seriously romantic: not the duke's darling by elizabeth hoyt

a new series from elizabeth hoyt is most certainly a gift, so it's appropriate that not the duke's darling has published just before christmas. freya de moray is a wise woman, or rather a *wise woman* part of a sect of women who have dedicated their lives to helping other women in need. as the macha, she provides the organization with vital intelligence to help the people they are charges with protecting.

when she encounters christopher, duke of harlowe on a mission, her anger and resentment for the wrongs her family suffered that she lays on his door nearly overwhelms her. he wears her brother's ring, and it's such an outright insult even as he fails to recognize her that she can barely contain her rage. when they cross paths again at a house party she is determined to get her revenge.

it takes a while to suss out what happened the night of the greycourt scandal. not the duke's darling actually includes a third point of view, beyond freya and christopher's that actually doesn't clarify anything at all. messilane's story will clearly continue in book two, so why she takes up as much real estate as she does in book one is unclear to me. regardless, i liked her as a character and will happily read on to see where she ends up. so if that was the point, mission accomplished.

at first, i found this story to be slow-going. it wasn't until freya and christopher actually begin communicating that i felt like the story found its ground. part of the slow start surely has to do with building this new world of characters and setting up the conflict between the dunkelders and the wise women. but so far i'm not finding it as compelling as the lords of chaos and the ghost of st. giles from the maiden lane series. but i'm willing to give it time, hoyt is so very good at what she does.

my other little nitpick is that i could not stop thinking of freya bedwyn from mary balogh's bedwyn series, and how that freya also has a brother named ranulf. it's not like the names of characters in romance books are never repeated, but the bedwyns are so memorable, it's hard to compete with that.

**not the duke's darling will publish on december 18, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/grand central publishing (forever) in exchange for my honest review.