Duke of Desire by Elizabeth Hoyt

November 13, 2017
Goodbye Maiden Lane
 
http://www.elizabethhoyt.com/
Yes, it is time to say goodbye to Maiden Lane (except for the two novellas which are coming out soon). I’ve enjoyed most of the Maiden Lane stories – some of them have been quite exceptional. For the most part they’ve given us some hot guys, incredible characters, and memorable stories. I will say I was glad the Ghost of St. Giles didn’t make his/her appearance in this story. That character lost its appeal a few books ago. Instead we have the Lords of Chaos to contend with in Duke of Desire. For me, Duke of Desire is just tooooooo dark a tale for the ending of a great series.

Duke of Desire depressed me. It is filled with Elizabeth Hoyt’s trademark great writing. With all of Ms. Hoyt's books, there are always vivid images – you can smell the places our characters inhabit, the words are always eloquent - full. That may have been some of the problem with this book – it was toooo vivid, toooo painful and there wasn’t enough time given in the tale for the eventual healing.

In this book we have Raphael de Chartres, the Duke of Dyemore – he has a scar on his face and scares housekeepers and scullery maids. We also have Lady Iris Jordan. The last time we saw our couple they were dancing at a ball in the previous novel, Duke of Pleasures. When this one begins a kidnapped Iris is tied up and in the middle of a bunch of naked guys with masks. These guys are up to no good, they mean to do harm to her. So, we have a kidnapped woman, surrounded by naked men who intend to rape her, then kill her. Of course, being a heroine in a romance novel, she has time to check out one of the masked men. She is very impressed with his giant winky-dink. That was in the very beginning of the book and believe me, it was a big eyebrow-raise moment. Who does that? Who is interested in humongous winky-dinks when surrounded by a group of degenerate killers? Anyway, the guys have kidnapped the wrong woman, so Raphael (part of the group of guys) insists on taking Iris out of the deep dark abbey where the Lords of Chaos have gathered. He is actually a good guy, just in case you didn’t know – after all, he’s the owner of the big winky.

Well, Iris is a tad bit upset and doesn’t see Raphael as a rescuer. She ends up shooting him. This makes Raphael mad. He tells her that he is rescuing her and now she has ruined everything, so now she has to marry him. That way he can protect her. I’m not sure how marriage to him will be a protection, but hey it’s fiction after all.

Anyway, Iris marries Raphael. Now she can become better acquainted with his giant protrusion – and she does. She also doesn’t scream and run from the room when she looks at his scarred face. In fact, she wants to know why he has it, and sets out to find out. She is “Miss Perfect” and he is the opposite. He tells her not to go places, she ignores him. He tells her to follow his orders, she doesn’t. She goes into rooms she’s not supposed to. While you may think she exhibits TSTL characteristics, she’s actually quite smart. When she stumbles across some drawings of naked children in her late father-in-law’s bedroom she is puzzled. Her brain starts to become suspicious of things in the old castle. Spoilers. When you read this scene in the book, you should know right away what kind of man Raphael’s father was and you should suspect what he did to his son. And, it is hard to read. I had to put the book down a number of times; it was just too painful.

Raphael is one of the most angst-filled heroes I’ve seen in a long time, but he has reasons. I know Ms. Hoyt always writes dark stories with anti-heroes and I’ve loved them in the past; however, this time I don’t think there was a good balance between what happened to Raphael when he was a child and his emergence from the darkness later on. Probably Iris was supposed to counterbalance Raphael’s darkness, but it didn’t work. Raphael’s pain is too heavy-duty and there wasn’t enough space allotted in the book to make it work. Because so much time was spent trying to fix Raphael’s pain, the romance in the book didn’t work. Raphael’s pain is so hard to read; the romance in this book suffers and takes a backseat.

I wish Duke of Desire hadn’t been the last book in the series. As I said before, I was sad to see this series end with such a depressing book. Hopefully, the remaining novellas will let us get a glimpse of some of our beloved Maiden Lane characters. And, not be so depressing. Puleese.

Time/Place: Georgian England
Sensuality: Hot/grueling