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The Hunt Club #3
Hardly a Stranger
Ambrose, Duke of Staines, has the worst luck in wives and lovers. A widow for fifteen years, he’s busy running his gentleman’s club, snatches pleasure from transient lovers, and relies on Francis Redding to provide intelligent companionship between social engagements. There is only one problem with his relationship with Redding; the man would make the perfect lover, if only he wasn’t a dependant servant.
Life-long footman to the Duke of Staines, Francis Redding, is hardly a stranger to the disappointment of unreachable dreams or the duke’s unorthodox love life. He’s lived in the duke’s shadow for most of his life, trained as a surgeon at his request, too, and has all too frequently kept the duke out of trouble. It’s not a bad life for a farmer’s son, until the duke’s luck runs out.
Publishers Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations some readers may find objectionable: anal play and male/male sexual practices.
Life-long footman to the Duke of Staines, Francis Redding, is hardly a stranger to the disappointment of unreachable dreams or the duke’s unorthodox love life. He’s lived in the duke’s shadow for most of his life, trained as a surgeon at his request, too, and has all too frequently kept the duke out of trouble. It’s not a bad life for a farmer’s son, until the duke’s luck runs out.
Publishers Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations some readers may find objectionable: anal play and male/male sexual practices.
106 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 2, 2011
5 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Heather Boyd
90 books756 followersUSA Today Bestselling Author Heather Boyd believes every character she creates deserves their own happily-ever-after—no matter how much trouble she puts them through. With that goal in mind, she writes steamy romances that skirt the boundaries of propriety to keep readers enthralled until the wee hours of the morning. Heather has published over sixty regency romance novels and shorter works full of daring seductions and distinguished rogues. She lives north of Sydney, Australia, with her trio of rogues and a four-legged overlord. To learn more visit www.Heather-Boyd.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 7, 2023
Pretty cute and enjoyable historical romance but I would have liked it to be longer and more developed. Their “falling in love” to be more on page and not “oh, I just realized I’ve loved you for quite some time”) I wanted to see them evolve from strictly master/servant professional relationship to slowly falling in love on page.
July 25, 2024
I’m at page 138/243 and will probably not finish.
I wanted to try a historical MM romance as the Regency era books by author Ellie Thomas have been super enjoyable and I’ve pretty much read them all.
This is a new to me author. A bad boy duke runs a brothel open to any pairing as he, himself, is a bisexual widower.
Ambrose has long been attracted to his servant, Francis, who is a footman, but, also, a de facto surgeon, seeing to the women at the brothel and to Ambrose who gets called out to duel and gets shot.
Most of the book’s action takes place in the sickroom as Ambrose heals. He wants to let Francis know how he feels.
Francis has deep feelings for Ambrose, too, but the social constricts and master-servant relationship hold him back.
There are side characters that you can tell are going to be in future books. I chose this book of the series to read as the previous two are BDSM.
There’s a lack of depth and passion to the MCs and their relationship. It feels like a comfortable inevitable rather than a passion or lust that must be pursued. This is an okay way to go, but it is too low key.
There is no bubble for this relationship to grow, at least by this stage of the story. The sickroom has people barging in or knocking loudly to be let in where they then air their problems and drama with a man laid up in bed with a serious bullet wound.
The book isn’t hot enough or interesting enough for me to continue. DNF
I wanted to try a historical MM romance as the Regency era books by author Ellie Thomas have been super enjoyable and I’ve pretty much read them all.
This is a new to me author. A bad boy duke runs a brothel open to any pairing as he, himself, is a bisexual widower.
Ambrose has long been attracted to his servant, Francis, who is a footman, but, also, a de facto surgeon, seeing to the women at the brothel and to Ambrose who gets called out to duel and gets shot.
Most of the book’s action takes place in the sickroom as Ambrose heals. He wants to let Francis know how he feels.
Francis has deep feelings for Ambrose, too, but the social constricts and master-servant relationship hold him back.
