Review: Enticing the Earl

 Title: Enticing the Earl  (Wise Woman #2)

Author: Christie Kelley

Published: October 2013

Summary

Only His Passion. . .

With his estate near bankruptcy, Simon Blakesworth, Earl of Hartsfield already has a perilous secret to keep. Still, when he finds Mia Featherstone badly beaten, he doesn't hesitate to shelter her in his home. . .and offer marriage to protect the lovely healer from her attacker. But Mia is concealing a danger this honorable earl never imagined--and can't resist. . .

Can Save Her Love. . .

Mia's valuable discovery on Simon's land saved her patients' lives. Now the only way she can help the man she's always loved save his home is to secretly find the rest of a cache of hidden artifacts. But their passion is making it impossible for Mia to ever walk away--even from a love that may not survive the truth. . .

Rating & Review

It's been a while since I have read a historical romance. Man, they are one of my favorite genres. Here's the deal, was it an earth shattering, life changing book? No. But it was really good. I will definitely pick up another book by Kelley. 

I'm one of those people that LOVES a flawed character. The more messed up, the better. I think I just like to see how people can overcome their inner demons. I love an underdog. I think someone being at the lowest of the low will fight harder in life. They're hungry. They just want it more. The flawed character in this novel is Simon Blakesworth, the hero of the story. Was he flawed? Yes. Was it huge? No. I think that the author could have taken it a few steps further. I would have loved to see her really rake this lead hero over the coals. It was just so close to being that, it almost felt like Kelley wanted to make Simon Blakesworth more tortured but then she pulled back. Here's my thoughts on writing a flawed character and this is coming from someone who doesn't write ... so I more than likely don't have any clue as to what I'm talking about but I am a reader and I know what I like. And you get to hear that! Lucky you! 

Brace yourselves ... this explanation and description is going to be pretty rocky. Okay ... I think that creating a character is like making a wreath (hey, I'm a crafty lady and this is what came to mind) ... you add so much crap to a wreath that you look at it and think, "Dear, Lord. That is ugly as hell." and then you add more to it. Then lo and behold, it's perfect! So take the character to the point where they are repulsive and you can barely stand them ... then just one more step further is the perfectly flawed character that you get to spend 300-some pages fixing. I think that Simon Blakesworth was almost a perfect hero. Sooo close. 

Now, Mia ... our heroine ... was pretty awesome. I liked how she was a wise woman (a medicine lady, healer, nurse). I think that brought a lot of tenderness to her but on the same note, she wasn't overly caring about people. This is another time when I think that the character Mia could have withstood a little more umph ... no ... it's not a word ... but it is a sound so it must count as a word.

The story was great, lots of suspense and intrigue ... I really liked that part of the story. Some twists in there that were pretty unexpected. I enjoyed how some of the surprises just crept up on you. I'll be picking up another book by this author, definitely. 

OH ... almost forgot ... this is the second book in a series. While it's not a BIG deal, I did find it a bit of a deal when I didn't know what was going on in some sections ... it wasn't that much of the book but I did get a little confused a couple of times.