Michaels' 100 Nights With a Duke SPOILER FREE NETGALLEY REVIEW

100 Nights With a Duke 

SPOILER FREE NETGALLEY REVIEW

Jess Michaels

Stars:  Excellent ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (didn't see that plot twist coming; we get to see some old faves)

Heat rating:     🔥🔥🔥🔥 (she had me at “The orgy had already begun.”)

OK so those of you who follow the MAR know that I am a huge Jess Michaels fan. So I was really excited to get my hands on an advance copy of 100 Nights with a Duke. If you are a long time Jess Michaels reader, you will be delighted to see several past characters show up in this book.

As you can see from the jacket, the premise of the book is pretty simple (or is it???)—Edward, the Duke, and Sophia have had a protector/courtesan relationship for 90 days (though it appeared to have been LAFS 💘 the second they met). However some things come to pass that I’m not going to spoil for you, of course, but they had to break it off. Even though she was his one true love, and vice versa, he marries another. Two years later, though, his new duchess dies and the book picks up when he is out of mourning after the requisite year.

JM does not mess around in the intimate area. It’s one of the reasons I love reading her books. The intimate scenes were versatile and definitely not boring. I knew it was going to love this one in the first chapter when I read: “The orgy had already begun.” 🔥

There’s no way you can go wrong after a sentence like that. But it’s more than that, though she brings the sensual heat, as always. The thing with JM is that the intimate scenes never feel gratuitous. They really do factor in by providing you necessary insight into the characters and their situation. Sex in real life is complicated, and it often bothers me when I read stories where everything is just perfect in the intimate realm because that’s not how it really is (can I get an amen?). This book delves into that conflict very well. Basically these two people love each other deeply but because of vast social differences, they cannot be together. Or can they? As I mentioned, there are characters from previous books are mentioned in this one, and if you know their stories, you will see that they were able to work through their own societal differences for their happily ever after. I know this is Jess Michaels’ celebratory 100^th book and this introduction of previous characters could be seen as simply part of that celebration, but the fact is, they actually bring necessary “personal” perspectives to the question - Can a duke and a courtesan actually have a happy ever after?

Characters from Her Perfect Match,* An Affair in Winter, Introduction to Pleasure, and The Broken Duke are there, showing us that there is perilous rocky road to true love between wildly divergent classes; but it’s possible! The thing is, can THESE two do it? (Lord, but Sophia's hard headed and I love her!) Oh, you would think this book would be very simple, these two working through the potential issues of being together. But Jess Michaels is very good at plot twists. Edward and Sophia are not only trying to overcome their own personal obstacles, but are also threatened by external ones. The mystery aspect of the book is good, and though I caught hints about what was going on, I hadn’t figured it all out until right before the end. So she gets kudos for a successful mystery twist. Also there’s an epilogue, which MAR-ites will know is totally my thing.

So this book gets a solid 4-1/2 stars from me, rounded up to a NetGalley 5. I was engaged the entire time, and was very irritated when life interceded and I had to put the book down for a while; however, I was able to jump right back in when the work day was done! The description she used throughout was excellent—you could really imagine the settings—and the characters’ inner dialogue was engaging. Maybe because I’m a person who can never keep her mouth shut (y'all know the Squirrel), and also a Sagittarius, I tell it like it is, and in-depth internal monologues in books can sometimes bore me, but this was not the case here. I wanted to know what was going on in their heads!

I liked it; it was interesting and fun and I’ve already pre-ordered a copy to keep for my collection. Grab your preorder (it's coming out May 10 and I'll do an MAR-style recap after that).

Congrats on 100 books, Jess Michaels!!!! 🎂

 * Note: This book seems to occur before the third in the Mistress Matchmaker series, Her Perfect Match, which is about Vivien Manning, who features heavily in this book. While you're waiting on this book, re-familiarize yourself with the Mistress Matchmaker series, as well as the other two books I mentioned above. I need to do a recap of that series, as well as the 1797 Club series (where we get The Broken Duke). They're excellent reads.