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madwomanreadingromance's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
5.0
peedsreads's review against another edition
3.0
The end of an era.
A little sus that this series had to go out with a book so heavy on the pedophilia cabal but it is what it is I guess.
Off to re-listen to the ones I listened to in 2018?! Okay cool!
A little sus that this series had to go out with a book so heavy on the pedophilia cabal but it is what it is I guess.
Off to re-listen to the ones I listened to in 2018?! Okay cool!
mostlyfated's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars.
After Duke of Sin, I thought the subsequent novels couldn’t get any more dark. I was wrong. Duke of Desire is the darkest of all the novels in the Maiden Lane series since it deals with a lot of sensitive subjects (rape, pedophilia) so make sure you check the trigger warnings.
I’m really sad the entire series is now at an end and a bit disappointed we didn’t get to see the characters from all previous books make a brief appearance. That would have been nice.
Overall, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my journey in Georgian London and now understand why the Maiden Lane series is so beloved. Definitely Elizabeth Hoyt is the standard of how I want my historical romances to be written. A perfect balance between plot, romance, sex, and suspense.
After Duke of Sin, I thought the subsequent novels couldn’t get any more dark. I was wrong. Duke of Desire is the darkest of all the novels in the Maiden Lane series since it deals with a lot of sensitive subjects (rape, pedophilia) so make sure you check the trigger warnings.
I’m really sad the entire series is now at an end and a bit disappointed we didn’t get to see the characters from all previous books make a brief appearance. That would have been nice.
Overall, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my journey in Georgian London and now understand why the Maiden Lane series is so beloved. Definitely Elizabeth Hoyt is the standard of how I want my historical romances to be written. A perfect balance between plot, romance, sex, and suspense.
cmilam06's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
He’s a sexy, scarred, broken man desperate for her and she’s a ray of sunshine
onlywannaread's review
2.0
This book should come with TONS of trigger warnings. It was drawn out, and repetitive. Also, the penultimate reveal left a lot to be desired.
byrdy's review
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jackiehorne's review against another edition
2.0
Another Maiden Lane book that fell flat for me. The book opens with Iris Daniels, Lady Jordan (a secondary character in the previous book in the series) in the midst of a bacchanal, completely with naked men prancing about with bizarre animal-head masks. Turns out she's been kidnapped by mistake; the evil Lords of Chaos mean to steal away the new wife of the Duke who did away with their last leader and almost broke up the group. Hoyt tells us that Iris is afraid, but the tone of the narrative is witty and dry (the opening line: "Considering how extremely dull her life had been up until this point, Irish Daniels, Lady Jordan had discovered a quite colorful way to die"). Of course, our heroine doesn't die; one of the participants in the bacchanal claims her for himself, spiriting her away from the group. Carelessly, though, said man left a loaded gun in the carriage in which he'd secreted her, a gun which intrepid Iris uses to shoot him. Not fatally, only in the shoulder, but enough that he is a bit incapacitated. And worried that the other Lords, whom he is fighting to bring down (big backstory), will catch on to his weakness and come and kill them both. So of course they must marry...
The resulting story focuses a bit on finding out who the real leader of the group is (why this is so important is never revealed; or why our hero, Raphael, the Duke of Dyemore, doesn't just call the police when he finds out the group was going to be holding a revel on his family grounds), but more on Raphael's attraction to Iris but his determination to keep her at a distance, because she is the light and he is darkness (again, see traumatic backstory). But this is more told than felt, I found.
I really did not care for the way Hoyt used Raphael's trauma as entertainment for the reader. Nor did I care for the several scenes told from the POV of the "Dionysus," the new leader of the Lords whose identity Raphael is intent on discovering; feels like shlocky suspense is being used to fill space, because there is not enough going on romance-wise or plot-wise with our actual protagonists. And I really disliked.
After the wonderfully innovative DUKE OF SIN (Maiden Lane #10), it's a disappointment to return to the series and find such unoriginal additions.
The resulting story focuses a bit on finding out who the real leader of the group is (why this is so important is never revealed; or why our hero, Raphael, the Duke of Dyemore, doesn't just call the police when he finds out the group was going to be holding a revel on his family grounds), but more on Raphael's attraction to Iris but his determination to keep her at a distance, because she is the light and he is darkness (again, see traumatic backstory). But this is more told than felt, I found.
I really did not care for the way Hoyt used Raphael's trauma as entertainment for the reader. Nor did I care for the several scenes told from the POV of the "Dionysus," the new leader of the Lords whose identity Raphael is intent on discovering; feels like shlocky suspense is being used to fill space, because there is not enough going on romance-wise or plot-wise with our actual protagonists. And I really disliked
Spoiler
the fact that Raphael, our hero, beats the evil leader of the Lords to death, right in front of the heroine. Especially because said villain had been abused even more by the Lords as a child than Raphael was. Yuck!After the wonderfully innovative DUKE OF SIN (Maiden Lane #10), it's a disappointment to return to the series and find such unoriginal additions.
mefrias's review
Idk how many pages I actually got thru before I had to return the book to Libby expeditiously and life. Why the fuck does the reader have a sit through the POV of a man ACTIVELY participating in rape???? What is the need???? It doesn’t further the story in any way, BECAUSE HOW COULD IT??? As an audience, we KNOW what the Lords of Chaos do. We’ve seen it firsthand in snippets in books 9 and 10. And those scenes are told from the survivor’s POV, as they should be. So why the fuck would anyone want the predator’s POV? Just an awful way to end the series. Do yourself a favor and pretend the series ends with book 11.
bookish_kristina's review against another edition
3.0
What a disappointing, mediocre ending to an amazing series.
Reread: adjusted from five to three stars.
Don’t start the series here, and if you skip this one, you aren’t missing much. There is no recap or revisiting of any fave characters in the series, only the one from the previous book appears (the Duke of Kyle and he’s a dud anyway). This book honestly doesn’t need to exist.
I will add more later about the badgering, baby crazy heroine and dark yet unsatisfying hero arc, but I don’t feel like it right now.
Reread: adjusted from five to three stars.
Don’t start the series here, and if you skip this one, you aren’t missing much. There is no recap or revisiting of any fave characters in the series, only the one from the previous book appears (the Duke of Kyle and he’s a dud anyway). This book honestly doesn’t need to exist.
I will add more later about the badgering, baby crazy heroine and dark yet unsatisfying hero arc, but I don’t feel like it right now.
lady_wallflower_reads's review against another edition
dark
3.0
Not quite the send of to the series that I was expecting. Though all the books were dark, this one was probably the darkest. The Lord's of Chaos books (10, 11, 12) really would have felt better as their own series than with Maiden Lane. It they were too removed from the heart of the series.