Not the Duke’s Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt

The Wise Women are being hunted (actively hunted! In 1790!) by anti-witch fanatics called, of all things, Dunkelders.Anyway, Freya is out living her best life of freedom and independence (masquerading as a companion in an aristocratic household while rescuing tiny Earls, mind you). I’m pretty sure people are people no matter what secret society they belong to, and some of them think others are making bad life choices. Their society is some Utopian nonsense because all lifestyle choices Wise Women make are legitimate. Wise Women are essentially anachronistic modern women but the sect has been around since before the Romans.

Probably will form the foundation for more of the series. Has absolutely nothing to do with the story except to be background to F & C’s past relationship. These activities are illuminated slowly until we finally get a full picture of the still unsolved mystery of murder, maiming, and scandal. Freya’s and Christopher’s families, along with the Greycourt family (of which more anon), were involved in some outrageously dramatic activities 15 years prior to the beginning of the book.They are tied together, but I’m not entirely sold on their being necessary to each other or sometimes even the plot overall. In fact, there are maybe 6 stories happening, any one of which could exist on its own. Then it sort of mumbles its way to a country house party where everything actually happens. The book begins with the heroine, Freya, dashing through London with an infant Earl and a frantic nanny, at which point she (after 15 years) unexpectedly runs into the hero, Christopher, Duke of Harlowe, whom she loathes. Well, it was Georgian romantic suspense, so… I’d like to acknowledge that writing suspense is difficult, and writing believable, non-obnoxious hate to love romance is difficult… This book almost worked for me? Heat Factor: not very frequent but quite graphic

Not the Duke’s Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt