Bonnie's Reviews > Nice Earls Do
Nice Earls Do (Goode's Guide to Misconduct, #0.5)
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I received a copy of this from Netgalley and this is my freely given opinion.
This is a prequel novella to a new series by Susanna Craig.
This is a very short novella and does what it is suppose to do, by whetting the appetite for the new series. I was left feeling a bit dissatisfied by the story and wanting more.
Kit Killigrew, Lord Bennet, inherited his earldom from a distant cousin 4 years prior. This was rather unexpected for a man who grew up the son of a land steward and working as a lawyer. He is a bachelor in his 40s, and it sounds like he is having some mid-life difficulties, having lost his chance at love, and now dealing with the death of his younger brother. He is having some difficulty coping with that as he was estranged from him, and had regrets about that, when he finds out that not only is his brother dead, but he was married, and his wife died not long afterwards, leaving Kit the guardian of two young children, who were on their way to England, to his estate.
Kit is overwhelmed and relies on his housekeeper to help him get his nursery and home ready to receive the children. The housekeeper seeks inspiration in a popular book written by a domestic genius, Mrs. Goode.
Mrs. Goode is actually the alias of Oliver, Lord Manwaring, a young viscount. When his publisher contacts him about helping the Earl with setting up the nursery, he conspires with his widowed stepmother, Tabetha, to act as Mrs. Goode, and he can be her secretary, so they can revamp the space, while keeping his identity a secret.
It is only when they arrive that Tabetha finds out that Lord Bennet is Kit, her childhood friend and son of her father's land steward, and Kit finds out that Mrs. Goode is apparently his lost childhood love, because her family wanted her to wed a title. She ended up in an abusive marriage to a viscount, who was apparently just as abusive to his child, Oliver. As such, she and Oliver formed a lasting bond. However, now that she is widowed, a relationship with Tabitha is within Kit's reach.
This is a sweet second chance love story that has to carry a lot of weight because it is also a convoluted way to start a series about how a scandalous revolutionary female oriented magazine is birthed. I liked the base story and both Tabetha and Kit, but there was a lot of leaps of acceptance because there were gaps in the story because of it's brevity. But it does the job and serves to whet the appetite for what could be in the future... a bit of a stretch, but I am willing to see where it will go.
I do hope there will be some continuity though, because I like the characters and would like to see a bit more to their stories in the future, including more about Oliver and some happiness in his future.
3 stars out of 5
This is a prequel novella to a new series by Susanna Craig.
This is a very short novella and does what it is suppose to do, by whetting the appetite for the new series. I was left feeling a bit dissatisfied by the story and wanting more.
Kit Killigrew, Lord Bennet, inherited his earldom from a distant cousin 4 years prior. This was rather unexpected for a man who grew up the son of a land steward and working as a lawyer. He is a bachelor in his 40s, and it sounds like he is having some mid-life difficulties, having lost his chance at love, and now dealing with the death of his younger brother. He is having some difficulty coping with that as he was estranged from him, and had regrets about that, when he finds out that not only is his brother dead, but he was married, and his wife died not long afterwards, leaving Kit the guardian of two young children, who were on their way to England, to his estate.
Kit is overwhelmed and relies on his housekeeper to help him get his nursery and home ready to receive the children. The housekeeper seeks inspiration in a popular book written by a domestic genius, Mrs. Goode.
Mrs. Goode is actually the alias of Oliver, Lord Manwaring, a young viscount. When his publisher contacts him about helping the Earl with setting up the nursery, he conspires with his widowed stepmother, Tabetha, to act as Mrs. Goode, and he can be her secretary, so they can revamp the space, while keeping his identity a secret.
It is only when they arrive that Tabetha finds out that Lord Bennet is Kit, her childhood friend and son of her father's land steward, and Kit finds out that Mrs. Goode is apparently his lost childhood love, because her family wanted her to wed a title. She ended up in an abusive marriage to a viscount, who was apparently just as abusive to his child, Oliver. As such, she and Oliver formed a lasting bond. However, now that she is widowed, a relationship with Tabitha is within Kit's reach.
This is a sweet second chance love story that has to carry a lot of weight because it is also a convoluted way to start a series about how a scandalous revolutionary female oriented magazine is birthed. I liked the base story and both Tabetha and Kit, but there was a lot of leaps of acceptance because there were gaps in the story because of it's brevity. But it does the job and serves to whet the appetite for what could be in the future... a bit of a stretch, but I am willing to see where it will go.
I do hope there will be some continuity though, because I like the characters and would like to see a bit more to their stories in the future, including more about Oliver and some happiness in his future.
3 stars out of 5
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