Thoughts: Not That Duke by Eloisa James

Source: NetGalley! Thank you so much to the publisher!
TL;DR: Another great Eloisa James, some new twists to the usual fair and some very cute story notes make this one a bit of a stand out for me.

Plot: Your normal ‘Girl meets Duke, Girl likes Duke but then thinks Duke doesn’t like girl’ but endearing in it’s own way.
Characters: I enjoyed both our primary characters, though I did want to shake Stella at a few moments. She did feel a bit stupid for the sake of it on some counts, but not too many.
Setting: The setting on this one is the same as many others, though I’ll say there is an interesting time jump that ads a bit more flair to the story than normal.
Romance: I liked the pair a LOT as friends. They had great platonic chemistry, but as to lovers? I’m still on the fence.

Thoughts:

Historical Romance fans know what we’re getting with a good historical writer. Eloisa James is my go to writer for these books and this book managed to scratch the itch perfectly and surprise me in a few ways! Not That Duke may not be groundbreaking but for fans of the genre I highly recommend it.

The story follows Stella, a well endowed (because they certainly talk about it a lot) bespeckled, red headed woman. She’s being raised by her aunt who clearly needs some therapy of sorts and is as all ladies are, looking for a proposal. Silvester is a duke, and one she finds incredibly attractive but assumes he’s fated to merely be a friend as he’s courting another young woman quite openly. Stella and Silvester develop a lovely friendship that does suffer some turbulence as the Mean Girls of the ton meddle in their affairs. Eventually of course the two overcome this and romance follows.

I really enjoyed a few things about this. The first is the kitten. Stella finds a small kitten and takes to carrying her around in her pocket. Specs, as she names her, begins to sing as well as Stella is known for her lovely singing voice. The kitten will warble from her pocket, making those scenes absolutely precious. There was also an interesting time jump in this one, several months pass without the characters interacting. This chunk of time is more important to the second book in this series, but I was still engaged and I don’t feel it broke the narrative in any jarring way for this book. In fact I believe it helped enhance it and broke up the typical passing and story of what would otherwise feel like a standard historical.

The look at and featuring of fashion and the Duke’s mother were also shining moments. Overall this was a delightful read. A great break between epic fantasies and I can’t wait to read more from Mrs. James. She’s always a comfort read for me, and this was no exception. For fans of Historical Romance I would whole heartedly recommend.