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The Earl Takes a Fancy is book five in Lorraine Heath’s Sins For All Seasons series, which features the six Trewlove siblings, all but one of them by-blows of members of the nobility who were handed over to baby farmer Ettie Trewlove who, instead of neglecting them (as was, sadly, the most common result of this practice), cared for them, loved them and brought them up as her own. The four preceding books have seen Mick, Gillie, Aiden and Finn fall in love and marry well, and in this book, it’s the turn of Ettie’s daughter Fancy – the only Trewlove to whom Ettie actually gave birth – to meet her match.
Fancy is the baby of the family – she’s just nineteen in this story – and as is natural, Ettie wants nothing but the best for her daughter. Even before the family’s fortunes begin to rise, she is determined Fancy will marry a fancy man, live in a fancy house and enjoy a fancy life. Now, it looks as though Ettie’s dreams for Fancy will come true; her sister Gillie, Duchess of Thornley, is soon to hold a ball to launch Fancy into society, which will surely lead to her finding the lord Ettie and her family are so keen for her to marry.
Matthew Sommersby, Earl of Rosemont lost his wife a year earlier, so to say he’s surprised to see a letter from her published in the newspaper one morning is an understatement. In the missive, she talks about Matthew’s husbandly devotion, how much they’d loved each other and how much she wants him to find love again – and Matthew is furious. He knows his late wife is mocking him from beyond the grave because their marriage was a sham; he’d been a besotted fool, tricked into marriage by a woman who wanted only his title and status and he’s determined never to be so gullible again. This letter, however, has brought scores of match-making mamas and their similarly minded daughters to his door – and he wants none of it. Less than a week after the letter first appears, Matthew closes up his London house and disappears.
Fancy is facing the prospect of her society début with some trepidation. She knows that her illegitimacy will count against her as she tries to secure a position within high society, but her family is still set on seeing her married into the aristocracy – nothing less than an earl will do. Fancy, though, would much prefer to marry a man she loves and who loves her; her sister and three of her brothers have married for love and Fancy wants what they have… but is unwilling to disappoint her mum, whom she adores. Fancy has a tender regard for stories brimming with romance , and along with most of the women in London, thought the late Countess of Rosemont’s letter was incredibly romantic, and keeps a copy of it in her pocket, believing it offers the hope that she might one day discover the same sort of passion. The jingle of the bell of her bookshop interrupts her musings, and she finds herself facing a strikingly handsome man and falling into easy conversation about books with him. Very shortly after she has closed the shop for the evening, she runs into the man again at the pub she goes to for her supper; the stranger introduces himself as Mr. Matthew Sommersby, and explains he’s new to the area, and they end up sharing a table and continuing their conversation over their meal. Matthew finds his companion’s lack of guile completely refreshing, until, that is, Fancy dislodges the copy of his late wife’s letter from her pocket and he immediately assumes Fancy is just the same as any of the other women who have besieged him seeking wealth and title. *eyeroll*
Fortunately, he does realise his mistake quickly, and apart from this, the relationship between Matthew and Fancy is very well developed, with a palpable pull of attraction between the pair from the moment they meet. Ms. Heath takes the time to show readers the couple getting to know each other, bonding over a mutual love of books and reading , and most importantly, she shows us – and Fancy – exactly who Matthew is as a person; a kind, thoughtful man who wants someone who loves him for himself and not for his money or title. I will say, however, that if you’re someone for whom deception of any kind in a romance is a dealbreaker, then this may not be the book for you.
For the first half of the book I was pulled in by the romance and the characters, both of whom are well-drawn and attractive, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t see the two huge plot-holes. 1. If Fancy’s family are so concerned for her happiness, why do none of them actually ask her what she wants? And 2. Why are the Trewloves so intent on introducing her to a society that they know will judge her for her illegitimacy and humble origins? Her brothers even point out that Gillie is the only one of them who is even vaguely accepted, and that’s because Thornley is a duke and can do whatever the hell he wants. They love Fancy so much, yet are prepared to subject her to humiliation and the potential misery of marrying a man she doesn’t love.
