to a dukedom, has been writing to Nora for years and is not happy when he realizes he’s been duped. Nora wants to be a doctor in a world that does not allow women to go to medical school. Her struggle throughout the book is that others do not allow her the opportunity to show her skills she learned from her father (a doctor) and Nora is desperate to help people through her passion for medicine.

There were a lot of really fun things about this book! Nora cannot hide any of her feelings and Con internalizes everything, which makes scenes between the two of them exciting to read. Interactions between Nora and her family felt realistic because she as the youngest was being treated as she always had been (the baby) even though she was grown and capable of making her own choices. The aphrodisiac from the last book made its return! There were several times in the the aphrodisiac scene that got *close* to making me feel uncomfortable, but for me personally it never crossed the line into being nonconsensual. The author makes it very clear that the aphrodisiac was a necessary tool to bring the two of them together, and both of them acknowledge that fact. I love that his name is Con and Nora “conned” him into believing she was the doctor writing back to him…name is destiny after all and this was a small thing that I thought was funny.

There were a few specific things in this book that didn’t work for me. The first is that the book opened with Constantine as a British soldier in Bengal. As a person of South Asian descent, I have to switch off parts of my brain to enjoy more traditional historicals, and this reminder of our hero actively colonizing that part of the world made that difficult for me. Additionally, the romance felt quite rushed to me. The transition from enemies to allies was paced very well in my opinion, but although tension was present between the two the entire time, the movement from friends to lovers happened very quickly. Nora is very vocal about marriage not being something she is aiming for, and is not vocal at all about her growing feelings for Constantine. As the reader we see her wanting him but he ends up pursuing her with very little (in my opinion) expression of feeling beyond physical attraction. Since these two had been exchanging letters for years, I think they probably did some basic foundation building in those letters, but we never see those letters or hear specific things referenced about them, so if the letters are doing work it was not showcased enough to be useful.