Silvester Parnell, Duke of Huntington, is in love with Lady Yasmin. Unfortunately for him, she is in love with his best friend and chooses to marry him instead. Luckily, quirky Lady Stella Dorsham is still unmarried and Silvester finds himself lusting after her, even though she doesn’t like him at all and avoids him. After a slip of the tongue, Stella is forced to marry Silvester. Silvester begins to fall for his wife, but she thinks he’s still in love with Yasmin.

My absolute favorite thing about NOT THAT DUKE by Eloisa James is the witty banter throughout, especially between Stella and Silvester. I found myself grinning through nearly all of their interactions as they tried to get the upper hand on each other. This is not a plot-heavy story but the interactions Stella and Silvester have keep the pages turning.

I absolutely love Stella. She is smart, sweet, and funny and does her absolute best to resist Silvester even as she’s wildly attracted to him. Of course, romance wouldn’t be any fun if it was too easy, so I love that she resists him as long as she possibly can. It’s a good thing I love Stella because the vast majority of the story is told from her point of view while I myself prefer more from the hero’s point of view than what is here. Silvester is a great hero too, even though he’s a bit obtuse about how Stella feels. I’m glad he realized his true feelings for Stella before they married but wish he’d shared those feelings with her.

And that brings me to my two dislikes of this book: Silvester pines for Yasmin for far too long and even after he waits too long to tell Stella. It’s hard to get behind the love story of a couple when the hero believes himself to be in love with someone other than the heroine for a large chunk of the story. I disliked Yasmin so much in her own book that I didn’t finish it, and I certainly didn’t enjoy reading how much Silvester admired her in this one. Also, I felt he needed to set the record straight with Stella long before he did.

With a hero and heroine I easily got behind, their fun back and forth, and the only issue was the hero thinking he’s in love with someone else, NOT THAT DUKE is a great, easy read.