There are side characters that you can tell are going to be in future books. I chose this book of the series to read as the previous two are BDSM.
There’s a lack of depth and passion to the MCs and their relationship. It feels like a comfortable inevitable rather than a passion or lust that must be pursued. This is an okay way to go, but it is too low key.
There is no bubble for this relationship to grow, at least by this stage of the story. The sickroom has people barging in or knocking loudly to be let in where they then air their problems and drama with a man laid up in bed with a serious bullet wound.
The book isn’t hot enough or interesting enough for me to continue. DNF
December 8, 2025
Edit: Dec 2025 reread : Re rating at ⭐️3.5⭐️ still best if the first three but not quite as good as I remember so rounded down
Original review: Book three of The Hunt Club series and I must admit did enjoy this one a lot better than the previous two. I enjoyed the build up to the MC's finally getting together and felt the sexual tension and chemistry they generated a lot more. Overall as a series I would say it’s one of those that is enjoyable enough if you have a yen for something sexy and lightweight. I think one of the things that I felt could have lifted the trilogy would have been a little more focus on the Hunt Club itself as it's featured in the title and what little we are told of it sounds intriguing but its pretty much in the background. At the end of this, it actually says " more of the Hunt Club coming in 2012 " and I think I know who it would have been about but there hasn't been one written that I can see. I would have read it because the hint of what was to come sounded promising and I liked this one a lot more. Just under 4* but rounded up.
Original review: Book three of The Hunt Club series and I must admit did enjoy this one a lot better than the previous two. I enjoyed the build up to the MC's finally getting together and felt the sexual tension and chemistry they generated a lot more. Overall as a series I would say it’s one of those that is enjoyable enough if you have a yen for something sexy and lightweight. I think one of the things that I felt could have lifted the trilogy would have been a little more focus on the Hunt Club itself as it's featured in the title and what little we are told of it sounds intriguing but its pretty much in the background. At the end of this, it actually says " more of the Hunt Club coming in 2012 " and I think I know who it would have been about but there hasn't been one written that I can see. I would have read it because the hint of what was to come sounded promising and I liked this one a lot more. Just under 4* but rounded up.
January 22, 2025
Re-Read: Jan 2025
Original Read: Jan 2023
Nobody is more surprised by me that I'm giving this 4 stars. If you enjoyed A Gentleman's Position by KJ Charles, then I highly recommend this because it's very similar. Personally, I liked this even better than A Gentleman's Position because I liked the relationship dynamic between the MCs and their history much more in this one. If you read my reviews for the previous two books, then you might be even more surprised that I enjoyed this but there's good news! You don't have to read any other book in this series in order to enjoy this one. In addition, the author didn't do the annoying things that she had done in the previous installments.
As a small aside - if you're not a fan of BDSM, then this book is perfect for you (Books 1 and 2 had heavy BDSM elements). There are no BDSM interactions between Francis and Ambrose and asides from a few chapters that focus on the Hunt Club (which have nothing to do with the MCs), there are no BDSM references in the story. In addition, this book had the exact right amount of sex scenes in it. The first book definitely had too much sex but in this one, the characters only get romantically involved in the last part and there are no sexy times before that. In fact, due to for the majority of this story, a lot of the physical interactions between the MCs are them being gentle and physically affectionate with each other, which was wonderful.
This book features one of my favorite pairing dynamics: nobleman and his long-time servant. In this case, Francis is a footman. Both men are older (in their 40s) and they've known each other since they were young.
I really loved their dynamic. I liked that Ambrose truly depends on Francis to keep him level-headed but he also genuinely respects Francis and cares about him. In turn, Francis might act like he's exasperated by the Duke's ability to always get into trouble (even when it wasn't his fault), but he loves his role in Ambrose's life and being the person Ambrose relies on. This was beautifully demonstrated through small moments like how Francis would alternate between calling the Duke 'Your Grace' or 'Ambrose' or 'idiot', depending on the situation. And there were big moments, like . But this support wasn't just one-sided. Ambrose makes sure to support Francis through whatever he's doing, whether that's Francis' desire to become an unofficial physician or making sure Francis has the same access rights to places in London as Ambrose does. These two had been through so much together and I loved how comfortable they were around each other and how much they needed and enjoyed each other's company.
