Ebook An Unwilling Earl Mayfair Men of Mystery Book 1 edition by Sharon Cullen Romance eBooks

Product details File Size 1354 KB Print Length 245 pages Publisher Entangled Amara (March 25, 2019) Publication Date March 25, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07P7BYQSN

An Unwilling Earl Mayfair Men of Mystery Book 1 edition by Sharon Cullen Romance eBooks Reviews

• If you like a mystery this would be a book to read.. Jacob rescued Charlotte from the rookery of London but he really rescued her from her aunt Martha. This is a story that should be read.
• Solicitor Jacob Baker has just unexpectedly inherited an earldom. Now he must abandon the career he enjoys and figure out how to be the Earl of Ashland. When Lady Martha Morris demands his help in finding her missing niece, Jacob follows his instincts and refuses the haughty woman, but he's still curious about the whereabouts of Miss Charlotte Morris, especially with the recent string of gruesome murders of young women around the city. Jacob is, of course, not interested in the lovely young woman beyond curiosity and concern for her well-being.
  
  Charlotte Morris, niece of a baron and his pompous and hateful wife, has been orphaned and forced to live with her man-hating Aunt Martha and her son Edmund, Baron Morris. Fearing for her safety and suspicious of her cousin's behavior, especially in conjunction with the recent murders, Charlotte runs away and finds herself struggling to survive in London's rookeries. On the advice of her friend, a member of the nobility, Charlotte seeks out Jacob, thinking he may be able to help her.
  
  The blurb is rather misleading because it takes some time for Jacob to convince Charlotte to allow him to help. She is extremely distrustful, but for reasons he doesn't quite understand Jacob is determined to help her and convinces her to come live with him. She eventually confides in him her fears about her family and he convinces her to stay and marry him for protection, rather than running away to America. They aren't actually married until the book in more than halfway over and yet Charlotte fancies herself in love with Jacob before that, though she just uses this as a reason to refuse to marry him initially and never actually states her feelings. She continues to be overly dramatic as Jacob is the one who wants to make theirs a true marriage and work past his grief and loneliness.
  
  His new status demands that Jacob marry, although he has no desire to as he is still grieving the death of his first wife and has no wish relive that heartbreak again and Charlotte longs for the type of love her parents had, the two both stand to gain from marriage and eventually agree to it. Of course this isn't really enough to keep either of them safe and they have to work a bit for a happy ending.
  
  The writing of this book seemed a bit stilted to me somehow and it took some getting used to. I'm not sure what it was precisely, but this book had me scoffing at it a bit from the get go. I found myself racing to the end a bit rather than trying to savor the story. I think what threw me off is perhaps that there is just so much going on here with several arcs to the story and some feel rushed while others are too drawn out. I didn't really start enjoying this one until the last four chapters.
  
  There was something off and unbelievable to me about Charlotte's character almost from the get go. She's changed so much and become this street-hardened person in about three weeks since running from her aunt. She also doesn't know what a solicitor does even though she grew up in a family that, while untitled, had noble connections (her mother was the disowned daughter of a marquess), so she should've had some education. Plus she for some reason questions whether or not she can trust someone who has apparently been her friend since childhood.
  
  Rant starting about here, be warned The inconsistencies just didn't work for me and Charlotte just came off as overly dramatic much of the time. Her desperation for help followed by her refusal to accept it was irritating and Jacob's immediate desire to find and help her was only slightly more believable. Charlotte is full of annoyingly cryptic statements that rouse Jacob's curiosity and he continues to be inexplicably drawn to her. Really Charlotte's overall treatment of Jacob was just rather high-handed and unfair and she refuses to ever really give him the benefit of the doubt but expects him to blindly trust her.
  
  Even after they marry, Charlotte maintains that it's temporary because he doesn't really love her (he's only known her for a week!) and she'll leave Jacob to go to America once the culprit behind the gruesome murders is caught. She was just stubborn, selfish and illogical for much of the time and I got very fed up with her repetitive inner monologues about how much she owes Jacob, but how she can't trust him or stay with him and how she can never forgive her uncle for his father's disowning of her mother. Then she is so intent on the vague plan she has of going to America and making her own future that she doesn't open her eyes to truly examine her options and really think about what's best for her; she's just blind and narrow-minded.
  
  All complaints and rants aside, having earned a Criminal Justice degree myself, I really did appreciate the discussion of some very early theories of criminality and the first attempts at criminological study and analysis. During this time criminality was seen as an inherited trait with distinctive and recognizable physical attributes. This novel is approaching a time in history in which the scientific study of crime was just beginning to emerge, most notably with Italian doctor Cesare Lombroso in the latter half of the 19th century.
  
  This little tidbit made my inner nerd very happy, but it didn't come to later on in the book and it wasn't quite enough to make me set aside my dislike of the wishy-washy heroine.
  
  I received an ARC via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
• There’s a few intriguingly different plotlines happening in this story which mesh together to create an overall very interesting story. A serial killer in Victorian London is killing young servant women and dumping headless, handless bodies into the Thames. In a seemingly unrelated matter, a solicitor inherits an earldom and is almost simultaneously approached by a lady looking for her missing niece.
  
  While Jacob has no intention of taking the case on, by chance he runs into Charlotte, the missing girl, disguised as a boy and hiding in one of London’s worst rookeries. Unable to imagine what could drive any gently bred young woman to prefer living in such a place to staying with her family, he offers his aid and slowly Charlotte comes to trust him, though at first she only asks for his assistance in leaving for America where she hopes to find work and make a new life.
  
  Jacob is a charming beta hero; a widower who loved his first wife, he slowly transitions to being concerned about Charlotte’s well-being to admiring her resilience and determination, to loving her. He never tries to force her into anything or tell her he knows what’s best for her, though, which is such a refreshing change to most romance heroes. And while Charlotte surviving in the rookery might seem unbelievable, when the reader finally understands she was literally in fear of her life, and with excellent reason, it becomes more understandable. Terror is a great motivator, and it’s not as though she was thriving - she was terrified and slowly starving when Jacob offered his aid, and she was still wary enough to flee at first.
  
  Charlotte is pretty sure she knows who the killer is, and even why he’s doing it, and it’s gratifying that Jacob takes her seriously right from the beginning. Luckily, through his occupation he has connections at Scotland Yard, but it was frustrating that the investigator on the case basically dismissed Charlotte’s information because the culprit was rich and titled and they’d pre-determined that ‘rich people don’t do things like this’. It’s sadly still true even today that victims, particularly women, aren’t believed just because the accused are rich and/or famous. Times really haven’t changed all THAT much.
  
  Though there are a few familiar tropes here, there are also some really original ideas which change things up, and it’s a very believable romance between the two main leads. The historical setting is well done and there’s nothing anachronistic which caught my eye, which means the author’s done some thorough research. This is a proper historical romantic suspense and a really good one in that uncommon sub-genre. I’m giving it 5 stars.
  
  Disclaimer I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.