Review 'Four Nights With the Duke' by Eloisa James

As a young girl, Emilia Gwendolyn Carrington told the
annoying future Duke of Pindar that she would marry any man in the world before
him—so years later she is horrified to realize that she has nowhere else to
turn.

Evander Septimus Brody has his own reasons for agreeing to Mia’s audacious
proposal, but there’s one thing he won’t give his inconvenient wife: himself.

Instead, he offers Mia a devil’s bargain… he will spend four nights a year
with her. Four nights, and nothing more. And those only when she begs for them.

Which Mia will never do.

Now Vander faces the most crucial challenge of his life: he must seduce his own
wife in order to win her heart—and no matter what it takes, this is the one
battle he can’t afford to lose.

Lately, I’ve been really into the historical romance
stories. So when I received ‘Four Night With The Duke’ I was really excited to
start reading this book. This book is my first Eloisa James book and although
this book is the second one in the Desperate Duchesses series, it can be read
as a standalone.

In ‘Four Nights With The Duke’ we meet Emilia ‘Mia’
Carrington, a woman in her twenties in desperate search for a husband. Mia has
to marry someone fast and Evander ‘Vander’ Brody, Duke of Pindar is her only
hope. When Vander excepts Mia’s strange proposal, Mia soon finds herself
trapped because Vander has his own reasons for excepting.

But soon Mia and Vander start to realize there is more
than meets the eye, and history has been very unkind to both of them.

When I first started reading this book I was a little
apprehensive about this story. I’m a big romance lover and since this book
starts out with Mia making a very strange and audacious proposal, which wasn’t even
a little romantic, I was a little worried about where this book was going. Also
the main male character Vander seemed like an arrogant and unkind person.

Honestly, I was a little afraid I wouldn’t like this book
very much. But still I was really curious about how this book was going to go.
Fortunately for me this book fascinated me enough to keep reading and soon I
began to really enjoy the story.

Although the starting of this book is a little unusual,
this book slowly began to become a true historical romance. The characters were
very interesting and I loved how the author slowly revealed more and more about
her characters. Vander was definitely my favorite character in this book. Not
only because he was this handsome Duke, but more because the way he always
stayed himself despite how people thought he needed to be as a Duke. I also
really loved the way Vander interacted with Mia’s little nephew. This part was
definitely different, but also very heart melting and funny.

I read this book in two evenings, and really enjoyed it.
The characters are very well prescribed, their history is intriguing and the
romantic part is different but very addictive. It’s a lovely book to just enjoy
on a beautiful sun filled morning. I’m definitely going to read more books by
this author.

New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James writes historical
romances for HarperCollins Publishers. Her novels have been published to great
acclaim. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of Eloisa’s very first book that she
“found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar”; later
People Magazine raved that “romance writing does not get much better than
this.” Her novels have repeatedly received starred reviews from Publishers’
Weekly and Library Journal and regularly appear on the best-seller lists.

After graduating from Harvard University, Eloisa got an M.Phil. from
Oxford University, a Ph.D. from Yale and eventually became a Shakespeare
professor, publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press. Currently
she is an associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at
Fordham University in New York City. Her “double life” is a source of
fascination to the media and her readers. In her professorial guise, she’s
written a New York Times op-ed defending romance, as well as articles published
everywhere from women’s magazines such as More to writers’ journals such as the
Romance Writers’ Report.

Eloisa James is also the mother of two children and, in a particularly
delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight. 

 

For more information about Eloisa James and her books please visit her
website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Amazon.  

Many thanks to Clara Diaz and Little, Brown Book Group for giving me the opportunity to read this book.