Author: Valerie Bowman
Genre/Age: Historical Romance
Series: Playful Brides (Book Eleven)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: ebook via Publisher
Rating: ✺✺✺✺
Synopsis: A lady with a love potion. A Duke who takes it by mistake. Romance and mischief ensues when plans go awry in No Other Duke But You by Valerie Bowman.
SINGLE LADY SEEKS
DUKE
Lady Delilah
Montebank has her marital sights set on the Duke of Branville.
There’s just one problem: he barely knows she exists. But no matter, she’s got
a plan to win him over with her charm, her wit—and perhaps the love potion she
has in her possession wouldn’t hurt her cause...
Lord Thomas Hobbs,
Duke of Huntley, thinks his best friend Delilah’s quest to become a duchess is
ridiculous. He’s always said he’d rather give up all the brandy in London than
commit to one person for life. Besides, he knows that Delilah’s love potion
can’t possibly win over Branville…since she accidentally gave it to him instead.
But perhaps this is the excuse he needs to show her he’s always loved her...
Delilah can’t believe she gave the potion to the wrong duke.
Then again, Delilah could do a lot worse than win the hand of her handsome best
friend. Could it be that the right duke has been before her eyes all along?
Delilah
glanced up and down the dim hallway. It was well past three in the morning, she
was still dressed in the pink ball gown she’d worn to the party, and she
clutched the small vial of Cupid’s Elixir in her sweaty, guilty palm. She
pressed her back against the shadowed wall not far from the Duke of Branville’s
bedchamber. She could do this. More importantly, she would do this. She’d
come this far, hadn’t she? What did a little sneaking about in the middle of
the night matter?
She’d got detailed instructions to Branville’s room from
Derek, who thankfully hadn’t asked any questions about why she wanted to know.
According to him, the room was four doors to the right, just past the staircase
on the third floor. The third floor was where all the bachelor gentlemen were sleeping.
It would be a complete scandal if she was found lurking about alone at this
time of night, but she’d waited until the household seemed quite asleep and
then waited a bit longer for good measure. Anyone who saw her now would be
skulking about themselves, which meant they would hardly be in a position to
judge her. She briefly wondered if she’d run into Lavinia.
It was not as if she was out to do anything particularly scandalous.
It was more silly and frivolous than anything else. She’d simply die, however,
if Branville woke up and asked her what she was doing sprinkling pixie water in
his eyes. She’d already decided to pretend as if she were dreaming, thinking
she was Puck in the play. Sleepwalking. That would make all the sense in the
world. Wouldn’t it? She swallowed hard. Probably not, but she wasn’t about to
let the fear of being caught stop her. Besides, all of her and Lucy’s matchmaking
had turned into a colossal mess. If a spray of perfume could sort it out, so be
it. Of course, Delilah’s conscience reminded her that she hadn’t offered any of
the perfume to Rebecca to use on Thomas. She didn’t want to even contemplate that.
She’d already shared it with one other person, and that made her guilty enough.
The image of Madame Rosa’s disapproving, craggy face had haunted her all evening.
Delilah shook off the thought and turned her attention back
to the matter at hand. Pressing her empty palm against the darkened wall, she
inched her way along until she came to Branville’s door. She felt like a spy.
This was how professional spies did such things, wasn’t it? Too bad she was too
embarrassed by her actions to ask the veritable house full of professional
spies who happened to be asleep behind other doors right now.
She transferred the vial into her opposite hand and slowly reached
to grasp the door handle. The metal was cold in her bare hand. She’d discarded
her gloves, deciding that they would make her actions more clumsy. The last thing
she needed tonight was to be more clumsy than usual. Decidedly, she needed to
be less so.
She clutched the door handle like a lifeline and closed her
eyes, steadying her shaking fingers on the knob. She was close, so close.
Praying that the door wouldn’t squeak, she turned the handle slowly. The only
sound was the thumping of her own heart in her ears.
When the handle was turned as far as it would go, she pushed
it, praying fervently that it wasn’t locked. It took a moment before she realized
the door was opening. Its hinges silent, merci
a Dieu. Completely silent.
She slipped inside the cool, dark room. Steady, deep breathing
came from the bed. Thank goodness, she hadn’t woken the duke with her entrance.
She could barely see a thing, but she didn’t dare light a candle. A tiny stream
of moonlight filtered into the room through a small opening in the curtains on
the far window. She used that to identify the hulking bed in the center of the
room. She tiptoed over to it slowly, taking care in case there was anything to
trip over. No doubt she would find it if there was.
