Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
No Ordinary Duchess by Elizabeth Hoyt Series: Greycourt #3
Published by Forever on December 10, 2024
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 339
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Cold and brooding, Julian Greycourt, the heir to the Windemere dukedom, has always known that his uncle the duke was responsible for his mother’s death. Now he’s determined to exact revenge against his uncle—if he can find the proof. But Julian hides a secret so explosive it will destroy him if it’s ever revealed, and the duke is watching. The last thing he needs is a distractingly sensual woman whose very presence threatens to destroy his plans.
Sunny and cheerful, Lady Elspeth de Moray doesn’t know why her brother and Julian fell out all those years ago, but she can’t let the autocratic man get in the way of her to retrieve an ancient family text that she believes is in one of the Windemere libraries. Locating the tome, however, proves trickier than she anticipated, and at each turn, she’s thrown together with the maddingly mysterious Julian. And the temptation to give in to her family’s greatest enemy grows stronger with each intriguing encounter…
No Ordinary Duchess is the third book in the Greycourt series. Like most historical romance, it is not necessary that you read the prior books to be able to follow this story, however I would recommended that you read When a Rogue Meets his Match as there are some overarching arcs with an evil uncle that may make the book more enjoyable.
Julian Greycourt is the heir to the Greycourt family estate and will inherit when his uncle dies, that is if he can stay alive longer than his uncle that is. Someone seems to want to kill him or ruin him and Julian has a huge secret that if found out could disgrace him from society. He is looking for an edge against his Uncle and on a tip from a servant, goes looking for a book his mother wrote in before she died.
Elsbeth is also looking for a book, except hers has the original history of the wise women she was a part of. The ruling council of the wise women has shut them down from helping women outside their community but Elsbeth is sure if she can find the founding documents she can help restore it to what it was always meant to be. The one issue is that it is rumored to be in one of the Greycourt’s libraries.
When she and Julian end up at his estate outside London, stuck due to weather, sparks fly between them. Elsbeth gets Julian in a way no other woman has seemed to. She is everything he is not, bright, cheery, full of inquisitiveness and not at all shy about exploring whatever is happening between them. Julian has never felt accepted but the woman who infuriates him one minute, gets him on such a deep level he isn’t sure how he is going to find a way keep her.
I liked this story. The uncle is awful but the siblings who lost their sister and parents years ago are finally forging a family together and trying to protect one another the best they can. Julian’s secret while shameful to society was unusual and interesting in a Historical Romance novel and a nice little change up from what we normally see. I liked Elsbeth and the way her mind worked. It was so much fun reading her interactions with Julian and she brought out the best in him.
The conclusion to this book was extremely satisfying. I liked how both Julian and Elsbeth protected each other in their own ways and the lessons that Elsbeth learned about herself in this.
“One can live without books. Birds live, Cats live. Even the best of dogs live. But only humans can soar on the words from a book. Stories fling us high into the clouds with imagination. Poems make hearts weep with emotion. Science stuns the mind with wonder.” She let her hands fall to her lap. “Without the stimulation of literature, you can live, yes. But your soul will be earthbound. A clod without imagination.”
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Julian Greycourt’s quest for revenge and his explosive secret sound like an edge-of-your-seat read. I already like it.
It was good and I really liked the resolution with the uncle in this one.
I hope we get the next book sooner than this one. I was so confused trying to remember what happened in the previous books. Nice review!
Luckily I had only read the last one a month before this so it wasn’t too bad. But yes since this built a bit on the last books plot line with the uncle I was glad I had read it recently.
Thank you for a lovely review, Robin:). This sounds like a series I need to get hold of – thank you for sharing.
I enjoy her writing. The Maiden Lane series is a lot of fun too.
This is definitely on my list. I enjoyed the previous books, but it’s been a while since I read them.
I really should read more by this author. I think I’ve done a book or two. I can’t even remember D: