Review: The Earl She Left Behind (Noble Hearts #1) by Anna St. Claire

  

Print Length: 146 pages

Publisher: Sassy Romances (January 21, 2020)

From Goodreads.com: A widow with a tragic past…

Maggie Winters had everything she always wished for — betrothed to the man of her dreams, a loving home, and a new puppy. But it all changes when her parents die, and her new guardian sweeps Maggie from town and forces her to marry a stranger to pay his debts. When she suddenly finds herself a widow and free of an unhappy marriage, can she finally find the love she's dreamed of?

A hero with a hopeful future…
Lord Maxwell Wilde still loves Maggie Winters, despite his years abroad in service to the Crown. They had planned to marry until she disappeared from his life, leaving only a scribbled note in her wake. Returning home late from an assignment in the middle of a sudden storm, he finds a badly injured woman lying in the road. He saves her only to realize he has rescued the woman he had never forgotten.

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

At first I thought this was a cute, if slightly stilted book. The characters (even the villain) seemed very one dimensional and some of the ways they acted (or reacted) didn't seem to make much sense. For example, Max and Maggie had grown up together and had even been betrothed before her family died, so I found it hard to imagine why she would allow him to kiss her, while at the same time not considering the fact that he might want to be with her. In fact, she even convinces herself that after three years of being apart, he might be kissing her while courting someone else. 

However, there were some fun moments between them when you got to see glimpses of the friends that they used to be, and her little dog, Shep, was a definitely scene stealer. And while we knew who the villain was almost from the start, I enjoyed watching them as Max and Maggie (along with his mother, his friend and an investigator) worked diligently to find the poof they would need to show the extent of the villain's misdeeds. 

I didn't even mind the mentions of a ghost having been seen in the attic window of Maggie's old home (although it was a bit curious how she would have been seen with the house set back from the road). I thought at the time that it added a layer of mystery to the plot, and some comfort for Maggie as everyone assumed the ghost was that of her deceased mother. That was... until Maggie is kidnapped and when one of the kidnappers touches her inappropriately while she is bound and gagged in the carriage, the ghost somehow manages to raise up a warming brick and bash the kidnapper in the head, killing him. This really took me out of the story not only because of how absurdly implausible it was, but because there was no mention anywhere of this story having actual paranormal elements to it. Even earlier mentions of the supposed ghost could have been easily explained away unlike this. 

Those things considered, this novel will probably still appeal to those who don't mind ghosts able to meddle in the affairs of the living (even with the best of intentions), and who also enjoy books that don't contain scenes of an explicit nature. I would give this author another shot.