As the story wore on, however, it became repetitive – Fancy doesn’t want to disappoint her family so doesn’t tell them she doesn’t want what they want for her, and Matthew realises he needs to tell her the truth about who he is, but wants just a little bit more time to make sure she’s properly interested in him. Of course, he puts off telling her for too long, which leads to an eye-rolling eleventh-hour conflict that then rushes headlong into a hasty and credulity-snapping conclusion.
I’ve continued to read (and listen) to the books in this series in the hopes of a return to form by Lorraine Heath, but have so far been unable to rate any of them higher than a B (the last three have all been B-/C+ reads for me). As I read the first half, I was thinking things were looking up, and I’d be able to award The Earl Takes a Fancy a solid B grade, but in the end, the likeable characters couldn’t make up for the sagging middle, the holes in the premise and the ridiculous ending.
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 04/04/20
Publication Date: 03/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
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The weird thing about the plot is that in previous books the Trewloves are perfectly happy not being of highborn origin, they just happened to marry into it. WTH, plot.
That’s very true. I can understand wanting the best for your kid, but pushing them into sometihng you know is going to make them miserable? Made no sense.
I haven’t read the other books in this series, but this sounds to me like a case of an author having a multi-book deal and having to tell a story that didn’t necessarily need to be told- or could have been told a lot differently.
I’ve read and listened to all of them, in the hope they’d improve I suppose (plus Kate Reading is narrating this series and she’s always worth listening to). There were always six siblings, so I imagine it was always a six book series, but – and I’ve said this before – I honestly think the pressure for two or more books per year is taking its toll. LH used to be a one-book-a-year author, and I think this is her first two-books-a-year series, and it shows.
Yeah, I’ve heard quite a few stories of condensed publication schedules. I imagine producing one book a year, especially one that requires far more research like HR, is brutal enough. But two? How long is it going to be before authors are put on a quarterly or even monthly treadmill? Very few authors in any genre can keep pace with someone like Barbara Cartland. Burnout is a real thing.
It will be interesting to see the direction publishing ultimately goes. I think these reduced deadlines are yet another desperate attempt for publishing houses to try to regain their former glory and appeal to an increasingly bored and impatient population with more options than ever. Amazon sales rankings may have something to do with their rushing as well. I read some article way back about how e-books on Amazon pretty much have 30 days tops to impress, otherwise they generally fall off the charts. Don’t ask me how their quirky algorithm works, but I know when I first publish an e-book, I can get close to the Top 100 in a particular category after only a couple of sales or borrows. A few weeks later, those same number of sales or borrows is lucky to push the book above the 1,000,000 ranking. In other words, nobody is going to see it unless I keep publishing new content week after week. (One short story per week minimum seems to be pretty standard for erotica authors for this reason. I am told 2 or 3 per week are better, but most of the time, I just can’t.)
I’m a little worried about Carina Press as well. They announced recently that they are moving their blog onto Harlequin Blog. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but I’m concerned that if they get pulled into their parent company’s fold too much, they might lose all the cool genre mashing and chance taking books that made their imprint so special. Hopefully, this is only my overactive imagination at work. But when things get tough, I bet we’ll see more of the standard narratives that many of us are weary of reading- just to ensure that cheeseburger formula keeps pumping in sales.
Carina is launching a new LGBTQ line – Carina Adores – very soon, so I hope that’s a good sign.
Yes, I knew about Carina Adores, which I was so happy about. Like you, I think it’s a potentially good sign.
I hope her mom pulls off a good grovel because holy crap, it’s also OOC for everything Ettie’s been in the series too.
I honestly can’t remember if it’s actually addressed, or not in any depth, anyway.
Aw!
That’s too bad this one wasn’t up to snuff, Ms. Owens. When I started reading your review, I thought “a heroine with a bookshop? a hero who is cool with it?” Sign me up! But it sounds like there are too many plot holes/contrivances and pacing problems/repetition to keep this one together. My TBR list is already big enough, thank you. So this will be a reluctant skip.
P.S. I think the cover is gorgeous.
Yes, I thought I was going to be giving a B (at least) but it got bogged down and those particular plot holes I mentioned were glaring but never addressed. It’s a shame, becuase I really like this author – her last couple of series were excellent – but this one just isn’t working as well for me.