One Night with the Duke by Jodi Ellen Malpas is a Regency romance with mystery elements and the first book in the Belmore Square series (3/5 stars)

One Night with the Duke by Jodi Ellen Malpas is a Regency romance with mystery elements and the first book in the Belmore Square series.

Eliza Melrose and her family are new money recently moved to London from the countryside. Now, Eliza must act like a lady now that she is expected to take her proper place in society. Things get a little more interesting when the scandalous Duke of Chester moves back into his family’s home which has been long abandoned. Eliza is determined to figure out if the rumors about a rakish duke who murdered his entire family are true.

I liked the idea of this plot, but I had a really hard time getting into the first 25% of this book. Some of the plot felt quite contrived at times. There were also multiple characters who kind of seemed like the same person and didn’t have enough distinctive characteristics by themselves. The whole book is from Eliza’s perspective, and it might have been nice to have some chapters from Johnny’s.

Some of the language spoken by characters feels pretty modern here, so the publisher blurb that mentions this would be good for fans of Bridgerton seems very on the nose.

I’ll probably continue on with this series even though I didn’t really connect with any of the characters here and the primary romance fell a little flat for me. This series feels like it will be good as light fluff for me to read in between heavier books.

Tropes in this book include: arranged marriage, class difference, damaged hero

CW: murder (off-page), physical abuse (off-page)

I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

If you want to see more from me, check out my bookstagram!