Review: Captivating the Earl by Callie Hutton

Entangled Publishing, 2018

⭐⭐⭐

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Synopsis

Lady Elizabeth Munro is the daughter of a traitor. Lizzie is innocent but the authorities don’t necessarily see it that way so she runs away from London and takes a job as a governess in the country. Things are going pretty well until the cousin of her employer comes for a visit…

Lord Hawkins, aka Hawk, works for the Home Office. He’s a rake, of course, but he’s captivated by his cousin’s beautiful governess. And more than that, he suspects something isn’t quite right with Lizzie…

When someone tries to kill Lizzie all of Hawk’s suspicions are confirmed. But there’s no way he’s turning her over to the Home Office. So, defying his orders, he does the only thing he can think of to keep her safe. He makes her his countess.

My Thoughts

Callie Hutton is a new-to-me author and Captivating the Earl is my first experience with NetGalley so I’m mega excited about this review!

I enjoyed this book. I’m a mood reader and so sometimes I’m in the mood for some classically melodramatic romance fun and this one checked off all of those boxes for me. Someone literally trying to kill the heroine in dramatic fashion? Check. Rake with a tragic past who is both a member of the aristocracy AND works for the Home Office? Check. Sometimes a little ‘somewhat over-the-top’ romance reading is just what the doctor ordered and Captivating the Earl will give that to you.

I would have liked to see a bit more going on in terms of dialogue and character interactions. I like a good dose of witty banter and back-and-forth. Because that’s the spark, you know? So sometimes the dialogue fell a bit flat for me with this book. There were also a few times the hero’s over-protectiveness was kind of annoying. (She’s not a child, dude!) But Lizzie eventually calls him out for it so that mollified me somewhat. On a positive note, I thought the intimate moments in this book were pretty well-done…a little bit of heat and a whole lot of sweet.

But, again, this book is good old fashioned romance fun. It’s the fifth book in a series called Lords and Ladies in Love and it releases on November 12, 2018. I am looking forward to reading the previous books in this series.

Happy Romance Reading!