The Last Earl by Lara Blunte #review

Pages -  256 

Genre -  Historical Romance

Published -  Nov 15, 2015

Sold by -  Amazon 

Sexual Content -  4/5

Language -  Irrelevant

What is the price of true love?
An heiress who knows her own mind. A mysterious nobleman who is the last of his name. A passion that will not conform to the rules of a restrictive society...
Willful, rich and clever, Lady Catherine Lytton believes she is in full control of her destiny after she inherits a large fortune.
However, the return of Lord Adrian Stowe to England will turn her world on its head.
He is the last Earl of Halford, and has been missing for years after the gruesome murder of his family; he is also different than any man she has ever met. She does not expect to feel such a strong attraction to him, or to finally lose head and heart to a man with grim secrets.
When he leaves for Constantinople on a mysterious quest she must follow, embarking on a journey of growth and change that will lead her to understand the meaning of true love.
If you enjoy tales of true love conquering all obstacles, mystery and suspense in exotic settings and strong, larger than life characters, you'll enjoy the passionate story of Catherine and Adrian.
Newly edited.
Some sex scenes, not graphic

Out of 161 reviews (as of today's date) only 14 are critical, which says a lot about this novel.

I agreed and disagreed with most of those negative remarks.

Yes, this is written (kind of) like a disinterested 3rd Person Omniscient, mostly on the telling side, but it wasn't done horribly or in a way that kept me from being interested in the plot.

That being said, the type-o's cropping up the further along I read, more than the telling, tended to shift my attention away from story and into Editor mode.

Lady Catherine was, by most accounts, a Scarlett O'Hara knock-off with major personality flaws on the irrational and irritating sides.

Beautiful, wealthy beyond believe (for the daughter of a Viscount), willful, self-absorbed, and forever yearning, searching, biding her time being indifferent to her many suitors, until the spectacular came along.

And when that does occur in the form of a long-lost Earl whose Earldom is adjacent to her father's land, Catherine forgets everything, and I do mean everything, including her mother (whom she tended to degrade and dismiss a majority of the time) and became completely wrapped up in Adrian.

Totally.

But, I wouldn't go so far as to refer to her as being idiotic or modern, and that is part of the reason why I enjoyed The Last Earl.

I felt that both leads were well developed, easily viewed in my head, and both with understandable if not irritating personality flaws.

I could understand Catherine's one-track mindset as well as I could understand Adrian's inability to let go of the past.

Sure, Catherine became a bit obsessive and annoying as she continued to ignore the Earl's wishes to be left alone and not allow her to get involved in his complicated, dangerous life, but her personality would dictate that she go against him because of his inability to let her in.

But, if you give yourself a chance to read the words clean through to the end, you'll discover that the author is perfectly aware of the facts that Catherine's predisposition is in need of a major overhaul in the same way our Angst-Ridden Earl is in need of enlightenment.

And, both situations change as the story unfolds.

There is a fair amount of mystery involved with the Earl's sordid past, and it takes awhile for us (the readers) to become privy to the details, but that wasn't much of an irritation, either.

Once the details are given and the plot really unfolds, it became more difficult to want to put the book down and go to sleep.

The sexual encounters become numerous, but I tend to skim over the gory details, and in this novel, the details are pages long, so be forewarned if you are like me and don't care to read them.

And, their first encounter is a lap dance (my own words) which had me scratching my head for a few obvious reasons: first, her being a virgin, and second, Adrian's character flaw at allowing it to be that way for their first time.

The author injected excuses as a way to 'appease' the finicky reader crowd, and that is about the worst of my complaints with this novel.

I will always maintain that the author has no moral or ethical obligations to their readers, although the rest of the world will disagree -- I don't care.

One negative reviewer said she doesn't understand why 'every' Romance Novel has to be about falling into bed.

Scratching my head at that.

Why is she reading Romance Novels if she doesn't want the natural to occur at any point in the story?

Is the author supposed to add yet, another disclaimer?

Caution PC Readers Who Expect Everything Handed to Them on a Silver Platter! This ROMANCE Novel Contains Sex Scenes, Graphic or Otherwise, and Might Not be Suitable to Those Who Live Life in Perpetual Butt-Hurt Mode.

Come ON.

The Author doesn't owe Anyone anything since it is her story and she has every right to tell it as she sees fit.

If you're not ultra-PC and not overly demanding about content, this is probably going to be as enjoyable a read for you as it was for me.

Despite those aforementioned type-o's, this was a decently written Romantic Suspense set in Historical times, and the plot evolved around two people who needed personality and life changes, so they're both tossed into a maelstrom of danger, intrigue, and the sordid machinations of a twisted nemesis.

Just a shame about the type-o's is all but a really good story and why I chose a 4-star review when it really should have been 3.5