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A review by readingmissfroggy
Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh
3.0
3.5 stars
I liked the premise of the book a lot and I had high hopes for this one because of this (basically I'm looking for another favourite historical romance author besides Sarah MacLean). In the end, I did really enjoy the story but not as much as I hoped I would.
First of all, it somehow felt really episodic. Every episode would either be a time where Eleanor and Daniel went out or one where they had a battle of wits (which weren't as funny as I wanted). Their outings were fun but there weren't enough of them and at times some things took a bit too long.
I never really felt like I saw them fall in love, more like into lust actually and then suddenly they realise that their lust is actually love or something like that. I wanted to swoon but if I'm not in love with the couple that is really hard to do. What they have is supposed to be a forbidden romance but I never felt that desperation and wishing them to be together because I wasn't in love with their love. Character wise I think that they could have great chemistry though.
The big dark secret that Daniel had felt a bit like a let down, it wasn't nearly as dark as I wanted it to be. Not only wasn't it dark enough (in my opinion) but I also felt like Daniel was too easily distracted from his mission and didn't spent enough time thinking or working on it. I get that he can't think about it 24/7 but I missed some of the urgency that he apparently feels. Only the last 50 or so pages focus on this dark secret of his but before that we have 400 pages where it is mentioned every so often and some acts are shown but it is not (dark) enough. Other than that Daniel was a fine character but not a hero that I have fallen in love with.
Eleanor as a working woman was nice but I felt like her dramatic past was revealed in a way that didn't leave me with a lot of impact. She talks about it so flippantly, and that could be a surviving mechanism but I didn't feel like we ever saw her struggle with it. It was mentioned kind of in between things, giving Daniel a chance to get angry at the people that hurt her, and then nothing was done with it. If we had left it out she would still be exactly the same character. I liked the scenes where Eleanor was working on a piece or doing some editorial stuff, I think those where the moments where she really shined in the story.
The last 30 or so pages felt suddenly super dramatic and at times were written in such a way that I had to wonder who had said what which is never good in my opinion. Besides it being super dramatic it also wasn't enough page time to really flesh-out the drama so that left me kinda unsatisfied.
I will definitely pick up the next book in this series but for now Sarah MacLean is my unbeaten historical romance queen.
I liked the premise of the book a lot and I had high hopes for this one because of this (basically I'm looking for another favourite historical romance author besides Sarah MacLean). In the end, I did really enjoy the story but not as much as I hoped I would.
First of all, it somehow felt really episodic. Every episode would either be a time where Eleanor and Daniel went out or one where they had a battle of wits (which weren't as funny as I wanted). Their outings were fun but there weren't enough of them and at times some things took a bit too long.
I never really felt like I saw them fall in love, more like into lust actually and then suddenly they realise that their lust is actually love or something like that. I wanted to swoon but if I'm not in love with the couple that is really hard to do. What they have is supposed to be a forbidden romance but I never felt that desperation and wishing them to be together because I wasn't in love with their love. Character wise I think that they could have great chemistry though.
The big dark secret that Daniel had felt a bit like a let down, it wasn't nearly as dark as I wanted it to be. Not only wasn't it dark enough (in my opinion) but I also felt like Daniel was too easily distracted from his mission and didn't spent enough time thinking or working on it. I get that he can't think about it 24/7 but I missed some of the urgency that he apparently feels. Only the last 50 or so pages focus on this dark secret of his but before that we have 400 pages where it is mentioned every so often and some acts are shown but it is not (dark) enough. Other than that Daniel was a fine character but not a hero that I have fallen in love with.
Eleanor as a working woman was nice but I felt like her dramatic past was revealed in a way that didn't leave me with a lot of impact. She talks about it so flippantly, and that could be a surviving mechanism but I didn't feel like we ever saw her struggle with it. It was mentioned kind of in between things, giving Daniel a chance to get angry at the people that hurt her, and then nothing was done with it. If we had left it out she would still be exactly the same character. I liked the scenes where Eleanor was working on a piece or doing some editorial stuff, I think those where the moments where she really shined in the story.
The last 30 or so pages felt suddenly super dramatic and at times were written in such a way that I had to wonder who had said what which is never good in my opinion. Besides it being super dramatic it also wasn't enough page time to really flesh-out the drama so that left me kinda unsatisfied.
I will definitely pick up the next book in this series but for now Sarah MacLean is my unbeaten historical romance queen.