Review originally posted in April of 2014 on Fiction Vixen by Angela.

Beauty and the Earl by Jess Michaels
The Pleasure Wars #3
Historical Romance
First Published- April 15, 2014 by Samhain
Rereleased- March 11, 2017 by The Passionate Pen

The House of Windbury and the House of Rothcastle have engaged in a feud for generations. No one knows how it started or why, just that each family has been taught while growing up to despise the other. Then Liam, the Earl of Windbury, befriended Matilda, sister to the Duke of Rothcastle, then they fell in love and decided to run away from it all and get married. On the night they were making their getaway, Matilda’s brother Christian raced after them and tragedy struck. Each man was severely injured in the accident, but Matilda’s injuries were fatal. Now it’s years later and Liam’s sister has fallen in love and married Christian, but Liam still can’t find his way out of the darkness. He has given up his relationship with his sister and left London. So in desperation Ava hires a courtesan to get close to him.

Violet Milford hasn’t ever taken a titled gentleman to lover, but the offer presented to her by the Duke and Duchess of Rothcastle will set her up and enable her to finally have her heart’s desire. All she has to do is get close to Liam and discover his secrets for his sister. In and out. Become his lover, breach his defenses, gain his trust and then she can leave and finally carry through with all her plans. She never thought she would fall in love.

Beauty and the Earl is the third book in The Pleasure Wars series by Jess Michaels and is Liam’s story. If you’ve read the other books in this series, then you know already that Liam is the brother of Ava from book one, Taken By the Duke . Before I get into this review let me quote myself from my review of that first book so everyone will know exactly how I felt about his character.

The surprise for me was how much I absolutely despised Ava’s brother at the end. After feeling such a significant loss and experiencing the love of Christian’s sister I would think he would understand and react less harshly to the decisions Ava makes at the end of the book. His handling and treatment of Ava once she comes home disgusted me. I know his book is probably coming up somewhere in this series and Ms. Michaels will have to do some bold writing to make me like or even have compassion for him again.

I went into this book with some trepidation, knowing that I already didn’t care for the hero of this romance and also discovering that his heroine would be a courtesan hired by his sister and brother-in-law. I don’t know, the set up kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I wasn’t sure how in the world I would connect to these characters or their romance. But I am a fan of Jess Michaels and I wanted to see how this series would end.

After finishing I still have mixed feelings. On one hand, I thought Ms. Michael’s did a good job of revealing Liam’s inner thoughts and feelings enough to make readers sympathetic with his character. I wouldn’t say he redeems himself, but I did get a better understanding of where his head and heart where at after the accident and during the events of the first book. He desperately loved Matilda and his grief over seeing her death still haunts him.

“I still remember the way she looked when she took her last breath. She smiled at me. Somehow, even in death she found light. And she told me and her brother to make amends. But I couldn’t. Her loss was too profound to inspire anything in me but hate. Hate for him, hate for myself. I wanted us both dead.”

Then there is Violet. From the very first moment she meets Liam she comes on strong and seduces him, but then, that was her job. Her backstory unravels slowly, the reasons why she became a courtesan, why she has made the choices she has with her life. As she and Liam engage in a very erotic relationship she timidly starts to reveal herself and in turn he begins to trust her with pieces of the darkest part of his life. To my surprise I did end up somewhat connecting to each character and I did believe them as a couple, even if it all started out as a deception.

I think my issues come from the fact that everything kind of wrapped up too smoothly at the end. There is a big blow up when Liam learns why Violet entered his life, I mean she is essentially spying on him the entire time they were together. This is an enormous deception, one she has been engaged in with his sister and most hated enemy. But, when they finally meet again, its sex first, then a little bit of talking and all of a sudden they are declaring themselves to each other. I just didn’t find the final path to their HEA believable.

That only leaves the feud. This is the thing that has caused the death of an innocent young woman, has resulted in the kidnapping of another and has been almost a living thing between two prestigious houses of the Ton. Imagine my surprise when all it took to end it was a sister talking to her brother and two hated enemies shaking hands.

He took Christian’s hand and they shook. In that moment, something utterly strange happened. All the hatred, all the pain, al the ugly feelings he had held seemed to melt away. He actually staggered as the left him, and he stared at Christian. The other man had a similar expression to the one he knew was on his own face. Relief and shock, mixed together.

So while I did end up enjoying these characters and their relationship, I didn’t really care for how everything wrapped up.

One bright spot was Olivia and Mal. Their secondary romance was almost more interesting than the main characters. I’ve heard talk that they might be getting their own novella, and that would make me very happy. This story didn’t entirely work for me, but I am still a big fan of Ms. Michaels and will most definitely be reading whatever she puts out next. Final Grade- C+

Favorite Quote:

“You deserve much better, much more,” he whispered. “I lose myself in you, somehow I forget… I forget all that the moment you look at me, kiss me. No one has been able to do that. No one but you. And I can only thank you like this.”