Review: Four Nights with the Duke [Desperate Duchesses, book 08]

Title:       Four Nights with the Duke [Desperate Duchesses, book 08]
Author:   Eloisa James
Rating:   ★★★1/2

I wasn't even planning on reading Four Nights with the Duke but I saw that it had pretty good ratings -- and it is from Eloisa James, whose work I've enjoyed previously -- so I decided to heck with it, and started reading. I was in the middle of the story and I was freaking rooting for them already.

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.

Four Nights with a Duke was beautiful. It reminded me why I loved Eloisa James in the middle of my ongoing regency romance obsession. The way she wrote was fluid and masterful. The characters she created made me ache for them. I wanted so badly for them to find a way to be together. To just declare their love for each other. Admittedly, for a moment, I wondered if they weren't going to end up after all.

Mia (Emilia's nickname) is a strong woman who will do anything for her nephew. She became so desperate that she had to resort to blackmail. Brody is an alpha who had very understandable reasons for not wanting Mia, much less marry her. He was also a very kind man, and from the moment he interacted with Mia's nephew, I just wanted them to stay together.

My issue with Four Nights with a Duke, however, was that there were a lot of times that Brody ignored Mia's feelings, continuing to touch her even when she said no. I felt that she had been disrespected a lot of times, and even Mia points this out. I love that she stood her ground and declared that she wasn't his property and that he should respect her opinions too. This was the first story I can recall where I loved the heroine more than the hero.

I recommend this to fans of regency romance and Eloisa James, especially if, like me, you felt that Three Weeks with Lady X was kind of disappointing. You should read this if you're a fan of regency romance because of the bittersweet feelings it will create as you read along, and fill you with giddiness afterwards.