Lindsey left behind some large shoes to fill and Reid is well on her way to proving herself up for the challenge. My Darling Duke transforms the way we look at romance. Katherine and Alexander capture attention with their larger than life personalities and fiery spirits. Emotions give way to an inspiring journey of hope that will leave any heart hauntingly breathless.

Reviewed for Wit and Sin

Beauty and the Beast gets a fresh new retelling in the wonderful My Darling Duke. Stacy Reid has kicked off her Sinful Wallflowers series with a tale that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

Kitty Danvers is desperate. At twenty-three, she is both unmarried and the head of a family with almost no money. With three younger sisters she wants to see happily settled, Kitty makes a bold move to capture society’s interest: she claims to be engaged to the reclusive Duke of Thornton. I loved Kitty’s spirit and determination. She’s got a good heart and is doing what she can for her family. Kitty is lively, unique, and a very easy to root for heroine.

Alexander Masters, Duke of Thornton, keeps his hand in politics but has otherwise withdrawn from society. He was horribly injured in a fire that also claimed the lives of his parents. I really liked that Ms. Reid didn’t simply wave off his devastating injuries, but rather shows the strength and determination Alexander has had to go through to be able to walk. He’s a man almost always in pain and is still healing, but much like the literary beast we all know and love, he’s locked himself away in his castle. When news reaches him that he’s supposedly engaged, he finds himself intrigued by the daring woman who is using his name. He’s even more captivated when he meets Kitty, and soon he strikes a deal with her that has Kitty in his clutches.

The romance between Kitty and Alexander is slow to burn and it works really well in this case, as Alexander and Kitty fall in love as they learn more and more about one another. They are both intelligent, stubborn, warm-hearted characters who fit one another like lock and key. But Alexander is determined never to marry because of the complications from his accident. However, the longer he and Kitty are around one another, the more she is determined to show them they can have the happiness he secretly longs for. Alexander was so lonely it broke my heart at times and I loved watching him come back to life around Kitty. As for Kitty, she’s got such spirit and inner strength it was impossible not to adore her. She deserves to find love with someone like Alexander, someone who wholly accepts her and sees how wonderful she is.

Whenever I pick up a Stacy Reid book I know I’m in for a good time and My Darling Duke is no exception. Ms. Reid perfectly balances the dark and the light, emotional turbulence with fun banter. I cannot wait to see what she has in store for Kitty’s fellow Sinful Wallflowers!


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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Elizabeth Hoyt’s Not the Duke’s Darling is the book 1 of her brand new historical romance series, Greycourt. It was one of my most anticipating releases of 2018. Her previous series, Maiden Lane, which stole many hearts and made many new Hoyt fans—as a huge fan myself I’d like to think that’s happened!—had ended in 2017 after a long run with 12 books and some novellas under its belt. Naturally, we fans were eagerly waiting for this new series to see what Ms. Hoyt has in store for us in this new journey. I’m excited that there’s a new series, even if the introductory installment wasn’t as good as I was hoping it’d be.

Not the Duke’s Darling, so far, doesn’t look to have any connection to Maiden Lane whatsoever. I haven’t come across anything that pointed to me to that direction. However, it’s only the beginning and one can only hope! Though still set in the Georgian-era, the setting is slightly after the time-frame of Maiden Lane. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any possibilities of.......

Okay okay, that’s the Maiden Lane fan in me blabbering away. :P I’ll just get into the review... The story begins with our heroine, Freya de Moray, running from some miscreants while also protecting a baby and his nanny as they ran. At first, it’s all very confusing. Is the baby hers? Or is he a family member? Then, within a few pages we discover that she’s the ‘Macha’ or spy of a secret ladies group called the Wise Women and been working for them for a while now. The Wise Women were women with healing powers (healers) who existed for generations and openly helped people with their knowledge. They abounded all over England since the ancient times. But as time went on and the threat of witch hunt—as they were termed at one of point of history—and many killed, the number of Wise Women has now gone down drastically.

The Wise Women were, and still are, selected from various families (wasn’t sure if only peers or from any family) and given education and training from a young age. These days all that is done in secret. Well they don’t have any magical powers but they have other knowledge to help. Nowadays, with a new form of witch-hunter fanatics called the Dunkelders after them, they had to go in hiding. Wise Women also love living an independent life that doesn’t go with the social norms. Some live unmarried, while others marry and go as far as to have children. Some would take lovers. Many of them live among normal people hiding that part of their identity. After all, they have to be very selective of who they trust. Many now live in Scotland where their headquarters is. Or so I thought it was. I’m not sure how far the Wise Women are still scattered all over England cause, for this book, we only learn about the Wise Women that live in an estate called Dornoch in Scotland conveniently close to Freya’s own ancestral home.

I'm not sure if this is the first book in Hoyt's Greycourt series, but it's the first for me. I love her voice, I loved that the heroine is a Wise Woman, and I loved that the hero has a tragic past (or several of them), but we weren't overwhelmed with it. The setting is a country garden party/weekend--another fav of mine in historical romance. I just adore Hoyt and this book really broke my streak of not reading. A dose of female friendship and a funny side character--Lucretia, I adore you!--and this book was just what I needed.