Brave New Earl

July 9, 2018
Ashford (The Duke Knows Best) exhibits her skill with creating complex, intriguing characterization that feels comfortably in its period while incorporating modern concepts in an endearing, optimistic story of second chances, grounded in psychological themes of grief and parental neglect. Benjamin Romilly, Earl of Furness, has spent five years too mired in his sadness over the childbed death of his wife, Alice, to pay attention to his household and son. Young Geoffrey is precocious but wild. Alice’s distant cousin Jean Saunders, alerted to the situation by Benjamin’s well-meaning uncle, arrives with the expectation of bringing Geoffrey to live with his grandparents, but ends up remaining in Benjamin’s household. He begins to imagine what a life with new love for him and a mother for his son might look like, while Jean begins to let go of her resistance to the idea of marrying and having a family. Readers who crave deep romantic passion may find this bland, but those satisfied by cute kid and kitten antics, witty prose, and a message of redemption from difficult life histories will find plenty to love here. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary.

August 1, 2018
Why can't everyone just leave him alone? All widower Benjamin Romilly, Earl of Furness, wants to do is to mourn the loss of his wife, Alice, in solitude. Yet everyone he knows seems intent on dragging him out of his grief and back into the world. Just when Benjamin thinks he has successfully sidestepped an invitation from his uncle to join his grief support group, who should show up at Benjamin's home in Somerset but Alice's cousin Jean Saunders. Not only does this impertinent miss have the audacity to inform Benjamin that she believes his wallowing in grief has made him an unfit father for his young son, Geoffrey, but she also informs him that if he doesn't shape up fast, Jean will be taking Geoffrey away to be raised by his grandparents. Now with that gauntlet thrown down, Benjamin must prove that Jean is completely wrong. Ashford begins the Way to a Lord's Heart series by, once again, expertly bending the conventions of Regency historicals to gift readers with a refreshingly different, sweetly romantic love story they will long remember.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)