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The final book in Elizbeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series is the novella Once Upon a Maiden Lane. This was my favorite of the three novellas and it had what I was missing in the epilogue of Duke of Desire. Update: I have applied this book to the Romancing Summer Challenge for the place in the title prompt.
This book focuses on Mary Whitsun, Lady Caire's kind-of adoptive daughter that we met all the way back in book 1. Mary is enjoying her day off at the bookstore and gets somewhat accosted (in a friendly way) by Henry, Viscount Blackwell. He thinks she looks exactly like his fiancé Joanna and believe she is her long lost twin. This was such a fun and unique novella. Mary ends up finding out that she's the twin and moves in with her found family and also learns she has been betrothed since birth to Henry.
I loved the banter between Henry and Mary and how drawn he was to her fiery nature. She was so different from Joanna and yet they immediately connected. I also enjoyed the little side romance between Joanna and her love. While I didn't enjoy the is she/isn't she the actual missing twin, I loved seeing her finally feeling like she found the place she belonged. I did wish that it had more of an hea with Henry not being cut off by his father and the final result on who was Lady Cecilia.
The epilogue really was the cherry on top. At Henry and Mary's wedding we see all of the couples and their children. The wedding is held at the home for foundlings and Winter Makepeace himself walks Mary down the aisle. It had me grinning in delight seeing all of the people we've spent 12+ books with together and partaking in a moment of pure happiness. As I mentioned above, this epilogue is really what I was wanting when I got to the end of Duke of Desire.
There are a couple short stories that are on Elizabeth's website or part of her newsletter, one that I'd really like to read since it's about Peach and Joseph Tinbox. I'm not sure when I'll get to it though or if I'll do a full review post when I do. If you've only read the main books in the series, I would highly recommend if you read any of the novellas, this would be the one. It really wrapped up the series how I wanted (outside of the Lords of Chaos mess) and made me heart all warm and fuzzy.
I'm glad I joined in with the binge of Maiden Lane with a lot of the booktube and bookstagram personalities. Overall I enjoyed the series, with all books being between 4 and 5 stars. I have found the ones that I enjoyed the most are skipped or not enjoyed as much as others, and my lower rated books are favorites for others. It's nice that we all have differences and experience books differently based on our life experiences, but I do wish not as many people skipped book 2, Notorious Pleasures. It is in my top 3 of the series and Griffin is one of my favorite heroes. If you enjoy historical romances and haven't read this series yet, I highly recommend it. Or even just Elizabeth Hoyt in general. I really enjoy her writing. For me, I like them better when she focuses on the romance and not as many side-plots. I'm excited to get into more of her backlist, especially her Princes series.
Have you read Once Upon a Maiden Lane?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
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