Scan barcode
A review by amandaventure
From Duke Till Dawn by Eva Leigh
4.0
I had heard cool stuff about Eva Leigh books before I decided to pick up From Duke Till Dawn. I heard they were feminist, sex positive, and fun books to read. After reading this one, I can say those claims are mostly true. The "fun" one is a bit subjective. From the pun in the title to the caper like blurb I thought this was going to be a rom-com. It wasn't. I do prefer my historical romance to have a humorous quality so the fact that this wasn't meant to be all that funny made me take off a star. However, that's just my personal taste and maybe that kind of thing won't bother other historical romance readers.
The premise for the story is pretty fun and one I haven't necessarily read much of before. This is about Alex, the Duke of Greyland, and Cassandra, a con-woman. Some time ago, Cassandra conned Alex out of a lot of money, had sex with him, and ran off in the night. Now, several years later, their paths cross again only for Alex to find out she played him. The plot thickens when Cassandra's "business" partner takes off with all the money leaving her in debt to some of the most dangerous criminals of the London underground. The only person she can turn to for help is the one person with good reason to despise her, Alex. Then there's peril and drama as they try to hunt down her "business" partner and recover the stolen money.
How's the smut? I'm glad you asked. It's actually pretty good. I was impressed by it. I will say that the smut doesn't happen until much further into the book so it's a bit of a slow burn. However, the smut that we did get was pretty steamy. One thing I did like about the story was that it was sex positive. Cassandra and Alex have both been with multiple people and neither one shames the other for it. That's somewhat rare for the time period in historical romance. I think almost all of the books I've read in the genre feature virgin women. However, I think it's rather refreshing to have a "light skirt" in the mix as well and for her to not be seen as somehow "ruined" because of it.
In the end I pretty much got everything that I wanted to get out the book. It was feminist, sex positive, and fun. The only thing it didn't really deliver on was humor. I think if this was more of a comedy and a bit less of a drama I would have enjoyed it much more. It would have been a contender for a 5 star rating. But as it stands right now, I still gave this a 4 because it was a good time to read.
The premise for the story is pretty fun and one I haven't necessarily read much of before. This is about Alex, the Duke of Greyland, and Cassandra, a con-woman. Some time ago, Cassandra conned Alex out of a lot of money, had sex with him, and ran off in the night. Now, several years later, their paths cross again only for Alex to find out she played him. The plot thickens when Cassandra's "business" partner takes off with all the money leaving her in debt to some of the most dangerous criminals of the London underground. The only person she can turn to for help is the one person with good reason to despise her, Alex. Then there's peril and drama as they try to hunt down her "business" partner and recover the stolen money.
How's the smut? I'm glad you asked. It's actually pretty good. I was impressed by it. I will say that the smut doesn't happen until much further into the book so it's a bit of a slow burn. However, the smut that we did get was pretty steamy. One thing I did like about the story was that it was sex positive. Cassandra and Alex have both been with multiple people and neither one shames the other for it. That's somewhat rare for the time period in historical romance. I think almost all of the books I've read in the genre feature virgin women. However, I think it's rather refreshing to have a "light skirt" in the mix as well and for her to not be seen as somehow "ruined" because of it.
In the end I pretty much got everything that I wanted to get out the book. It was feminist, sex positive, and fun. The only thing it didn't really deliver on was humor. I think if this was more of a comedy and a bit less of a drama I would have enjoyed it much more. It would have been a contender for a 5 star rating. But as it stands right now, I still gave this a 4 because it was a good time to read.