Earls Trip

This Regency-era RomCom has a cute premise about three earls who are eager to go on their annual trip. Just three rich young men hanging out, doing their favourite things with no distractions.

But that's not how life works, is it?

Instead, the earls are asked to put their testosterone-fueled weekend on hold and come to the aid of two sisters, damsels in distress, if you will. I expected to love this book, but truth be told, while it had an interesting cast and premise, it has a painfully slow start. Too much time is spent dithering in monotonous, repetitious dialogue and rehashing of the characters' issues with each other, marriage and whether tis nobler to not eat beasties, instead of developing some semblance of a plot.

The story doesn't get going until the halfway mark and the chapters are a whopping 20+ pages long. Too long for a RomCom. The story has a Bridgerton-esque vibe but the spice factor doesn't rear its saucy head until around the 75% mark. 

If it weren't for being stubborn and the fact that I met the author at a recent event, I probably would have DNF'd it. I simply needed more time with the earls. They were a great trio of guys who support and have such a great friendship. 

This was a miss for me but I'm in the minority. I really enjoyed Holiday's Duke, Actually (the second book in her Christmas in Eldovia series) so I plan to pick up the other books in that series. 

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Author: Jennifer Holiday

Genre: Historical Romance

Type and Source: trade paperback, personal copy

Publisher: Kensington Books

First Published: April 23, 2024

Read: Sept 11 - 17, 2024

Book Description from GoodReads: The first in a sparkling Regency-era series with a delightfully modern feel, set against the irresistible backdrop of an annual trip taken by three handsome earls . . .

Even an earl needs his ride-or-dies, and Archibald Fielding-Burton, the Earl of Harcourt, counts himself lucky to have two. Archie (the jock), Simon (the nerd), and Effie (the goth) have been BFFs since their school days, and their annual trip holds a sacred spot in their calendars. This year, Archie is especially eager to get away—until an urgent letter arrives from an old family friend, begging him to help prevent a ruinous scandal. Archie’s childhood pal Olive Morgan must be rescued from an ill-fated elopement—and her sister Clementine must be rescued from rescuing Olive. Suddenly the trip has become earls-plus-girls.

This . . . complicates matters. The fully grown Clementine, while as frank and refreshing as Archie remembers, is also different to the wild, windswept girl he knew. This Clem is complex and surprising—and adamantly opposed to marriage. Which, for reasons Archie dare not examine too closely, he finds increasingly vexing.

Then Clem makes him an indecent and quite delightful proposal, asking him to show her the pleasures of the marriage bed before she settles into spinsterhood. And what kind of gentleman would he be to refuse a lady?