Hot Earl Summer by Erica Ridley

Tracy’s Rating: 2.5/3 of 5 stars

Series: The Wild Wynchesters, #5

Release Date: August 6, 2024

With the popularity (or maybe infamy) of the Wynchester family at an all-time high, the siblings have more cases than they can handle as a team. So, when they get a case to find a missing will and claim the castle from the Earl of Densmore (that may or may not have been lost to the Wynchester’s archenemy, Viscount Reddington), it is determined that Elizabeth, (the sword-wielding, pain-ridden Wynchester) will have to take this case on her own. She leaves for Castle Harbrook, intent on confronting her client’s nephew, the Earl of Densmore and demanding the deed to the castle to be given to his aunt as his mother wanted, so she can open an orphanage that they had planned for years. But instead of the earl, she finds the earl’s very handsome cousin, Stephen Lenox. After being refused entry, Elizabeth goes “Beth the Berserker” on the front door. When she finally gets in, she finds the castle filled with boobytraps and odd inventions, all thanks to Stephen, but he has no idea where the earl is and has been trying to keep Reddington from claiming the castle. With a only the late countess’s letters to provide vague clues to the will’s hiding place, Elizabeth sets out to solve this mystery and maybe even enjoy a tryst with Stephen.

Stephen Lenox, heir presumptive to his cousin the Earl of Densmore, is a reclusive inventor, who normally wouldn’t leave his estate, but felt obliged to help his cousin, one the few people to ever stick up for him. His cousin asked him to stay at the castle for a “few days” and make Reddington think that Stephen was him, but his cousin has been missing for weeks. In the time Densmore has been missing, Stephen has improved the earldom and reinforced the security of the castle. Until Elizabeth arrived, Stephen felt like a prisoner, but now leaving is the last thing on his mind, but it is clear that while Elizabeth is attracted to Stephen and would be open to an affair, it would seem that her plans for the future do not include him. But the more time he spends with her, the more he wants forever.

I thought I was going to like this book a lot more than I did. It was just too much – too wacky, too modern, too annoying, too wordy, too slow moving and too over-the-top. Additionally, I found Elizabeth hard to like, she is just too vicious and blood-thirsty to be truly likable, her aversion to children was also off-putting and she came across as very self-centered. I did find the fact that she battled chronic pain to be a fascinating plot point but sadly it seemed to get lost in the bizarreness of the story. I liked Stephen, but he too was a bit much. This entire series is just not my cuppa – it is silly, slap-stick humor, mixed with 21st century morals and ideals, thrown into a 19th century setting with no fear of consequence. I know there are a lot of readers who don’t mind that in historical romance, and those readers might well enjoy this book series, but I am not in that group.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own. *