Review: Deceiving an Earl by Sharon Cullen
Print Length: 330 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing (September 23, 2019)
From Goodreads.com: Oliver McCaron, Earl of Armbruster, is an influential, self-made man who lives life by his own rules. Though he’s never lacking for female attention, there’s only one woman he wants. And she’s the one woman who won’t have him…again.
Widow Lady Fieldhurst has spent the last seventeen years avoiding Oliver, after one glorious night together. Her parents had already planned out her life - she was never to become Oliver’s wife, despite their plans to run away. To protect their secret, she had to follow their wishes and marry the elderly earl they had chosen.
Now Ellen’s world is threatened by a blackmailer who threatens to expose everything. Now she’ll have to face the only man she’s ever loved and ask for help. Because if the truth comes to light, it could ruin more than one life...
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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5
This book was such a bitter disappointment to me, that I had trouble believing that it was done by an author that I have read, and enjoyed, in the past. The sad thing is that it had a solid concept. I love a good reunited lovers story, and even if the "big secret" was a bit obvious (and overdone in these types of novels), but Ellen just killed it for me.
I could understand and even sympathize to an extent with the seventeen-year-old girl that she had been. I may even have been able to understand her reluctant willingness to marry Needham in order to protect her secret. But the fact that she allowed her son to be abused in front of her eyes? The mother in me cannot abide by such behavior, no matter how damning the secret.
While we are on the subject of her son. I found it hard to believe that he was supposed to be only sixteen years old the way he ran the streets by himself. Even being the "hellion" he was supposed to be, where was he at and what was he doing? Surely he wasn't cavorting with men in the clubs at his age? Unfortunately, its never really clarified. Nor is the fact that the secret is so obvious that Needham catches on with just one look, and yet no one else had figured it out? Not even Oliver? And what happened to the man Oliver had originally been sent to spy on? And that man's daughter? We get just one random line partway into the book that it had been determined that the man was no threat - what did he do so they could determine this? What became of his daughter and her friendship with Oliver's sister Josie?
Unfortunately, it was these plot holes, coupled with Ellen's behavior, that kept me from enjoying this book. However, keeping in mind that I have seen from other works what this author is capable of, I would read more from this author.
This book was such a bitter disappointment to me, that I had trouble believing that it was done by an author that I have read, and enjoyed, in the past. The sad thing is that it had a solid concept. I love a good reunited lovers story, and even if the "big secret" was a bit obvious (and overdone in these types of novels), but Ellen just killed it for me.
I could understand and even sympathize to an extent with the seventeen-year-old girl that she had been. I may even have been able to understand her reluctant willingness to marry Needham in order to protect her secret. But the fact that she allowed her son to be abused in front of her eyes? The mother in me cannot abide by such behavior, no matter how damning the secret.
While we are on the subject of her son. I found it hard to believe that he was supposed to be only sixteen years old the way he ran the streets by himself. Even being the "hellion" he was supposed to be, where was he at and what was he doing? Surely he wasn't cavorting with men in the clubs at his age? Unfortunately, its never really clarified. Nor is the fact that the secret is so obvious that Needham catches on with just one look, and yet no one else had figured it out? Not even Oliver? And what happened to the man Oliver had originally been sent to spy on? And that man's daughter? We get just one random line partway into the book that it had been determined that the man was no threat - what did he do so they could determine this? What became of his daughter and her friendship with Oliver's sister Josie?
Unfortunately, it was these plot holes, coupled with Ellen's behavior, that kept me from enjoying this book. However, keeping in mind that I have seen from other works what this author is capable of, I would read more from this author.
DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
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Deceiving an Earl is available from Amazon.com
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