Reviews with content warning for Racism - Her Night with the Duke

I loved the Arab-English heroine and the exploration of mixed race love in this regency romance! Some of the dialogue could have used more fleshing out & some of the plot flirted too much with the unbelievable (even for Romancelandia) but overall I really really enjoyed this book.

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kyeruhh's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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laura_mcloughlin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Leela and Hunt have a semi-anonymous one night stand and then end up at the same house party (unbeknownst to them) and turns out that Hunt's potential fiancee is Leela's step daughter (and good friend). Whoops! Leela, Hunt, and Tori are all likable characters that find themselves in this extremely awkward situation, thankfully everyone gets their HEA.

Leela is the half English/half Arab (never specified where her mother is from) daughter of a marquess who has been traveling the Middle East for the past couple of years. She is also the anonymous author of a best-selling travelogue. I do enjoy a historical romance where the heroine has an interesting job.

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secretromancereader's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

In this regency romance, instant chemistry and some dagger-waving (literally) lead to a one-night stand that's going to become inconvenient fast. Hunt is shocked when he shows up at the house of the girl he intends to court and discovers the mysterious woman from last night is Tori's stepmother, Leela. The forbidden/off-limits nature of Hunt and Leela's attraction could have resulted in a slow burn, but it was all-out pining with no sparks of escalation to keep the game afoot. I found their instalove perplexing (as usual) since the only basis is their mutual attraction and one night together. Not much conversation or shared experiences pass between them. It's mostly fights where they push each other away for various reasons.

Leela as a person? Love her. Leela desperately trying to convince Hunt and her stepdaughter, Tori, to be together? Annoying as hell. Leela's a travelogue writer, using her relative freedom as a widow to see the world and get to know her mother's Levantine homeland better. As someone with both Arab and English parents, she feels pulled in different directions and wants to connect with the roots her mother kept from her when she was alive. I ALWAYS get excited to see Arabic on the page, and I learned some excellent curse words that I shall endeavor to remember always. I should have taken notes. The book calls out racist, xenophobic, and sexist experiences Leela has, and she dares to carve out the space she wants in the world despite them. The frustrating part was her role in the romance. She's so deep in her self-inflicted suffering in pushing Hunt and Tori together that she doesn't notice her stepdaughter's affections engaged elsewhere. Leela's weirdly confident that Hunt would make Tori happy as if it's a universal skill he possesses. And while he has basic human decency, he doesn't have any characteristic so transcendent that I would buy into that level of hype about him.

As soon as the (dubious) social obstacles are removed re:Tori's engagement elsewhere, Leela and Hunt alternate who is angry and who is attempting to reconcile to keep the drama alive. May I suggest conversation rather than throwing a golf ball at someone's head? There are many scenes where someone storms off to pine in solitude.

So basically, I like Leela as a person. Hunt's meh but fundamentally ok. I was just so completely bewildered and/or frustrated by their romance almost from the start that this wasn't a good read for me. I know some people like this style of back and forth romantic temper, and I think they will appreciate the drama.

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aemsea26's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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wordsofclover's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

When Leela meets a charming man at an inn she's staying with on the way to her stepdaughter's betrothal, she takes a chance on a night of passion. However, she's horrified the next day to realise the man she just slept with is her stepdaughter and best friend's potential new husband.

This was a fun read, and I really enjoyed Leela and Hunt's predicament as well as all the delicious chemistry between them. I don't think this was the best regency romance I had read as there were definitely some parts in the middle that dragged a bit, and felt a little bit boring but I still very much enjoyed the world and figuring out how Leela and Hunt would sort everything out.

Leela was an interesting character to follow as unlike other characters I've read in similar books, she is a young widow and therefore has a bit more freedom than other women her age. She also didn't care much about society and was finally free to travel as much as she wanted, and learn more about her mother's side of the family. Her mother was Arabic and so Leela does tend to get looked down to sometimes in this book because of her heritage and suffers some racism because of it. I loved the chapters where Leela got to know her family more.

I also really liked that Leela was an author in this book too, and the story highlighted how hard it was for female writers to be taken seriously and be given a fair wage for their work. It was so frustrating to see how Leela had to struggle to get her book published when she had already been so successful when people thought she was a male writer.

Weirdly, one of the things I liked the most in this book was seeing all the obvious signs that the next book would be about Hunt's friend Griff. I really can't wait for that one but it was probably a bad sign that sometimes I was more excited to read Griff's story than continue to read Leela and Hunt's.

I did think this book was going to go down the slightly unconventional route in this genre where the couple didn't necessarily have to have a new arrival by the epilogue and given everything that had previously been discussed, I was hoping to see something more of their travels together (perhaps an adoption instead?) but nope. Which was a disappointment!

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ashleycmms's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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