She made it to the foot of the bed without incident and paused,
trying to quell her nerves and dispel her guilt. She clutched the vial more
tightly in her palm, shaking with fear and anxiety. Now that she was here, she
had no earthly idea how to drop liquid on a man’s eyes without awakening him.
Besides, how much of it was she supposed to use? Surely not much. She would
employ the tiniest drops possible so as not to disturb him, but she also needed
to ensure the perfume touched his eyelids. Tricky business, this being a fairy.
She had a sudden appreciation for Puck.
Holding her breath, she lifted her skirts with her free hand
and tiptoed to the right side of the bed. Because it was summer, the bed
curtains weren’t drawn. The window was open, and a slight breeze blew through
the crack in the curtains.
The outline of the duke’s body was barely visible in the moonlight.
He was turned away on his side, his back to her, his face toward the window.
She would have to lean over his body to sprinkle the elixir on his eyes. The bed
was tall. She must carefully climb up to do this task properly. She only hoped
she didn’t jostle the mattress enough to wake him.
She waited in silence for a few moments to ensure his breathing
remained steady, then she carefully lifted first one knee and then the other,
bracing them on the mattress and pulling herself up, still clutching the vial.
She winced as he moved slightly in his sleep, but he kept his face turned away.
Blast it.
Once she was fully atop the bed, she paused and hoped the
hammering of her heart didn’t wake him. He smelled good, a combination of soap
and maleness that she wanted to breathe in. There was something vaguely familiar
about his scent.
Shaking away that unhelpful thought, she moved gingerly across
the mattress on her knees until she came to a stop at his side. His shirt was
off. The beam of moonlight hit his smooth, muscled arm. She swallowed. The man’s
chest was positively swoon-worthy. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves
and uncorked the vial. Then she carefully leaned over as far as she could to locate
his eyes. They remained shrouded in the dark, but she took a guess as to their
general direction and tipped the little vial as slowly and carefully as she
could. He turned then, and she was afforded enough light to see that the first
tiny drop of liquid did indeed fall directly onto his eyelid.
He blinked, and she held her breath. When he settled back
into sleep, she closed her eyes and said a brief prayer that she would get away
with it a second time before tipping the vial once more to allow another tiny
drop to fall on his other eyelid.
He blinked and rubbed at his eyes while Delilah held her
breath again, paralyzed with fear. Soon, he settled back into his pillow and
his breathing returned to its steady pace.
She pressed a hand to her throat. It was over. She was done.
All she had to do was extract herself from the bed and the room without being
seen or heard. The difficult part was behind her.
Still praying he wouldn’t stir, she backed away from the
duke. Slowly. Slowly. She’d nearly made it to the edge of the bed when he flipped
over to face her. A beam of moonlight slid over his sleeping features.
Delilah gasped.
From No Other Duke But You. Copyright © 2019
by Valerie Bowman and reprinted with permission from St.
Martin’s Paperbacks.
Valerie Bowman grew up in Illinois with six sisters (she’s
number seven) and a huge supply of historical romance novels. After a cold and
snowy stint earning a degree in English with a minor in history at Smith
College, she moved to Florida the first chance she got. Valerie now lives in
Jacksonville with her family including her mini-schnauzers, Huckleberry and
Violet. When she’s not writing, she keeps busy reading, traveling, or
vacillating between watching crazy reality TV and PBS.
Friends to lovers--done right!
This book would make a great movie. There are a lot of colorful characters, our main couple are incredibly likable, and there is a good deal of humor here also. The blurb mentions the love potion and I was a little disappointed to see it only made an appearance toward the end of the story. However, once it does come into play, boy does it make a splash.
I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish. I always tend to enjoy a friends-to-lovers type of story and this one was done well. Our couple have a tight bond, which we can see from the beginning. But we also get to watch it bloom into something more. Jealousy replaces comfort and our heroine starts to see her BFF in a new light.
There are a lot of characters in this book, so that is a lot of names to keep straight. We are introduced to the more important players, which makes it easier. But the rest of the secondary characters are sort of just tossed in. So reading the other previous books in this series would be helpful. Despite the many faces, this was a fairly easy story to follow along with.
In closing...
If you enjoy a friends-to-lovers story as much as I do, this one is for you! Four suns!