I also liked that all the silliness with the Hunt Club didn't matter for this story. In the previous two installments, the author had done an incredibly bad job of keeping track of her own worldbuilding and that resulted in information randomly being changed and me getting confused. In this story, the author does include a few chapters related to the Hunt Club but they aren't relevant to Ambrose and Francis' romance at all. I almost felt sorry for the author because you could tell she was desperately trying to straighten out the confusion she had created in the past books by carefully going through everything related to the Hunt Club to make things clearer. However, the Hunt Club's existence doesn't matter for this story and they can be skimmed through. In fact, the chapter where Francis shows Ambrose's son around the club can be skipped entirely. Despite Ambrose being the Hunt Club founder/owner and Francis serving as the unofficial physician to the prostitutes, 90% of the story takes place at Ambrose's home while he's recuperating. In fact, Ambrose has pretty much lost all interest in the Club and Francis never liked being part of it anyway. By the end of the story, Ambrose hands over the reins to his 20-something year old son, so the entire Hunt Club situation (and any other nonsense/mistakes the author made in the previous books) doesn't matter for this book.
I also enjoyed how the author used Ambrose's deceased wife (who had passed away 15 years ago) and his son in the story. Ambrose has always been bisexual so there's no big drama over him being attracted to Francis after having loved his wife. And it was also great that his wife had been a wonderful person who had been beloved not just by Ambrose but the entire household, including Francis. All of them still miss her but her presence doesn't impact Ambrose and Francis finally getting together. The situation was the same with Ambrose's son. Since Francis and Ambrose are the same age, Francis has always been there to help Ambrose resolve any issues regarding his son, especially after Ambrose's wife had passed away when his son was young. I loved how all of these things were handled and it added even more depth to the entire story.
Overall, I really wish the author had done a better job with the first two books in this series because it could absolutely rival KJ Charles' Society Of Gentleman series. Not only in terms of historical authenticity and interesting characters and relationships but there were a lot of similarities between the series. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the series because the pairings in the future 3 books don't really interest me. But I'm really glad I decided to read this story because it was exactly what I was hoping it would be.
Original Read: Jan 2023
Nobody is more surprised by me that I'm giving this 4 stars. If you enjoyed A Gentleman's Position by KJ Charles, then I highly recommend this because it's very similar. Personally, I liked this even better than A Gentleman's Position because I liked the relationship dynamic between the MCs and their history much more in this one. If you read my reviews for the previous two books, then you might be even more surprised that I enjoyed this but there's good news! You don't have to read any other book in this series in order to enjoy this one. In addition, the author didn't do the annoying things that she had done in the previous installments.
As a small aside - if you're not a fan of BDSM, then this book is perfect for you (Books 1 and 2 had heavy BDSM elements). There are no BDSM interactions between Francis and Ambrose and asides from a few chapters that focus on the Hunt Club (which have nothing to do with the MCs), there are no BDSM references in the story. In addition, this book had the exact right amount of sex scenes in it. The first book definitely had too much sex but in this one, the characters only get romantically involved in the last part and there are no sexy times before that. In fact, due to for the majority of this story, a lot of the physical interactions between the MCs are them being gentle and physically affectionate with each other, which was wonderful.
This book features one of my favorite pairing dynamics: nobleman and his long-time servant. In this case, Francis is a footman. Both men are older (in their 40s) and they've known each other since they were young.
