Full review posted at Reader's Edyn on 02/02/20

Esmerelda has had a rough go of it. Her mother was cast out after being widowed and then defying her brother so that she could remarry for love. Mother and stepfather have both since passed away, leaving Esmerelda to support herself and her younger sister. Now running a struggling employment agency, and the owner taking advantage of her, she is wondering where the next amount of money will come from for the past due bills. When the Duke of Griffin happens into her agency, she can’t afford to say no to his requests to chaperone his twin sisters during their debut despite her numerous excuses to try and escape the offer. The Duke posses many problems even though the money is more than she could ever expect to bring in over the next year. What harm could fall in six weeks anyway? The Duke refuses to take no for an answer and she’s run out of excuses. If only he wasn’t so dang intriguing.

Griffin is immediately taken with Esmerelda – a Rake by notoriety, his past deeds have set up a possible disaster for his sisters’ debut season. He is in need of extra helps to ensure their reputations remain intact. He knows Esmerelda is the one he requires, and he’ll stop at nothing to ensure her acceptance of his proposal. Before too long, he’s craving quite a lot more from her and considering how best to redirect her refusals into surrender. In a moment of heated emotions, Griffin makes a disastrous mistake and he’s not sure how to fix it. He isn’t accustomed to losing anything he’s wanted – he’s never wanted anything more than Esmerelda – and he isn’t about to start losing now.

I am so thrilled to have been able to read and review this book as an ARC. Unfortunately, life happened, and the review never occurred, so I just re-read the book and would willingly do so several more times. I enjoyed myself immensely while reading this beautifully told story of two extremely strong-minded individuals who ultimately attract to each other despite their seemingly opposing personalities and stations in life. Imagine Griffin’s shock when he discovers that Esmerelda is, in reality, one of his peers. I absolutely adored their burning passion and the fact that they fought it for as long as possible without giving in too easily despite their raging desire to succumb. Their sharp wit and delectable banter heightened each engagement. I effortlessly played each scene vividly in my mind as the drama unfolded. Adding delicious detail to the plot were several additional characters. Sometimes I find there are too many characters added to a story in an effort to fluff the content. Not so in this case. Each individual added a memorable contribution and I ended up discovering each one to be just as likable as the last; desiring to find out more about each of them. The other two rakes, Rath and Hawk were delectable, and I am thrilled to know that I have the other two books of the series to dive in to next. I am more than willing to spend several more hours with each of the Rakes of St. James. Even Griffin’s sisters, Sara and Vera, were captivating – so similar in appearance yet completely opposite in mannerisms and delightfully entertaining. I do have one question though – What is Griffin’s name? The entire book he is only referred to as The Duke of Griffin and everyone calls him by his title or Griffin. I don’t recall ever seeing his name mentioned anywhere. Odd, that. He had to have been someone prior to inheriting the title.

I did truly find the entries of MISS MAMIE FORTESCUE'S DO'S AND DON'TS FOR CHAPERONES, GOVERNESSES, TUTORS, AND NURSES as included at the beginning of each chapter, to be highly entertaining. What a thoughtful and insightful detail to add. A little something extra added for the benefit of the reader to be able to have a bit of comprehension into Esmerelda’s determination to behave in particular ways as authored by the founder of the agency. I was quite annoyed with Napoleon’s storyline – I won’t ruin that detail. While I understood the way things worked out, I believe Griffin should have sought some sort of retribution even if just a dressing down of the offender. Now that I think of it – the same holds true for Mr. Forescue for taking advantage of Esmerelda when she took over the agency. That would have been quite satisfying to see to be certain. Unfortunately, such details were unnecessary to complete this lovely book, so I will just have to leave it be. Regardless of the undesirable outcome for such scoundrels, I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with these wonderful characters and look forward to beginning the next book in the series – Hawk’s story – which I shall begin forthwith. Assuming the next books are just as enchanting, and I would be shocked if they were not, lovers of HR are sure to gladly embrace the Rakes of St. James and their unexpected journeys toward love with exasperating, competent women who confront them at every opportunity and arouse their passion like no other.

Kindle ARC version provided by publisher/St. Martin’s in exchange for an honest review. ( )

1.5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Esmeralda is a viscount's granddaughter but after her mother was disowned by the family for marrying an Irish poet, she finds herself overseeing a chaperone and governess business.
Griffin might have been a wild youth, but as the Duke and head of the family now, he wants nothing to go wrong when his twin sisters make their debut.
With the possibility of someone out to hurt Griffin's sisters he hires Esmeralda as their chaperone, thinking she has the fortitude to keep them out of mischief.
Sisters, dogs, young bucks, and finding love in a surprising place will make this a season Griffin and Esmeralda won't forget.

