How To Train Your Earl by Amelia Grey

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

How to Train Your Earl (First Comes Love, #3)How to Train Your Earl by Amelia Grey

Tracy’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: First Comes Love, #3

Release Date: April 27, 2021

Five years after the death of her beloved husband Stewart, Brina Feld is more certain than ever that she will never remarry, but she concedes that it might be time to start living again, which is how she came to meet Zane Browning, the Earl of Blacknight. While attending a masked ball in Paris and attempting to escape the attentions of a drunk rake, Brina ducks into a room to hide and finds Zane tied to a chair. He tells her to untie him and after a bit of amusing banter, she releases him so he can go rescue his cousin, but before he goes, Zane gives Brina a kiss she will not soon forget!

Months later, Zane is back in London and taking up the reins of the earldom he never expected to inherit, when he sees his mystery woman. He quickly learns who she is and decides then and there that she is his future countess. He proceeds to place a bet that she will accept his proposal of marriage by midnight at the last ball of the season.

Brina is secretly thrilled to be reunited with Zane, but horrified that he has placed a bet – she has no desire to remarry and decides to beat him at his own game, by publicly agreeing to marry him IF he can stop drinking, gambling, swearing, and womanizing, if he can’t (and she is sure he won’t), she will accept his apology on the night of the final ball. Let the games begin!

Of the three books in the series, I liked this one the best. I have read all three books about the widows of the Salty Dove and have not been overly excited by any of them – the idea was good, but I just never really got sucked into any of the stories. The writing is fine, I do question some of the author’s “rules of proper etiquette” as some of them completely contradict anything I have ever read in other books – including Jane Austen. However, Zane was a wonderful hero and I thoroughly enjoyed his interactions with Brina and his family – he was just about perfect and a delight to read. The story has a lot going on, it touches on a lot of emotions like grief, mourning, anger, and guilt, it has cameos from the previous heroes and heroines, it has love scenes that are mostly kissing and barely warm, and a sweet ending that was perfectly done. This was the final book in the series, but it could easily be read as a standalone title with no problems.

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

Tempting A Gentleman by Rachel Ann Smith

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

Tempting a Gentleman (The Hadfields, #2)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Hadfield’s #2
Publication Date: 4/20/21
Number of Pages: 219

This was a lovely read with wonderful characters and a delightful HEA. I think you could enjoy this as a standalone, but I think it would be more enjoyable if you know at least a little of the background. So, if you’ve read the previous series and the first book in this series, you can just skip down a paragraph or two. If you haven’t, I’ll just tell you a bit of the background. Now, you should understand that my poor attempt at summarizing it is nowhere near as good or exciting as reading those books.

In England, two secret organizations work with and for the crown. The first group is made up of three families in the aristocracy. They are the Protectors Of The Royal Family (PORF’s) and they undertake missions in protection and service of the Crown in whatever form is needed — they root out traitors, etc. The other group, known as the Network, is made up of the serving classes and it is their job to protect and serve those who are protecting the Royal Family. The current series features the Hadfields as one of those aristocratic families. The first book in this series, Revealing a Rogue, features Landon Neale, Earl of Hadfield – who is the head of the aristocratic organization ** Giggles ** He’s the head PORF.

Christopher Neale, barrister, and brother to the Earl of Hadfield, is tired, tired, tired. Since his brother inherited an earldom, married, and assumed leadership of the group known as Protectors of the Royal Family, Christopher has had full responsibility for all of the work at the law offices. Now, his brother is prodding him, quite forcefully, to marry so he can assume a role in the PORF organization as well. Christopher has nothing against marriage, he just wants to marry for love – as his parents did – as his brother did. His problem is – he hasn’t found that one person who was made just for him. Well, he hadn’t until he was entering his brother’s home one day and this tiny slip of a female barreled past him down the steps. He couldn’t even see her, but every cell in his body was suddenly electrified. Oh! My! Goodness!

Emma Lennox’s mother is on the ruling council of the Network group and Emma will one day take her place. Emma has absolutely no use and definitely no trust in the aristocracy, but she’ll do all she can to serve the PORF organization. She doesn’t trust aristocrats because one took advantage of her sweet loving mother when she was just fourteen years old – and Emma is the result. Emma isn’t looking to marry although she is sure she will one day do so – today just isn’t that day. No man has ever made her feel the way she knows her mother and step-father do when they look at each other. Someday, she’ll find him. But there was that encounter on the Earl of Hadfield’s steps – every hair on her body stood on end. What could have caused that?

It was a lovely romance with Christopher focusing on Emma right away and then having to work to convince her they are meant to be together. In her world, she just can’t see that happening – she is a modiste and he is the brother of an earl – like oil and water, they don’t mix. It was fun to watch Emma’s barriers come down as she and Christopher headed toward their own HEA.

I enjoyed this book and would happily read it again. We had happy visits from characters featured in other books – and, of course, Christopher’s mother who will be featured in the next book along with Lord Weathersbee who we met in this book. Happy reading!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.