Four Nights with the Duke

April 15, 2015

When her fiance abruptly jilts her and disappears just before the wedding, Mia Carrington blackmails Evander Brody, the Duke of Pindar and the source of her most cruel teenage humiliation, into marriage. Mia has no choice; she must marry soon or lose the guardianship of her eight-year-old nephew to his greedy, tyrannical uncle. A temporary marriage to a man who can't possibly love her seems like the perfect solution--until Vander decides he wants the real thing, and Mia finds him hard to resist. VERDICT A smart, desperate heroine who will do anything to protect her nephew and his heritage and a hero worthy of the challenge find love and trust, as well as a surfeit of passion, in this latest from James. Sparkling dialog, well-placed Shakespearean quotes, and an engaging cast of sharply rendered supporting characters (especially a plucky youngster and a marvelous horse) add to the fun. Readers will also enjoy the cameo appearance by the Duke of Villiers and Mia's hilarious romance novel notes. James (Three Weeks with Lady X) lives in the New York City area.

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Starred review from January 15, 2015
Desperate to keep her disabled nephew and her secret identity as a writer safe, Mia Carrington blackmails the Duke of Pindar into marrying her.During a particularly humiliating episode when they were both 15, Mia swore that the last person she'd ever marry would be Evander "Vander" Brody, the future Duke of Pindar. Since Mia's father and Vander's mother scandalized society with their long-term affair, Mia would have been happy if she'd never had to see him again. So it's especially galling when, years later, having been left at the altar by her fiance, she has to strong-arm him into marrying her. Her intention is simply to enter into a marriage of convenience, allowing her to take guardianship of her physically infirm nephew, whom she plans to support through her lucrative, though secret, writing career. Vander, convinced that she's had a long-standing attraction to him, turns the tables and agrees to the marriage while setting his own conditions to assuage his battered pride. After they marry, he discovers he's wrong about her motives and that his angry retaliation has jeopardized his own future, since it quickly becomes clear that Mia and her nephew, Charlie, have become necessary to his happiness. And it turns out that they're also the targets of a diabolical relative, who may have been responsible for making Mia's fiance disappear. James follows Three Weeks With Lady X (2014) with a sequel that matches its excellence and intensity. With peeks at Thorn and India from Lady X, as well as other secondary characters and storylines that enhance and add texture to an already complex plot, James gives readers a welcome opportunity to revisit a popular community and flexes her powerful romantic storytelling muscles, somehow getting even stronger. Historical romance at its smart, poignant best.

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Starred review from March 1, 2015
Evander Vander Brody, Duke of Pindar, is confused. The last time Emilia Mia Carrington spoke to him was 15 years ago, when she assured him that she wouldn't marry him even if he was the last man on earth. Now Mia is standing in Vander's drawing room proposing marriage. Well, technically Mia isn't offering to marry Vander so much as blackmailing him into marrying her. Because it happens to suit his own purposes, Vander agrees, but he insists on a few conditions; to wit, Vander will spend no more than four nights a year with his new wife. What he doesn't know is that Mia would be perfectly happy with him spending no nights with her at all. The second book in RITA Awardwinning James' Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers series (following Three Weeks with Lady X, 2014) is another brilliantly executed historical romance that splendidly showcases her flair for faultless plotting and flawless character development. Much of the novel's sparkling wit is associated with the heroine's secret life as a best-selling romance novelist, and readers will especially enjoy the snippets of letters between Mia and her publisher, as well as Mia's notes for her next novel, which are sprinkled throughout the story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)