I really loved their dynamic. I liked that Ambrose truly depends on Francis to keep him level-headed but he also genuinely respects Francis and cares about him. In turn, Francis might act like he's exasperated by the Duke's ability to always get into trouble (even when it wasn't his fault), but he loves his role in Ambrose's life and being the person Ambrose relies on. This was beautifully demonstrated through small moments like how Francis would alternate between calling the Duke 'Your Grace' or 'Ambrose' or 'idiot', depending on the situation. And there were big moments, like . But this support wasn't just one-sided. Ambrose makes sure to support Francis through whatever he's doing, whether that's Francis' desire to become an unofficial physician or making sure Francis has the same access rights to places in London as Ambrose does. These two had been through so much together and I loved how comfortable they were around each other and how much they needed and enjoyed each other's company.
I also liked that all the silliness with the Hunt Club didn't matter for this story. In the previous two installments, the author had done an incredibly bad job of keeping track of her own worldbuilding and that resulted in information randomly being changed and me getting confused. In this story, the author does include a few chapters related to the Hunt Club but they aren't relevant to Ambrose and Francis' romance at all. I almost felt sorry for the author because you could tell she was desperately trying to straighten out the confusion she had created in the past books by carefully going through everything related to the Hunt Club to make things clearer. However, the Hunt Club's existence doesn't matter for this story and they can be skimmed through. In fact, the chapter where Francis shows Ambrose's son around the club can be skipped entirely. Despite Ambrose being the Hunt Club founder/owner and Francis serving as the unofficial physician to the prostitutes, 90% of the story takes place at Ambrose's home while he's recuperating. In fact, Ambrose has pretty much lost all interest in the Club and Francis never liked being part of it anyway. By the end of the story, Ambrose hands over the reins to his 20-something year old son, so the entire Hunt Club situation (and any other nonsense/mistakes the author made in the previous books) doesn't matter for this book.
I also enjoyed how the author used Ambrose's deceased wife (who had passed away 15 years ago) and his son in the story. Ambrose has always been bisexual so there's no big drama over him being attracted to Francis after having loved his wife. And it was also great that his wife had been a wonderful person who had been beloved not just by Ambrose but the entire household, including Francis. All of them still miss her but her presence doesn't impact Ambrose and Francis finally getting together. The situation was the same with Ambrose's son. Since Francis and Ambrose are the same age, Francis has always been there to help Ambrose resolve any issues regarding his son, especially after Ambrose's wife had passed away when his son was young. I loved how all of these things were handled and it added even more depth to the entire story.
Overall, I really wish the author had done a better job with the first two books in this series because it could absolutely rival KJ Charles' Society Of Gentleman series. Not only in terms of historical authenticity and interesting characters and relationships but there were a lot of similarities between the series. At this point, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue the series because the pairings in the future 3 books don't really interest me. But I'm really glad I decided to read this story because it was exactly what I was hoping it would be.
September 27, 2018
Enjoyable m/m story. 4☆
August 13, 2012
Reviewed By BlackTulip for Booked Up
The Duke of Staines and Francis Redding are two characters that briefly made an appearance in the first and second book of the series. This is at last their story.
Ambrose Manning, Duke of Staines, will turn five and forty next month and he suddenly felt old, tired and bored. He was happy once and very much in love with his wife. She had been the perfect woman for him but it lasted only ten years. He was devastated when she died so unexpectedly, and that day, his heart shattered into a thousand pieces, but it was fifteen years ago.
He created a very special and exclusive Club and he threw himself wholeheartedly into it. For the last decade, it has been a great success and has filled his life, as well as some brief affairs from time to time.... but has it ever been enough to fill that void inside him? Maybe not.
Francis Redding, a farmer's son, has been first a childhood companion then he became a servant and later the Duke of Staines' footman. Then following the Duke's suggestion he trained to become a surgeon to his bawdy house.
They have a very strange and unique servant-master relationship. It is not unusual for the Duke to seek his company and discuss any important or unimportant matters he has on his mind. To Francis it is always a pleasure. He is a very reliable man and many times he was able to save Ambrose from awkward situations, which sadly has became a habit.
