One Good Earl Deserves a Lover

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean L

Lady Pippa Marbury is newly engaged to Lord Castleton, a kind if uninspiring man, but her scientific and logical mind compels her to research more about what her marriage will entail. She decides to ask Cross, one of the infamous owners of the fabulous gambling club, The Fallen Angel, for help since she believes he too is of a scientific bent. Cross is flabbergasted that a lady would enter his club, risking ruination and while he finds himself drawn to the beautiful bespectacled young woman, secrets in his own past forbid him from risking her future happiness and he turns away. Cross has problems of his own as the owner of a rival gambling establishment, Knight, holds his brother-in-law's debt and is threatening Cross's sister if Cross does not agree to marry Knight's daughter. Pippa is not about to give up her search for answers as she is determined to make the most of her marriage even though no one thinks it is a good match. She goes back to The Fallen Angel to enlist the help of a lady of the evening and Cross is furious that she is once again putting her reputation at risk, and not just because her brother-in-law is his friend and fellow co-owner of the Fallen Angel. He agrees to help her but vows to himself that he will not allow her to be tainted by her association with him.

Cross finds himself attracted to the seriousness of Pippa and her logical mind and the more time he spends with her, the more he finds that his resolution to leave her alone is destined to fail. He cannot stand the idea that Pippa will marry another but continues to believe that he will never be good enough for her and that she deserves a happy life which he cannot provide for her. Pippa too is beginning to wonder if she can go through with her marriage now that she has tasted what a true relationship between equal minds can be like. But she is furious to discover that cross is actually the Earl of Harlowe and that their stations would mean that they could get married if he would get over his feelings of inadequacy. When she learns about the threats against his sister she is determined to help him and prove to him that she is a  match for him. He realizes that he has misjudged himself and this beautiful woman and that their pasts do not matter when it is a matter of true love.

This book is second in a series and although I had read the previous book, it had been awhile, and I found myself taking awhile to remember what had happened and I would not recommend reading this book without reading the first. Having characters from former books make frequent, often overwhelming, appearances is something I tend to dislike in romances and this book fell into this category quickly and often, which I really did not appreciate. Pippa's logical mind came up several times in this book and I just could not buy it as it was not logical for her to go into a gambling hall and I could not understand how she knew Cross was likewise as logical. Cross's background and brooding melancholy on his past was just utterly ridiculous; I understood how it would cause him distress, but it was just completely overblown and made him into a very unlikable fellow. Because of their situation they really could not spend all that much time together outside of the gambling club and I did not see how a relationship between a scientific bluestocking and a dissolute gambling hall owner would work in the real world.

The sexual tension between Pippa and Cross burned up the pages and I knew that when these two finally got together it was going to be an explosion. Unfortunately the sexual tension was dragged out for the entire book because of Cross brooding about how he wasn't good enough for her and believing he had to make up for his past. I could not believe how flowery and drawn out their sexual relationship was and how disappointing it ended up being. I enjoyed reading about the plot with Knight and wondering how Cross and Pippa were going to get out of it, but it seemed to blow over a little too quickly and it had a lot of scenes where a character would get an idea and then we'd cut to another scene so we were left in the dark about what would happen. The writing was very wordy and the book seemed to drag quite a bit, perhaps because of the melancholy overtone to the entire novel and I would have liked a more fun reading style.

Rating: I could not get into the relationship and the great sexual tension ended with a small poof while the writing dragged.

A Rogue by Any Other Name

A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean

Matthew, the Marquess of Bourne swore revenge against his former guardian, Lord Langford, when Langford bested him in a card game and took everything that was not entailed. Lady Penelope Marbury, Matthew, and Tom, Lord Langford's son, were childhood playmates and Tom and and Penelope both felt betrayed when Matthew dropped out of their lives after the death of his parents and once he was disgraced Penelope knew she would have to forget about Matthew. But when Langford loses Matthew's estate in a card game to Penelope's father, who subsequently attaches it to her dowry, Matthew makes a quick reappearance in her life, determined to gain back what belongs to him. He kidnaps Penelope in the dark of night and keeps her in his country house overnight until she is thoroughly ruined and her father has no choice but to agree to a marriage. He agrees to ensure no scandal attaches itself to Penelope's sisters because of their marriage in exchange for proof that Tom is illegitimate because he knows it would ruin Langford.

Penelope remembers the boy she used to be friends with and cannot understand how he has changed so much and why he is suddenly so willing to throw away the second chance he has been given and goes along with the marriage. Penelope and Matthew make a deal that he will not seduce her right away, and instead he will court her. She hopes that his scandalous behavior will rub off on her but she quickly realizes that Matthew is content to let her stay at home while he goes about his life exactly as he wants now that he has the estate he has longed for for so long. She takes matters into her own hands and follows him to the gambling establishment and he is horrified and yet intrigued by the wife who is nothing like he expected. She is bold and adventurous and he quite likes this side to her. However, he remains unwilling to give up his desire for revenge and this puts quite a strain on his relationship with Penelope, who believes his thirst for vengeance is poisoning him. They both must decide how much the past affects their future and how they can make a life for themselves.

This was the story of two people who had been in love with each other years ago but their age had prevented them from realizing it and they had to find each other again and get to know each other before they realized they had been there the whole time. Unfortunately that wasn't really fleshed out in the book and I didn't get a sense of true longing from afar that was just now coming to fruition and I also did not think that either Penelope or Matthew got to know the present person enough to realize they were in love. The two spent very little time together and for a majority of the book Matthew was downright rude, if not mean, to Penelope. I understood that he was supposed to be this big tortured hero who had dark motives because of his past but I wanted a lot more softness to him and perhaps a bigger transformation by the end of the book if I wanted to believe that he truly had changed and was a happy enough person to settle into a loving future.

Penelope was naive and kind of a wet blanket, unknowingly pining for a man she hadn't seen or spoken to in years and subconsciously sabotaging all of her potential relationships. Maybe if she had realized she loved Matthew it would have been better, but it made her came across as rather unintelligent. I also could not understand how she came to love Matthew after the way he treated her. There relationship just didn't inspire me and I wanted more happiness from them and more cheerfulness because they just seemed to be always worried about his desire to destroy his former friend. There was some pretty hot sex between them and I felt like that was one of the stronger elements of their romance. The plot to destroy his enemies was obviously well integrated into the story as it was really a central theme and served to bring them together. However, I was not a fan of it aside from how it brought them together and felt like it started to become an excuse to create a problem between them in order to keep the novel going.

Rating: This book was a fast read, but it wasn't precisely fun, and I felt like the relationship was rather gloomy even if it did improve as the book went on.