DUCHESS BY NIGHT - Eloisa James
Avon Books
ISBN: 978-0-06-124557-2
July 2008
Historical Romance

Georgian England, 1784

Harriet, Duchess of Berrow considers herself plain and dull. Since her husband's death, she has managed the estates for the child who is her husband's heir, cared for her people, and acted as judge in the shire court when the real magistrate was drunk -- which is every day. If she'd had a child of her own, it would have been different, but Harriet is lonely. At a Twelfth Night costume ball at the country seat of the Duke of Beaumont, Harriet's self image is exemplified by her costume; she dresses as Mother Goose. However, thanks to her friends, she is about to change her life. In a ploy to attract the attention of her absent husband, the Duke of Cosway, Harriet's friend Isidore plans to create a scandal. Isi married the duke when she was but a child, and he promptly left England and hasn't been back in eighteen years.

There is a certain Lord Strange who lives up to his name. His estate is notorious as the locale of a constant house party where actors and other guests of dubious reputation come and go. It happens that the Duke of Villiers, now recuperating from a duel at Beaumont's, has an open invitation to Fonthill, Strange's estate. A visit there with Villiers is just the scandal Isidore needs, and Harriet is to accompany them as chaperone. Well, chaperone in deed, if not in name, for to save her own reputation, Harriet becomes Villiers's nephew Harry, with a hastily but deftly contrived gentleman's wardrobe.

It turns out Strange's reputation is far from the mark. We eventually learn why he does what he does and are introduced to his motherless daughter Emily, a lovably precocious eight-year-old who lives in a wing of her own.

When Villiers asks Strange to look out for his naive nephew, he takes it seriously . . . and sets about teaching Harry lessons in manliness.

With her trademark wit and sympathy for her characters, Eloisa James presents her fans with another highly enjoyable novel in the Desperate Duchesses series. DUCHESS BY NIGHT is a mix of sophisticated drawing room comedy and enchanting romance. The scenes between Strange and Harry are delicious, both in their actions, dialogues, and inner thoughts and feelings. The important cast of secondary characters includes several from previous novels, some with on-going stories. Will the complicated Duke of Villiers ever be featured? I hope so.

The Georgian era was a rather swinging one with less hypocrisy and rigidity than the Regency or the Victorian age, yet Ms. James's protagonists possess saving virtues as well as passion. If you haven't entered her elegant and amusing storyworld, now is a good time to do so.

Jane Bowers