It is obvious that after thirty years of living side by side that they have a true friendship. But during these past ten years something else grew as time went on. Ambrose has recognized it but desperately fought it. First, because he made a rule to never dally with any servants or employees, second, because he is not so sure how these feelings would be received, not knowing if Francis is even attracted to men. But most of all because he is too afraid to lose what they share together.
Francis on the other hand felt many times that something else was in the air but he is not able to put a name on it or maybe he is simply to afraid too.
Then one night Ambrose is challenged in a stupid duel for the wrong reasons and is shot. God damn it, he was too young to die... and he would miss Redding!
It is only the beginning of their love story. Ambrose will need a very good surgeon, thank god he has one handy. Even injured and in pain he has no choice but to show what he feels because life is too short and he is not going to wait another ten years.
Once again Heather Boyd has written a very good book. It doesn't have all the tension and angst of the second one but is very similar in many ways to the first of the series. I heard that there would be another one in 2012. I cannot wait to read it. I give 4.5/5.
The Duke of Staines and Francis Redding are two characters that briefly made an appearance in the first and second book of the series. This is at last their story.
Ambrose Manning, Duke of Staines, will turn five and forty next month and he suddenly felt old, tired and bored. He was happy once and very much in love with his wife. She had been the perfect woman for him but it lasted only ten years. He was devastated when she died so unexpectedly, and that day, his heart shattered into a thousand pieces, but it was fifteen years ago.
He created a very special and exclusive Club and he threw himself wholeheartedly into it. For the last decade, it has been a great success and has filled his life, as well as some brief affairs from time to time.... but has it ever been enough to fill that void inside him? Maybe not.
Francis Redding, a farmer's son, has been first a childhood companion then he became a servant and later the Duke of Staines' footman. Then following the Duke's suggestion he trained to become a surgeon to his bawdy house.
They have a very strange and unique servant-master relationship. It is not unusual for the Duke to seek his company and discuss any important or unimportant matters he has on his mind. To Francis it is always a pleasure. He is a very reliable man and many times he was able to save Ambrose from awkward situations, which sadly has became a habit.
It is obvious that after thirty years of living side by side that they have a true friendship. But during these past ten years something else grew as time went on. Ambrose has recognized it but desperately fought it. First, because he made a rule to never dally with any servants or employees, second, because he is not so sure how these feelings would be received, not knowing if Francis is even attracted to men. But most of all because he is too afraid to lose what they share together.
Francis on the other hand felt many times that something else was in the air but he is not able to put a name on it or maybe he is simply to afraid too.
Then one night Ambrose is challenged in a stupid duel for the wrong reasons and is shot. God damn it, he was too young to die... and he would miss Redding!
It is only the beginning of their love story. Ambrose will need a very good surgeon, thank god he has one handy. Even injured and in pain he has no choice but to show what he feels because life is too short and he is not going to wait another ten years.
Once again Heather Boyd has written a very good book. It doesn't have all the tension and angst of the second one but is very similar in many ways to the first of the series. I heard that there would be another one in 2012. I cannot wait to read it. I give 4.5/5.
December 7, 2015
Super Series
Somehow I stumbled into this series (I am a keen Regency M/M buff) and despite the fact that each novella has an occasional punctuation, spelling or grammatical mistake here and there, quickly became enchanted. The plots and the MCs in each novella are similar enough in content and style as to allow me to simply post the same review for all five--but I gave four stars to some and five to others. The sex scenes in most of them are quite off the charts.
WARNING: Do not believe any reviewer who says these are stand-alones. You will miss half the fun if you don't read them in order.
ALMOST AN EQUAL: This establishes the pattern--hunky mid-30s Duke of Byworth suddenly thrown into a situation with his right hand man Henry that has them falling in lust and love while the duke's wife is cheating on him. We are introduced to several characters who will continue to pop up in future tales, but this one stands on its own as a pacesetter. I liked both characters but this one could have used a better portrait of the duke on the cover.
