Four Nights With the Duke

By: Eloisa James

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Eloisa James returns with another fabulous romance in her New York Times bestselling Desperate Duchesses series!

As a young girl, Emilia Gwendolyn Carrington told the annoying future Duke of Pindar that she would marry any man in the world before him—so years later she is horrified to realize that she has nowhere else to turn.

Evander Septimus Brody has his own reasons for agreeing to Mia's audacious proposal, but there's one thing he won't give his inconvenient wife: himself.

Instead, he offers Mia a devil's bargain . . . he will spend four nights a year with her. Four nights, and nothing more. And those only when she begs for them.

Which Mia will never do.

Now Vander faces the most crucial challenge of his life: he must seduce his own wife in order to win her heart—and no matter what it takes, this is the one battle he can't afford to lose.

Great

Setting: 1787, 1800 England
Genre: Georgian romance

I kind of fluctuated between a 4 and 5 with this, but I went with a 5 because despite any problems I found, it's still on my re-read list.
This is an author who loves all the characters in her books, so the reader loves them too (even the villains most of the time). This book is no exception.
Mia is a wildly successful novelist (using a pseudonym) and well-off in her own right. She needs to get married within a year of her brother's death in order to maintain a presence in her nephew's life. Unfortunately, the year is almost up and her eminently suitable fiancé has jilted her on their wedding day. She goes to Evander Brody, the Duke of Pindar, to convince him enter a marriage of convenience, with annulment or divorce after 6 months. He isn't willing, so she shows him incriminating evidence that would cause him to lose everything. Thus persuaded, he agrees, with the proviso that the marriage will be permanent, and he will spend only 4 nights per year in her bed, and only when she begs.These characters have opposing views of marriage, related to events in the past. Vander wanted to put off marriage for as long as possible and disregard love altogether. Mia had always dreamt of a marriage in which love could grow. This isn't the ideal situation for either. Both characters have personal problems. Vander seems to lack social confidence and Mia lacks self-esteem because she doesn't meet the ideal for beauty. The secondary characters of Vander's uncle, and Mia's nephew are delightful, bringing non-gratuitous levity to the story but their roles are also intrinsic to the plot.
Problems? Well, mainly it's the timing. Are these four days consecutive and immediately after the wedding? If so, we get the insta-love that irritates me in so many romances. And how is there time for the events with the jilter to occur? Another problem is that exciting scene toward the end. It is very rocky. Something unrelated was about to happen when, BAM! there was action! There was no lead up to it. It felt very disconnected.
Regarding the audio, it was a definite five star performance. Susan Duerden has never disappointed me, and I think she just gets better over time. I'm glad she has recorded all of Eloisa James' books. She's definitely in my top five.
Overall, this was a great 11 hours, during which I probably should have slept at least a little. Despite the problems I had with it, it's on the re-read list for when nothing else is cranking my tractor (in an "I've gotta read something" kind of way). Eloisa James is an auto-buy for me, and I was so happy to find it in my cloud.

Cringe worthy

I generally really like Eloisa James, but this one was really hard to get through. The heroine is awful. Self depreciating and whiny, and the heroine is a block headed asshole. The narrator is meh.

Another winner!

I know without a doubt that I would not enjoy these books if any other narrator performed it. Her ability to make you feel as if you are hearing the character him or h÷erself, AND a GREAT book, thats a true winner - as this bk is.

ONE OF ELOISA JAMES BEST

Great book, wonderful narrator! Well worth a credit. Eloisa James is a automatic buy for me and this story did not disappoint.

LOVED IT !!!

Mrs.James as usual kept the book lively and funny and entertaining. The characters had there on voice and you loved or hated each one on their own merits.