[Review] Say Yes to the Duke, by Eloisa James

Title Say Yes To The Duke
Series: The Wildes of Lindow Castle #5
Author: Eloisa James
Publisher: Avon
Number of pages: 400
Publication date: May 19th 2020

Synopsis:

A shy wallflower meets her dream man--or does she?--in the next book in New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James' Wildes of Lindow series.

Miss Viola Astley is so painfully shy that she’s horrified by the mere idea of dancing with a stranger; her upcoming London debut feels like a nightmare.

So she’s overjoyed to meet handsome, quiet vicar with no interest in polite society — but just when she catches his attention, her reputation is compromised by a duke.

Devin Lucas Augustus Elstan, Duke of Wynter, will stop at nothing to marry Viola, including marrying a woman whom he believes to be in love with another man.

A vicar, no less.

Devin knows he’s no saint, but he’s used to conquest, and he’s determined to win Viola’s heart.

Viola has already said Yes to his proposal, but now he wants her unruly heart…and he won’t accept No for an answer.

Review:

I received an eARC at no cost from the publisher, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.

I have a feeling my opinion is going to be very different than most people’s, regarding this book.

I really like Eloisa James’ books, but this one suffers from the same problem of a book I’ve also read very, very recently. The plot is almost inexistent. Hey, if that’s your thing, great! It’s a light, fun, sexy book. But I warn you, the secondary characters have a more detailed story than the main ones.

Some people described this story as enemies to lovers. I don’t actually agree with that, as I don’t consider Viola and Devin to have been enemies at any point. She might have disliked him slightly in the beginning, but that changed so quickly that I can’t consider this an enemies to lovers trope. In fact, I’m having a hard time defining a trope for it at all.

I liked Devin and Viola just fine – they were fun, Devin comes down from his high horse (hello Duke!), and Viola becomes more sure of herself throughout the book. And they have very romantic, loving, sexy, I would even say hot times, but… that’s it. I reached 90% of the book and just thought: “well, there’s nothing else of value happening now”, and I was right.

So… this isn’t a bad book, or anything similar. Eloisa’s great writing skills definitely show through the book, but the plot was somewhat lacking. If you’re looking for a light, fun, simply entertaining book, that this is a great choice. Just don’t expect anything else.