BARELY A MASTER: What I first thought was a despicable character in the first book, the Duke of Lewes, turns out to be quite a different and very conflicted piece of work in this one. His complete infatuation with his beloved "Archer," former favored rent boy who disappeared but whom readers will know has disguised himself in the employ of the Duke of Byworth, sets the stage for a mildly dom-sub scenario that works. The cover of this one is perfect.
HARDLY A STRANGER: This one's cover is perfect, and the entire series depends upon a the long-lived dependency and love between Ambrose, the Duke of Staines, and Francis, his footman and friend and eventually lover. Staines runs the biggest private club in London where the men of the entire series, and those who prefer women, can come to wine, dine and play. Francis is his protector and also self-taught surgeon, and the way they play off each other and keep control of the series and its MCs is remarkably astute.
JUST A DREAM: The two youngest MCs, Rafael and James, bring us a sweet love story which has all the heat but somewhat more charm than the others and in many ways is a perfect palate cleanser between the more intense third and fifth books. Realisitic cover.
NEVER A GENTLEMAN: Two complete opposites--banker Victor Knight and secret spy Earl of Beecroft Daniel Williams are temperate and social opposites, this is perhaps the most believable coupling of the quintet because the men have reached their mid-30s at personal loose ends. That the plot introduces some employment loose ends which threaten to drive them apart, this has more heart-tugging than the rest, and it not only works for this novella, but also ties up the series very nicely. Perfect depictions on the cover.
Somehow I stumbled into this series (I am a keen Regency M/M buff) and despite the fact that each novella has an occasional punctuation, spelling or grammatical mistake here and there, quickly became enchanted. The plots and the MCs in each novella are similar enough in content and style as to allow me to simply post the same review for all five--but I gave four stars to some and five to others. The sex scenes in most of them are quite off the charts.
WARNING: Do not believe any reviewer who says these are stand-alones. You will miss half the fun if you don't read them in order.
ALMOST AN EQUAL: This establishes the pattern--hunky mid-30s Duke of Byworth suddenly thrown into a situation with his right hand man Henry that has them falling in lust and love while the duke's wife is cheating on him. We are introduced to several characters who will continue to pop up in future tales, but this one stands on its own as a pacesetter. I liked both characters but this one could have used a better portrait of the duke on the cover.
BARELY A MASTER: What I first thought was a despicable character in the first book, the Duke of Lewes, turns out to be quite a different and very conflicted piece of work in this one. His complete infatuation with his beloved "Archer," former favored rent boy who disappeared but whom readers will know has disguised himself in the employ of the Duke of Byworth, sets the stage for a mildly dom-sub scenario that works. The cover of this one is perfect.
HARDLY A STRANGER: This one's cover is perfect, and the entire series depends upon a the long-lived dependency and love between Ambrose, the Duke of Staines, and Francis, his footman and friend and eventually lover. Staines runs the biggest private club in London where the men of the entire series, and those who prefer women, can come to wine, dine and play. Francis is his protector and also self-taught surgeon, and the way they play off each other and keep control of the series and its MCs is remarkably astute.
JUST A DREAM: The two youngest MCs, Rafael and James, bring us a sweet love story which has all the heat but somewhat more charm than the others and in many ways is a perfect palate cleanser between the more intense third and fifth books. Realisitic cover.
NEVER A GENTLEMAN: Two complete opposites--banker Victor Knight and secret spy Earl of Beecroft Daniel Williams are temperate and social opposites, this is perhaps the most believable coupling of the quintet because the men have reached their mid-30s at personal loose ends. That the plot introduces some employment loose ends which threaten to drive them apart, this has more heart-tugging than the rest, and it not only works for this novella, but also ties up the series very nicely. Perfect depictions on the cover.
September 8, 2012
of the 3 Hunt club stories Hardly a Stranger was the most enjoyable to read. I felt the story completed at the end, the previous 2 left me with more questions at the end. I hope to hear more about the previous Dukes in future installments.
September 30, 2018
A really sweet story
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews