Once Upon a Moonlit Night by Elizabeth Hoyt

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Continuing on in Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series, I decided to read the novella Once Upon a Moonlit Night before moving on to the next full length novel. This is numbered at 10.5 and directly connects with the previous book, Duke of Sin. Update: I have applied this book to the Romancing Summer Challenge for the diverse main character prompt.

This novella picks up with Hippolyta's escape from the Duke of Montgomery's estate and running through the night. She somehow has lost the pony and the hounds are after her. She stumbles across a carriage and convinces them to take her to the next town. Here is where she meets our hero Matthew. He has just inherited an earldom and is returning from years spent exploring India. Hippolyta is covered in mud and scratches and looks worse for wear after her kidnapping. Matthew doesn't believe that's she of the aristocracy, but his protective nature gets the better of him and he allows her passage.

While I gave this 5-stars, it still doesn't quite have the weight of a full length novel 5-star. For a novella, this was great. It felt like a complete story. I was wanting more, but a big part of that is because I was so intrigued by Hippolyta in the previous books and wanted to just spend more time with her and Matthew. I also loved that he had a pet mongoose, of which Hippolyta always wanted from when she grew up in India. I wanted more from them and also more of Viscount d'Arque's grandmother. Like I said though, taking into fact this was a novella and under 100 pages, it still had great banter, quite a few steamy scenes and a very tangible connection between the main characters. Everything one could want from an Elizabeth Hoyt historical. 

This was a perfect late night read and it always feels nice to sit down and read a book in one sitting, no matter how long. I have one more novella to read next before getting back into the meat of the overarching story. I'm sad it's wrapping up but also excited to finish another series, especially a long one like this!

Have you read Once Upon a Moonlit Night?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Once Upon a Moonlit Night, Elizabeth Hoyt, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 87 pages, published in 2016