TEST
Here’s the good news – the second book in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Greycourt series is (marginally) better than the first. The bad news is that it is still not up to the standard of the usual Hoyt offering.
When a Rogue Meets His Match begins right after the end of the first book in the series, Not the Duke’s Darling. Messalina Greycourt is returning home when her carriage is stopped by Gideon Hawthorne, one of her uncle’s hired thugs. Gideon instructs Messalina that she is to leave her sister Lucretia and come with him to London to see her uncle, the Duke of Windermere. Messalina equally hates and fears her uncle, who has kept her and her siblings under his cruel thumb for a long time. When they reach London, Messalina is informed that today is her wedding day and that the groom is Gideon.
“Your uncle wishes me to do a certain task. I refused. But then he offered a very tempting enticement.” His gaze wandered down her frame before that distracting mouth twitched and he met her eyes. “You”.
She wanted to strike him. The intensity of the violent urge shocked her. Her words came out in a stutter, she was so angry. “So you’ll m-marry Lucretia if I refuse?”
“No.” The wine had left a wet stain on his bottom lip, shining and mesmerizing. “I want only you.”
She refuses. But the duke threatens to give her sister to Gideon instead and Messalina is not about to sacrifice Lucretia, and Gideon and Messalina come to an understanding. They will wed and after one month, they will consummate their marriage and Messalina will receive one-tenth of her dowry – enough in Messalina’s mind for her and Lucretia to leave both her uncle and Gideon and escape to a new life. Over the course of the month, Messalina comes to know Gideon better and to see the man he really is – not just the knife-wielding thug from St. Giles.
Gideon has loved Messalina from afar since he first came to work for the duke fourteen years earlier and he will do everything in his power to make her happy. Unfortunately, the task the duke traded Messalina for will break whatever bond he forges with her – the duke has instructed Gideon to kill Messalina’s brother Julian.
Oh this book! So many terrific things going for it. Gideon is an intriguing hero, deeply flawed with an interesting combination of darkness and light – a hero type that Hoyt excels at. And her sensual descriptions of men are really in a league of their own:
Mr. Hawthorne was apparently asleep now that the danger was over. His booted feet were crossed at the ankles, his arms over his chest. The carriage lantern threw a glow on a sculpted chin and breathtakingly high cheekbones. His mouth was curled at the corners as if even in sleep he were privately amused at some lewd joke. The upper lip was thin and strictly constrained to a classical Cupid’s bow, but the lower lip belied the upper’s repression with obscene plushness.
He had the most depraved mouth Messalina had ever seen on a man.
Well then! There are moments of the true Hoyt brilliance throughout the book, but especially in the first half. Hoyt is a master at slowly developing the love between the hero and heroine and I was all ready to fall in love alongside Gideon and Messalina. And I think I would have and all would have been well – if this book hadn’t suddenly remembered halfway through that it was part of a series.
In Not the Duke’s Darling, we were introduced to the main crux of the series. Fifteen years before, Messalina’s sister Aurelia was killed and everyone suspected their good family friend Ranulf de Moray of the crime. The Greycourts and the de Morays were reconciled at the end of book one but we were no closer to knowing the identity of Aurelia’s true killer. In this book, there is talk of the Aurelia plot but no movement forward. There is also a nod to the Wise Women – whose group played such an important role in book one. But just a nod. Hoyt’s novels (especially the later Maiden Lane ones) always had an odd twist but here, in book two, we are told the Wise Women have decided to dismantle themselves. Which is just confusing! It felt like all the tie-ins to the first book – and to the series – were mere afterthoughts in this one.
I also was confused by Messalina. She is unbelievably naïve about what poverty looks like in London and vacillates so much between wanting to leave Gideon and wanting to stay that she just comes across as wishy-washy. Towards the end when Gideon confesses to her what he has been hired to do – and after he states empirically that he is not going to do it – she freaks out and leaves him. This was an unbelievable turn of events. The ending is also unsatisfying, with the duke temporarily silenced but not at all vanquished and a last minute villain thrown in for no apparent reason.
Ugh! So much great writing but too many convolutions. A story about Messalina and Gideon and how they outsmarted the duke and came to love each other would have been perfect. But as it stands, I’m not sure how the events in When a Rogue Meets His Match move the series along at all, and can’t help thinking it would have worked better as a standalone.
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 07/12/20
Publication Date: 12/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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This is disappointing. I’ve liked quite a few of Hoyt’s books, and while the first novel of this new series didn’t work for me, I was really hoping the series would get into its stride with the second book.
A man so in love with a woman he basically forces her into marriage and agrees to kill her brother to get her? That sounds more like obsession. No thank you!
I think obsessive love is one of those things that many love in romance–50SoG sold 15+ million copies and spawned a movie trilogy–but would hate in real life.
I enjoyed Kerrigan Byrne’s book The Hunter and the hero starts off with a contract to kill the heroine. Then he becomes obsessed by her.
Its absolutely nothing I would want to experience in real life, but I found the book entertaining.
Readers and reviewers have definitely had issues with Gideon. Hoyt certainly doesn’t shy away from controversial heroes. Going from obsessive love to true love is Gideon’s character arc so he is “redeemed” by the end of the book.
Question: Is this one as much of a boink-fest as NtDD? I don’t think of myself as a prude, but I got tired of all the mental and physical lusting in the prior book, as it seemed to take the place of character development, actual conversation, and other things I look for. I like it when the sex tells us something about the H/h and their relationship, but I didn’t find it.
Hoyt is a sensual writer so her books tend to be a little warmer than most. I wouldn’t put it in the “hot” category. There is some lusting and bedroom scenes but I didn’t find it getting in the way of the plot. If you read this, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I just got this one from the library. I had hopes that her last book was a one time stumble and she would find her mojo. I loved most of her Maiden Lane series.
This one’s been getting negative reviews down the board – hero sounds like too much of a jerk for me, and heroine is wishy washy to the max, so I’m giving it a pass.
Messalina and Lucretia! Are you kidding me with those names? Hoyt’s heroine name choices become weirder and weirder with every new book. I stopped reading her at Silence.
Good Review.
Well, Silence was at least believable in context of the family’s Puritan background.
Thanks for the review! I was very curious to see another opinion on this book. I think I will leave this as something to borrow from the library rather than buy. Hopefully Hoyt gets back to her old form as I really enjoyed most of the Maiden Lane books.
Eh. After the poor effort that was Not the Duke’s Darling I wasn’t going to rush to pick this one up. It sounds like it suffers from exactly the same problems – overstuffed, confusing and a romance pushed to the peripheries. It also sounds like Messalina has had a bit of a personality transplant in this one, although I can’t remember that much abot her tbh. (She obviously made a great impression on me!) I seem to recall this was supposed to come out this time last year (NtDD came out in December 2018)… it seems EH may be struggling to find her feet with this series.
In this one, as opposed to Not the Duke’s Darling, the romance was good and reminded me of the romances from the Maiden Lane series. Hopefully the next book will not be quite so convoluted.