The Earl's Enticement by Collette Cameron

#3 Castle Brides Series

Pages -  358 pages

Publisher -  Soul Mate Publishing 

Pub Date -  May 27, 2014

Sold by -  Amazon Digital Services LLC

Genre -  Regency Romance

Series -  Castle Brides, Book 3

Language -  N/A

Sexual Content -  3/5

SYNOPSIS

She won't be tamed
A fiery, unconventional Scot, Adaira Ferguson wears breeches, swears, and has no more desire to marry than she does to follow society's dictates of appropriate behavior. She trusts no man with the secret she desperately protects.

He can't forget
Haunted by his past, Roark, The Earl of Clarendon, rigidly adheres to propriety, holding himself and those around him to the highest standards, no matter the cost. Betrayed once, he's guarded and leery of all women. Mistaking Roark for a known spy, Adaira imprisons him. Infuriated, he vows vengeance. Realizing her error, she's appalled and releases him, but he's not satisfied with his freedom. Roark is determined to transform Adaira from an ill-mannered hoyden to a lady of refinement.

He succeeds only to discover, he preferred the free-spirited Scottish lass who first captured his heart.

*Though this book is part of the Castle Brides series, it is a stand alone novel. 

EXCERPT

read it HERE

REVIEW

Adaira is definitely the free-spirited lass described above and in the novel. 

A fiery Scot who mistakes the Earl for someone else and cunningly leads the man into her spur-of-the-moment snare.

The Earl spends some time in this makeshift dungeon below Adaira's father's castle, and while he's determined to exact his form of revenge, he's also torn between horrific memories from his past and a growing interest in his pretty captor.

Even if she wears men's clothing and possesses zero of the propriety of a lady of her station.

Roarke is a tightly wound man of distinction who mistakenly believes himself to be right in all things, including his wanting to teach Adaira a thing or two about that esteemed propriety.

Once the error of her ways is revealed, it is Adaira's turn to suffer and try just as hard to set things right again.

She, too, is somewhat bound by past transgressions, and the two together work slowly but surely toward alleviating a lot of that burden until at last the HEA arrives.

A true romance does develop, and that is always a delight when reading an historical (or Contemporary) ROMANCE.

Roarke and Adaira were given time to know one another and grow in love before getting down to the business of sex, though they did kiss early on and several times -- which is just fine and was actually a little bit funny.

Roarke started out strong as the dashing male lead: handsome, but not overly arrogant; thoughtful, but not entirely the pushover variety.

On the other hand, I was apprehensive about Adaira's being a solid leading lady, but the author managed to get me to come around about half-way through the story.

Yes, Adaira is childish and stubborn; a bit too carefree for the times as well, but once the tables turn and she has to suffer, she begins to realize how ridiculous she'd behaved and works somewhat as hard at improving as she had at being bossy and bullheaded.

RATING

I gave this a 4-star at both Amazon and Goodreads but could not for the purpose of this blog.

The story is filled with intrigue and mayhem -- a good thing -- yet Nothing is done about the major crimes and too much is done about the lesser crime.

The Arson was as devastating to read as it must be in real life to suffer through, and it resulted in murder as well, yet aside from all of the animals being saved, nothing was really said or done to alert the authorities to investigate further, or have the culprit(s) hunted down and tried for the crimes.

The culprit and his two accomplices (who commit another crime) run to the authorities without a care, attempting to frame Adaira for something overheard as gossip, and that issue takes precedent over the arson, murder, and attempted kidnap-at-gunpoint that occurred a few nights prior.

Again, the intrigue was there and was compelling, just not satisfactorily followed through.

Also, distracting spelling and punctuation errors, and a gap after every italicized phrase that made me think it was a scene or lead change when it wasn't.

The Epilogue dates June of the following year while an autumn scene is described.

For the most part, the dialogue remained true to the Regency period yet there was some modern phrasing that contradicted.

And a few instances where less would have been more.

RECOMMENDED

Still ~

The plot is a good one and easy to get sucked into, and both leads were like-able and well formed in my mind.

Miss Cameron is a popular Historical Romance author with quite a few novels and awards, so she is someone worth getting to know and wanting to read.

I read Book 1 (The Viscount's Vow) a few years ago and really liked it.

Will definitely read Book 2 (Highlander's Hope) to find out more about Ewan McTavish, the Viscount Sethwick.