Book Review: No Other Duke But You by Valerie Bowman

Series: Playful Brides Book #11

Format: ebook

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

How I Got It: NetGalley

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads

Lady Delilah Montebank has her marital sights set on the Duke of Branville. There’s just one problem: he barely knows she exists. But no matter, she’s got a plan to win him over with her charm, her wit—and perhaps the love potion she has in her possession wouldn’t hurt her cause...

Lord Thomas Hobbs, Duke of Huntley, thinks his best friend Delilah’s quest to become a duchess is ridiculous. He’s always said he’d rather give up all the brandy in London than commit to one person for life. Besides, he knows that Delilah’s love potion can’t possibly win over Branville…since she accidentally gave it to him instead. But perhaps this is the excuse he needs to show her he’s always loved her...

Delilah can’t believe she gave the potion to the wrong duke. Then again, Delilah could do a lot worse than win the hand of her handsome best friend. Could it be that the right duke has been before her eyes all along?

Review

***I received this book via NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review***

This was a cute and fun read. It reminded me a little of Julia Quinn-light and not particularly high stakes. There is no crazy mystery or danger. Sometimes you just need a sweet romance with nice characters.

This is part friends-to-lovers and part unrequited love and it worked really well. I really liked the friendship between the hero and heroine. Is it realist? Probably not. Do I care? No. It was nice to read about supportive friendships and it is a nice foundation for a romance.

Actually, there were so many great friendships. They have a great friend circle. It's full of men and women who love and support each other. It's a great found-family which is one of my favorite things to read about. It's especially nice to see in historicals because there's often toxic relationships in them.

The romance was cute and had some sitcom or rom-com elements. Maybe a comedy of errors kind of thing. I have no real complaints, but it isn't anything special. 

I did get confused about who some of the side characters are and how they connect to each other. That did frustrate me a little. But his is the 11th book in the series and I'm sure if I had read the previous books I would be less confused.

Overall, this wasn't particularly memorable-I'm already forgetting things. I would read other books in the series, but don't feel the need to pick them up ASAP.

Thanks for reading!

Holly