One Good Earl Deserves a Lover
It's such a treat to be this close to reading all of an author's work and still be finding new favorites. One Good Earl Deserves a Lover is definitely my favorite of MacLean's work. It has the adorably geeky and naive Phillipa, who is sure that she can conquer all her fears with knowledge. It has the incredibly repressed Cross who's so haunted by his past that he's denying himself every possible bit of pleasure. It has fun side plots and a wealth of interesting secondary characters. All that and a heist to boot. It's almost like this book was written just for me.
Actually, this book put me in mind of a historical version of The Kiss Quotient. It's never stated or even hinted that Pippa might be on the spectrum, but that also was really a concept in the 1800s. She is described as strange. She hopes for nothing more than a kind husband who will let her go her own way. She's hungry for knowledge and follows her own pursuits without ever really caring how society judges her. Until she meets Cross, Castleton really does seem like a perfect match for her. Even with everyone insisting that she'd be deathly bored in a marriage to him, she's always able to look past that to the kind, gentle man who shares enough of her interests that life won't be terrible.
But then Cross enters the picture and Pippa learns to want more. She initially seeks him out for information. She's scared about what will happen in the marriage bed and he's supposed to be both an expert on the matter and discreet. Too bad his own honor (and fear of Pippa's brother-in-law who happens to be his business partner) leads him to refuse her request. Which only makes her more determined. Pippa and Cross are both insatiably curious and widely read, which makes them far better matched than Pippa and Castleton could ever be. And theirs is a slow-burn to end all slow-burns (well, maybe not the one in Fangirl), which had me deliciously frustrated with both of them.
The secondary characters and side plots only added to my enjoyment of this book. I ended up liking Castleton far more than I expected to going in. And Cross and Pippa both had delightful sisters who managed to steal every scene they appeared in. Plus there's a delightful heist at the end. Which MacLean admitted to lifting basically wholesale from Ocean's Thirteen. But that didn't make it any less entertaining.
The next book in this series promises to be a wild ride, and I'm excited to learn more about Temple. Then we finally get to Chase whose story I really can't wait for.
Actually, this book put me in mind of a historical version of The Kiss Quotient. It's never stated or even hinted that Pippa might be on the spectrum, but that also was really a concept in the 1800s. She is described as strange. She hopes for nothing more than a kind husband who will let her go her own way. She's hungry for knowledge and follows her own pursuits without ever really caring how society judges her. Until she meets Cross, Castleton really does seem like a perfect match for her. Even with everyone insisting that she'd be deathly bored in a marriage to him, she's always able to look past that to the kind, gentle man who shares enough of her interests that life won't be terrible.
But then Cross enters the picture and Pippa learns to want more. She initially seeks him out for information. She's scared about what will happen in the marriage bed and he's supposed to be both an expert on the matter and discreet. Too bad his own honor (and fear of Pippa's brother-in-law who happens to be his business partner) leads him to refuse her request. Which only makes her more determined. Pippa and Cross are both insatiably curious and widely read, which makes them far better matched than Pippa and Castleton could ever be. And theirs is a slow-burn to end all slow-burns (well, maybe not the one in Fangirl), which had me deliciously frustrated with both of them.
The secondary characters and side plots only added to my enjoyment of this book. I ended up liking Castleton far more than I expected to going in. And Cross and Pippa both had delightful sisters who managed to steal every scene they appeared in. Plus there's a delightful heist at the end. Which MacLean admitted to lifting basically wholesale from Ocean's Thirteen. But that didn't make it any less entertaining.
The next book in this series promises to be a wild ride, and I'm excited to learn more about Temple. Then we finally get to Chase whose story I really can't wait for.
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