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.
For me, James is a hit and miss author. Sometimes I love her stories and sometimes I want to throw them across the room. I’m not always in line with her characters, but Four Nights with the Duke worked perfectly.
From the get go our heroine, Emilia and the duke, Vander are at odds thanks to some ill-timed, shared poetry written by Emilia. Flash forward into the future and Emilia is in a bad way, desperately needing to save herself and nephew from an awful situation. The only way to do that is to blackmail Vander into a marriage that she once claimed she’d never want in a million years. Awesome, yes. Going to go as planned, no.
I’ll admit to reading the sample chapter on her site before signing up to do the book review and that chapter hooked me. I had to know more. What I love about this book is that the heavy Georgian historical elements that are present in her other Desperate Duchesses series are not present in this book. A huge win for me, since I’m not a Georgian fan. I also love how this story really focuses on the relationship between the main characters and is a bit more smexy than other stories. Vander and Emilia really light up the pages with some scandalous behavior.
Vander is a duke who cares more about horses than anything else. Enter Emilia with her blackmail scheme, and even though he should be pissed at her, instead he’s as randy as a schoolboy. This prompts him to make advances and act beastly towards his new wife, which I loved. In fact the man can’t keep his hands off her. Seeing a strong man come undone is one of the things I love in a romance.
Poor Emilia is trying to pretend her feelings for Vander no longer exist, but how can she when he’s trying to entice her any way he knows how. I love this heroine because a- she’s a writer, b- she could give a wit for fashion, c- she’s a hopeless romantic, and d- she’ll do anything to protect her family. The whole point of her marriage and sacrifice is to save her nephew from their uncle. A downright villain. There’s a few other elements that make this more delicious, including a jilting and some revenge.
Secondary characters, as mentioned before, are the dastardly uncle, who truly wins the title for most despicable. There’s Vander’s uncle, who I adore, and if you don’t adore him then there is something wrong with you. Also the fiancé who did the jilting and a cute little boy who wins over the world. This little boy also gets into naming contests with the Duke, which are hilarious.
Overall, the plot and the pacing, the tension and the romance are all on par for being a favorite of the spring time. It’s the perfect Easter weekend read and reminds me of my other favorite James books, including most of the Fairy Tales series.
Reviewed by Landra
Heat Level: Hot
