An Earl to Enchant by Amelia Grey (Rogue Dynasty #3)
Historical Romance
April 6, 2010
Paperback, 352 Pages
Sourcebooks Casablanca
Reviewed by Tori
 
When Lady Arianna Sweet arrives unannounced at Lord Morgandale’s country estate he mistakes her for a courtisan he hired for the weekend. Arianna soon disabuses Morgandale of that notion and informs him she is in need of his grandmother, Lady Elder. Morgandale informs her that his grandmother has since passed away, but invites her to stay at his estate for awhile to recover from her trip, In fact demands it and sends away her carriage and driver so she can’t leave.

Arianna Sweet has recently returned to England after spending most of her life in India with her father. Her father has been murdered and a potentially life altering formula he was working on stolen. Arianna knows who murdered her father and stole the secret…now she races to find the villain and retrieve the secret.

The attraction between Morgandale and Arianna is instantaneous. But Morgandale doesn’t want to be attracted to Arianna and does his best to fight it. However, Arianna is innocent to the ways of love but wants to see where this attraction between them will led. And being ignorant of the social decorum in England, she does some shocking things that leave Morgandale dazed and confused. She leaves for London after resting at his estate and Morgandale soon follows as he is now in love with her but will not admit it; even to himself.

I really wish I could say I liked An Earl to Enchant. It has all the qualities of a good historical romance, but I feel that Ms. Grey followed a template when writing this book.  Having read neither of her other two, I’m not sure if this is her style of writing or it’s just this book.

I really didn’t feel a connection between the hero and heroine. There was an awkwardness to their story like two pieces of a puzzle that don’t quite fit. The book is 352 pages long and 275 of those pages dealt with them on his country estate. A long and frankly boring tributary to their blossoming love. The time span was one week but it felt like one year.

Once they do consummate their love it was quick and fast. About one page. Even Morgandale apologizes for being so quick off the mark. I had to keep flipping back through the book because scenes would suddenly appear, written as though I should know what was going on. Insignificant tidbits and conversations would pop up randomly leaving me feeling confused. And eventually irritated.

Ms Grey has a habit of building up a scene, giving the impression of being important. Then disappoints by resolving in a single sentence or two. The two most interesting aspects of the book are Morgandale’s letters from his grandmother who quotes a man who had a saying for everything and Morgandale’s father Gibby. Unfortunately you don’t get to see much of them.

The “intriguing” plot was elaborated on and resolved in about two to three pages. The scenes that made up the suspense portion of the plot didn’t make sense. For example,  the villain sees Arianna’s maid in London but leaves London to go to Morgandale’s estate to find out where Arianna is. Huh?

Once Morgandale finds out the big secret he tells her he will fix it all. But she figures it out RIGHT after he leaves, goes to the villain’s home, solves the crime, and all is well. Morgandale doesn’t even get to be the hero. But Ms Grey allows him to figure out the formula’s secret so he doesn’t look like a completely inept.


Rating: 2/5

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Thanks Tori!