Wilde Child by Eloisa James

Two sisters. Thaddeus Erskine Shaw, heir to a dukedom, has been interested in two sisters. But both have married other people. He certainly isn't interested in the third. Lady Joan Wilde is most certainly not a biological Wilde. She has the blond hair and features of the man her mother had a wild affair with (and eventually ran away with him.) Lady Joan is a living scandal. And that's even before she decides to don breeches and play Hamlet. Thaddeus can't believe that her father would allow it. Actually, no one in the family seems to have minded Joan's earlier brushes with scandal so maybe they won't care about this one. But Thaddeus will certainly make it his business to stop her.

And that is mostly covers the blurb on the cover. Quite frankly, I was trying to figure out how that would fill a whole book because an uptight man berating the woman he eventually falls in love with isn't a book that I particularly wanted to read. But, of course, there is more to the story and a lot if it has to do with why Thaddeus is so rigid and seeing him relax a bit. Also getting to see Joan, who starts off pretty awesome and sure of herself, really get to stretch her wings and then find her place. 

Four stars

Wildes of Lindow Castle #6
Follows Say Yes to the Duke
This book comes out March 30th
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from the library June 2024

My Last Duchess by Eloisa James

Hugo Wilde, the Duke of Lindow, has just received his divorce decree. His faithless second wife is no longer "his wife." His twin sister is encouraging him to go to London and try to find a third wife. Hugo is not excited at the thought but he is realistic. While his oldest four children are close to grown, his younger four will definitely need a mother. At his first ball, he spots Ophelia, Lady Astley and falls immediately in love. And for the purposes of the novella, it is a pretty true love but when she says to back off, he does (what? I love it!) because the course to true love can't run smooth even for a duke in a novella. 

This was a fast and fun read even with one of my least favorite tropes (love at first sight). Getting to see how Hugo convinced Phee to marry a man with eight children (though his kids seemed to do most of the convincing) was the light story that I needed right now.

Four stars

This book comes out October 27th

Prequel to Wilde in Love

ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers

Opinions are my own

Say Yes to the Duke by Eloisa James

Viola Astley knows she's not a real Wilde. Her mother married into the family when she was two. Though the Duke and all of her siblings have accepted that she's a true "Wilde Childe," Viola has worked herself into such a thought pattern that she is physically ill before balls, even before just meeting eligible men. She isn't a Wilde by blood and, shorter than the rest, plumper than the rest, she doesn't even look like she belongs. But then she meets the new local vicar and falls in love. Too bad he already has a fiancee. And really too bad that a duke seems to have set his eyes on her.
Devin Lucas Augustus Elstan, Duke of Wynter, is ready to get married. He might as well marry a Wilde, but not the adopted daughter. Instead, he'll check out the one who is generally known to not be a Wilde by blood but is by name. Even his uncle pushing him to meet Miss Astley doesn't make him interested in Viola. But when she stands up to him, well, that catches his notice.
This is a fairly quiet book. Not a lot of conflict and that was just lovely right now. Even the last misunderstanding wasn't a Big Misunderstanding because they actually talked to each other.

Four stars
Follows Say No to the Duke

Followed by Wilde Child
This book comes out May 19th
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from the library June 2024

Say No to the Duke by Eloisa James

Lady Betsy Wilde's mother ran away from her father during a scandalous affair. Gossips claim that one of her children (Betsy's sibling) may not be the Duke's child. And Betsy knows that she has her mother's blood. Before she settles into a nice, sedate marriage with no passion, she wants to rack up as many proposals as possible, just to show those snobs from her boarding school that she is better than them. Fourteen proposals later, she has snared one from a duke. But she's annoyed that he proposes in front of the family hanger-on, Lord Jeremy Roden.
Lord Jeremy doesn't have much time for Betsy. He knows what she wants and he disapproves. In his opinion, she should be living her life to the fullest extent possible and not settling for the staid Thaddeus. He is willing to indulge Betsy when she proposes a billiards match. If she wins, he will take her on an adventure. And, while this is a trope we've seen before, Jeremy is surprisingly pragmatic about it. He wants to make sure that they are properly chaperoned, even on the adventure. He is also very aware that his PTSD makes him a freak in his lifetime.
This is definitely not the normal adventure story. For one thing, Betsy's other suitor and his mother come along as well as her aunt. And I liked that twist. I did not like that there was a "villain" sort of squished into the story just so that there would be one. Other than that, I do hope that we get to see Thaddeus again because he seemed like a genuinely good guy and his mother is amazing.

Four stars
This book comes out June 25th
Follows Born to Be Wilde
Followed by Say Yes to the Duke
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins, NetGalley, and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Reread as hard copy from the library June 2024

Wilde in Love by Eloisa James

Lord Alaric, third son of a duke, is known more popularly in England as Lord Wilde. His travel books have made him famous but the play written about him has made him notorious. When he returns home, he is stalked by women everywhere. He is set up as a teen heartthrob. Well, and older women as well. But he is not impressed. These women know a facsimile of him, not the man who misses his oldest brother, the man who might just be ready to come home.
Willa Ffynche is not one of the screaming hordes. She is more impressed by dead explorers than by one man who is more than likely exaggerating most of what he's written. Too bad the man is just as handsome as the rumors say. She'll have to get over her own fear of being in the spot light to grab the man she loves.
I didn't love the fact that the ending went on. And on. And on. There were THREE epilogues. Well, two were supposedly more chapters but... it just kept going.
I did love the world building. Alaric has many, many siblings. His oldest brother, now the heir to the dukedom, fell in love with a woman at first sight. He dressed in the high fashion of the day in order to impress her. But she still ran away. I'm assuming we'll get to read North and Diana's story at some point.
Also sequel-bait? Both Willa and Alaric's best friends. Lavinia and Parth can't stop fighting which, in Romancelandia means that they are perfect for each other.

Three stars

This book comes out October 31, 2017

The Wildes of Lindow Castle #1

Follows My Last Duchess

Followed by Too Wilde to Wed

Reread as copy I own May 2024