Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt

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Moving right along in Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series, my next book was Duke of Pleasure. This is the 11th book in the series and the second in the Lords of Chaos chunk. We also get a throwback to earlier in the series with a new Ghost of Giles!

After meeting the Hugh, Duke of Kyle in Duke of Sin I was super excited to see his book was next. Once again we start off with great action and Hugh escaping from a gang and running into St. Giles. He ends up being helped by the Ghost of St. Giles. When he bumps into him however, surprise boobs! He finds out the Ghost is actually a woman. She ends up kissing him and then escaping back to the rooftops. We follow the Ghost and come to find out our new vigilante is Alf, the urchin boy that's been an informant throughout the series. We have learned previously that Alf was actually a woman, but everyone seemed to leave it be and not confront her about it. 

I really loved this book. The connection between Alf and Hugh was so superbly written. As the Ghost Hugh was so intrigued and tempted by her. As Alf we was drawn to "his" intellect and snark. Alf is one of the few that isn't cowed by his station and is constantly challenging Hugh. Hugh has enlisted Alf as an informant to not only figure out whom was after him, but more information on the Lords of Chaos based off the small list that Val passed along. While there was a lot going on plot wise outside of the romance, it didn't bother me as much this time and was woven really well into the rest of the story. I wasn't expecting a makeover or lady training, but I really enjoyed seeing Alf struggle with letting go of her protection and embrace being a woman for the fist time in her life. I also really enjoyed how she forced Hugh to evaluation what kind of marriage he really wanted. I also enjoyed his two sons and how they immediately connected with Alf and she helped bridge the gap between them.

The boys were done really well. Despite them being more bratty than I prefer, it made sense with them losing their mother not too long ago and her poisoning them against Hugh when he was on the continent working for the King. I loved Lady Jordan and loved the friendship between her, the boys and Hugh. The only thing I didn't like was the over-confidence about defeating the Lords of Chaos at the end. It felt too easy and I feel like they didn't quite do their due diligence. But I also know there is one more book.

I'm super excited to get to the last book and see how Elizabeth wraps up the series. I'm slightly nervous, but I always am when it comes to the end of the series. I just don't want to feel let down and want it wrap up nicely. I do know there's another novella that's listed as 12.5 and a lot of reviews I've seen say that it feels more like the end of the series. We'll see how it goes.

Have you read Duke of Pleasure?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Duke of Pleasure, Elizabeth Hoyt, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 299 pages, published in 2016