The Earl I Ruined by Scarlett Peckham

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The 2nd audio book and 5th book overall I read for the Historical Romance Readathon was The Earl I Ruined by Scarlett Peckham. This is the 2nd book in her Secrets of Charlotte Street series. This is also the July book for the Rake Appreciation Society book club hosted by Jen and Crystal! That was the main reason I wanted to squeeze this into my readathon tbr. The prompts this covered for the readathon are one person on the cover, series and indie published. I was also able to apply this to the fake dating prompt for the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo and hate the cover prompt for the Summer of Swoon. I feel like I should say, what I have about this cover is the feather boa/neck piece thing. Why? Just why with the feathers? It breaks the time-period dress and stylings to me.

Anyways, this book we focus on Constance (Archer's younger sister from book 1). She wrote a poem to her friend about a rumor she heard about the Earl of Apthorp, Julian. They have known each other for years and their respective cousins are married. However, they have both rubbed each other wrong and have a slightly antagonistic relationship that hides them both pining for each other and a lot of misunderstandings. To protect a friend, she warns her that she heard rumors of Julian's inclinations as a member of a certain whipping club. Of course her proclivities cause her to write it in poem form. Somehow this poem gets published in a local newspaper. To help save Julian's reputation, she proposes (pun intended) to have a fake engagement until the bill that was about to be passed in the house of the lords is recovered.

I loved this so much more than the first book. The mutual pining really got me and I loved the natural way that they realized how things that happened in the past came across to each other. There were many moments for them both where they learn the other's perspective. It tore my heart when we were in either's point of view and they were talking about being in love with the other for so long. For example, when Archer learns of their engagement he doesn't believe it. Constance explains how she's been attracted to him since their first meeting and when she started to fall for him. She is telling the truth, however her heart hurts because she knows that Julian thinks it's just a lie and he can't just learn the truth. While this kind of angst usually doesn't do it for me, the fact that it was mutual made it a lot easier to handle. My heart went out to them both. I did feel a connection with Constance and how much she had to hide her vulnerability and hurts. She put on a persona when dealing with everyone and when Julian starts to realize that's not her true self and starts seeing the real Constance it was so beautiful.

If I were to be stickler once again, my rating would be more of a 4.5-stars rounded up to 5. I really enjoyed this so much and even though it was more angsty than I prefer, it was so well done. There was a little more push and pull between them than I usually prefer, especially at the end, but it was really well done and made sense. I also loved how Constance had said to Julian that love is about actions and how he was able to look back and see that even though he was saying the right words his actions didn't match. 

I'll probably read the last book in the trilogy (and the novella) at some point. It's not super high on my list right now though. I'm just not sure I really want to read an hea for Henry Evesham right now. I was kind of hoping the third hero would've been someone else. I'm sure I'll read it at some point though. Now that I think about it though, there's snow on the cover which would cover a prompt for the Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo. Maybe I'll get to it this summer? I had a lot of fun last night during the live show and enjoyed the conversations about not only this book, but the first in the series and historical romances in general! It's always a fun time with Jen and Crystal!

Have you read The Earl I Ruined?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Earl I Ruined, Scarlett Peckham, 5-stars, 4 days, audiobook, 314 pages, published in 2018