Moving on from re-imagining fairy tales, Eloisa James' newest title sounds like she might be trying her hand at a 50 Shades of Grey contender. Fear not, gentle reader; the title just doesn't match the rest of the book, which is a charming tale of a woman who makes her living as a design consultant, going from house to house fixing, organizing, and setting things right in households all over the English countryside. Lady X (though they call her India) makes her way to Tobias Dautry because he needs his house—which used to be a den of iniquity—renovated as soon as possible, before his betrothed
and her mother show up for inspection. As explained here, the plot seems a little ridiculous, and as I read I was constantly gut-checking how I felt about the fact that Tobias and India were falling in love, while his unsuspecting fiancée was making her way to the house. That said, however, the book really worked for me. I suppose its a testament to James' skill as a writer that she was able to pull everything together in the end, and I literally stayed up all night to finish reading.

Long-time readers will appreciate that the hero of this book first appeared in previous Desperate Duchess books as a young boy. New fans will enjoy that they have an entire backlist to make their way through.