Review by Kayleigh

Series Name: The Doves of New York #2

The second installment in Harper’s The Doves of New York series flies high with yearning.

Favourite Quote:

Eliza took in the people around her. They were all mesmerized by the drama playing out before them. It was a drama, she realized. It was sport set to theatre. She hoped Simon received a portion of the ticked sales.

Book Synopsis:

All hopeless romantic Eliza Dove asked for was one night of adventure. One glorious evening of freedom to explore the dark corners of London with a mysterious stranger before a lifetime trapped in a quiet, respectable marriage of convenience. Except now she wants more. Now she wants him.

Simon Cavell is no gentleman. Known only as ‘the Duke,’ Whitechapel’s prize boxer is one fight away from achieving his goal: to safeguard his late sister’s only treasure and leave the streets for good. He cannot allow some pretty young heiress to spill his secrets, no matter how tempting she might be. In return for her silence, Simon will give Eliza a taste of the darkness…and hope he doesn’t lose his heart in the process.

But one night together could never be enough. And now Eliza has a new plan—an even more scandalous bargain that will either land the heiress her duke or ruin them both.

Review:

We’ve met Eliza in the first installment of The Doves of New York. While you could read Eliza and the Duke as a stand alone, I think you get to see Eliza’s struggles better by seeing where she comes from and what drives her even more if you read the first book. 

Eliza is the responsible daughter who wants to ensure her family is taken care of by agreeing to a loveless marriage that her biological father agrees to so she can get her inheritance. Eliza and her sisters were her father’s “other” family. She’ll do the right thing, because she has to, but she chafes at the restrictions placed on her and longs for a loving relationship like she sees from others. 

Enter “The Duke.” During one of Eliza’s scandalous nights where she creeps out to her brother in law’s gentlemen’s club to try and experience life before she is trapped in expectations and etiquette. There, she stumbles into an injured man and she is smitten. Simon Cavell is no gentleman. Known as “The Duke” in the boxing ring, he is desperate to save money to rescue himself and his beloved niece from the slums and offer them a better life. He is instantly smitten with Eliza, but knows he can only look and never touch – she isn’t the type of woman he can ever be with. 

Eliza, of course, is also falling for him, and when he is hired to guard her and her family, she uses everything she has to convince him to give her one night with him. She wants to discover true passion before marrying the man she’s betrothed to, who is currently sleeping his way across Europe as a fun summer adventure. She knows she will do the right thing for her family and beloved sisters, but just for once, she wants to be first for herself. 

Simon and Eliza are so beautiful together on the page. Simon is gruff and tough. He’s a large, bare-knuckled boxer who shows no mercy in his daily life. Underneath his hostile exterior though, lies a sweet man yearning for love and kindness that he’s never known. And he yearns for that from Eliza. Eliza is a little reckless and brash, and kind of scares Simon with her forthright American ways. She isn’t a soft and sheltered lady, instead she is drawn to his strength and virility like a moth to the flame. 

The two of them yearn so much in this forbidden love match and their struggles both internal and social make their time together, when it finally happens, so rewarding. Eliza and Simon have to overcome a lot in both of their lives, and Harper continually raises the stakes which makes it hard to put their story down. 

If you love swoony and decadent romances, then you must curl up with Eliza and the Duke. 

Thank you to Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.