Review: Duke of Desire by Elizabeth Hoyt
Duke of Desire by Elizabeth Hoyt Series: Maiden Lane #12
Published by Grand Central Publishing on October 17th 2017
Pages: 308
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A LADY OF LIGHT
Refined, kind, and intelligent, Lady Iris Jordan finds herself the unlikely target of a diabolical kidnapping. Her captors are the notoriously evil Lords of Chaos. When one of the masked-and nude!-Lords spirits her away to his carriage, she shoots him . . . only to find she may have been a trifle hasty.
A DUKE IN DEEPEST DARKNESS
Cynical, scarred, and brooding, Raphael de Chartres, the Duke of Dyemore, has made it his personal mission to infiltrate the Lords of Chaos and destroy them. Rescuing Lady Jordan was never in his plans. But now with the Lords out to kill them both, he has but one choice: marry the lady in order to keep her safe.
CAUGHT IN A WEB OF DANGER . . . AND DESIRE
Much to Raphael's irritation, Iris insists on being the sort of duchess who involves herself in his life-and bed. Soon he's drawn both to her quick wit and her fiery passion. But when Iris discovers that Raphael's past may be even more dangerous than the present, she falters. Is their love strong enough to withstand not only the Lords of Chaos but also Raphael's own demons?
Anyone who doesn’t know, I love the maiden lane series! It’s such a beautifully written series with characters that aren’t only nobility but from various classes and who have different childhood experiences. Anyways it has great stories so if you haven’t you should go read it! READ THEM ALL!!!
Lady Iris Jordan returning from the wedding of her friend, the Duke of Kyle finds herself abducted and taken by the Lords of Chaos members.
Raphael de Chartres, the Duke of Dyemore has returned to England to once and all destroy the lords of Chaos but ofcourse none of them trust him yet which is why despite his very strong feelings of not caring about anything he finds himself rescuing Iris.
Iris and Raphael had met previously when they danced at a previous ball, Raphael of course is quite taken with her. Marrying Iris isn’t something that Raphael had planned to do but it’s the only way to protect her and so he does even though he’s the one who ends up in danger 😛 I really liked them together even though I wanted to shake Raphael for some of his gloom and doom thoughts but because of the childhood he had (which was heartbreaking) it’s understandable why his sole focus was destroying everything related to Lord of Chaos. The romance between was done well, Iris is just very soft, caring and lovely and Raphael is the opposite or so he pretends. They go from being virtual strangers to being married while they are attracted to each other, it’s an attraction that Raphael doesn’t want or need which led to angst.
I really liked Iris, having known her from the last book so I was pretty excited for this one and Raphael while having a very martyr like behaviour was also great.
This book is quite a bit darker than the rest of the Maiden Lane books, it does have humours bit but because of Raphael’s childhood, the deprive behaviour of the Lords of Chaos in the past and present made it a darker read. This doesn’t mean that this was bad, I really like reading suspense/mysteries actually so it was interesting to see how it would end and who was the leader of the Lords of Chaos after Raphael’s father had died. We finally get the ending for Lords of Chaos and a happy ending for Iris and Raphael who really deserved it after everything he went through as a boy. I’m interested to see what Elizabeth Hoyt will be writing next!
Overall it was a great addition to the series, the romance and ending of the Lord of the Chaos was highly satisfying!
About Elizabeth Hoyt
Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times bestselling author of over seventeen lush historical romances including the Maiden Lane series. Publishers Weekly has called her writing “mesmerizing.” She also pens deliciously fun contemporary romances under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with three untrained dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the long-suffering Mr. Hoyt.
This is such a wonderful series and each book is wonderful. I have just loved seeing the growth of it and it’s so sad to see it end but I am super curious to see what she has in store for us next. Great review.