Four Nights with the Duke : Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers

Geez I am glad this book is over. I will probably catch grief for this review but I have to be honest, and in my opinion this was a struggle to get through.

The book started out good, but by chapter 10 it started going down hill. I want to delete chapter 25 completely from the book. Actually I would have liked chapters 11-32 deleted and this been a novella, it would have been better..

He is a total jerk for the entire book until the last 5 minutes. She is so insecure it's pathetic. You can't save a character in the last 5 minutes or 5 pages of a book.

He talks to her like she's a piece of crap at the same time all he thinks about is plunging into her. He is constantly talking about sex, sex and more sex that it becomes annoyingly repetitive. (don't get me wrong I like sex in my books, but his constant thoughts were just bad or badly written? hmm...)

She is constantly talking about herself being ugly, fat, not good enough, hates her breasts, hair, stomach, legs, butt and everything else on her body. She is also somewhat of a prude, surprisingly to me because she is an author. Even the crippled boy wasn't as insecure as she is. She had some back bone at times but then contradicted herself the next sentence by saying she wasn't good enough! Ugh ...

This story was a big disappointment to me. I just finished Three Weeks with Lady X a few days ago (loved it by the way, great story) and Vander's character was completely different in that story than in this story. He wasn't a total A-Hole in that book, Sorry to say, but the author ruined a great character from her previous book and made him the hero!

There is way to much angst in this book. The "chemistry" is forced and did not seem genuine. Not sure but maybe it was because of the characters themselves. (he's a jerk, she's overly insecure). So I couldn't even enjoy that progression.

There is lots of dialogue (I like lots of dialogue) however, the dialogue suffered because of the characters themselves... getting that repetitive feeling yet? Good, because that's what your getting with this book repetitive A-holeness and insecurities.

The story that our heroine, Mia, is writing throughout the entire story was better. It was fun reading her "notes" at the beginning of each chapter. So there is that.

In my opinion a sex maddened A-hole, hero and an insecure prudish heroine do not make for a good historical romance story. Just sayin....

I have read several Eloisa James books and this one was just not good, it was annoying and frustrating hoping for these characters to change or something, anything, before the last 5 minutes.

As for the narration, it was great! Susan Duerden did a fantastic job. She is becoming a favorite narrator. She reads with lots of emotion and the men sound like men.

I have listen to some books recently that weren't bad, but from the beginning you can tell "Four Nights with the Duke" was written by an experienced and extremely talented author.

As a 15 year old girl Emilia Gwendolyn Carrington fell in love with the future Duke of Pinder, Evander Septimus Brody, and writes him a secret love poem, which falls into his and his buddy's hands at a party given by Evander's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Pinder. Unknown to the boys who are ridiculing her, Emilia is listening from her hidden position behind the sofa. When she can't take it any more she jumps up, grabs her poem and tears it up, declaring she would not marry Evander if he was the last man on earth.

Thirteen years later finds Emilia blackmailing Evander, now the Duke of Pinder, into marriage. Believing she has loved and wanted him all these years, he adds a caveat to the marriage contract to punish her. He will withhold himself from her, granting her four nights per year, enough time to beget an heir.

Susan Duerden gave a great performance; she does male voices well.

Warning: explicit lust scenes.