"Surrender, Miss Swift. I have won this battle."

Last Night With the Duke is the first in a series and introduces us to Griffin and Esmeralda. I found the beginning to be a very slow start with their first conversation taking 20-30% of the story. There was also a feeling of insta-lust/love as they were both very physically attracted to one another immediately. The slow start feed into a very slow half, the story doesn't really get going until the second part. The whole point of Griffin hiring Esmeralda is to keep his sisters in line and safe during their season debut. When Griffin younger, he and his two other Duke friends (the author acknowledges the stretch it would be to have three young and unmarried dukes at one time) committed a prank where they set up a situation where debutantes were tested to see if they would show up to meet a secret admirer. There's a rumor going around that someone is still upset over how that might have affected a debutante and is going to ruin Griffin's sisters to get back at him.

This was a good plot to create some mystery, it's brought up and worried about by Griffin, but then that was it. The danger, villain, or storyline never came to fruition and fizzled at the end. With the mystery plot not going anywhere I turned to the romance. I'm personally not a fan of insta-lust/love, so I started off on the wrong foot with this one. I also never thought Griffin and Esmeralda spent enough time together to develop any sort of relationship. Griffin was instantly an invader of Esmeralda's space and by their third conversation he was rubbing his nose against hers but since they didn't have any emotional connection, the tension felt off and misplaced. This also could have been a personal issue too, but since Esmeralda worked for Griffin, the unequal power dynamic gave his looming an uncomfortable feel.

The secondary characters of Griffin's sisters seemed nice if a little airy and spoiled while Esmeralda's younger sister seemed kind of bratty to me. Her attitude at times was obviously allowed to create angst and emotion but for me, I would have sent her to her room more than once. Griffin's friends are obviously introduced and set-up for books of their own, they didn't make a strong appearance but they were genial enough.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that I felt it was slow and nothing seemed to be happening until the very end when the last 10% rushed to wrap up the plots. Except for a very, very at the end bedroom scene, this was an extremely clean read with just a few kisses, which bedroom closed readers may appreciate.
( )

Last Night with the Duke by Amelia Grey is a Romantic adventure. Steady paced, well written with charming characters, humorous, passionate and romantic storyline. An enjoyable read to be sure. ( )

Last Night With the Duke by Amelia Grey
The Rakes of St. James #1

5 Stars! Right from the beginning I fell in love with Ms.Grey’s writing style! Her characters are full, the story is engaging and the dialogue is wonderful.

Griffin and Esmeralda were fantastic together. From the first moment they are on the page together you could feel the chemistry begin to simmer. I am intrigued by the secondary characters and look forward to their stories.

I am very glad I took a chance and requested this arc from Netgalley and I am super excited to check out this author's back list!

~Paragraphs and Petticoats~

Original review posted at: http://paragraphsandpetticoats.blogspot.ca/ ( )

If I hadn't requested this book through interlibrary loan, and have the second one waiting as a giveaway win to be read and reviewed, I wouldn't have made it even as far into this piece of garbage as I did. That's right, I said it. It's always a bad sign when you're checking repeatedly how many pages are left until the book will finally just END already. Also, when you need to set it aside and read something else - ANYTHING ELSE!! - because you can't take it anymore. That's definitely bad... I wanted to like this book, but it read like the author had a book maybe half as many pages as the final result, and then just filled the rest of the pages with repetitive garbage.

I don't usually post progress updates as I'm reading books, but this one made me so irate that I did. An example of one of the updates I posted: "I’m only halfway through and already this book is recycling the same plot points several times. I can tell the author only had about 100 or so pages of actual story and the rest is just filler over and over. How many times can the heroine’s sister and her dog cause mischief and make the heroine afraid she’ll be fired for sure this time, only to be surprised EVERY TIME when the hero takes it in stride and tell her it’s no big deal? Because we’re at least three times in and counting…"

Made it to page 214 and then threw in the DNF pile. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Esmeralda says Griffin begged her to come work for him and he's indignant that he did not bed. I hated Esmeralda because for being such a "strong women" she sure is weak in the most unattractive ways, and Griffin essentially has zero redeeming qualities, unless you like smarmy smugness. Vomit.

Now I'm really wishing I hadn't read this book (or rather, tried to read it...) because I have the next in the series that I feel obligated to read having won it from a Goodreads giveaway. I need to read something else for a while first, and I'm desperately hoping that the author's writing style will have improved for the next book. ( )