Brave New Earl - Jane Ashford

Written by Jane Ashford
Read by Rosalyn Landor
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

The Way to a Lord’s Heart Series, Book 1
Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: July 31, 2018
Duration: 09:36:20

First in a new Regency romance series featuring noble gentlemen and the ladies who help them love again.

Widower Benjamin Romilly, Earl of Furness, lives a melancholy life.

The loss of his wife in childbirth four years before has robbed him of all happiness. He can barely look at his son, who resembles his mother so strongly and is a constant reminder of her loss.

But Jean Saunders, a relative of Benjamin’s late wife, erupts into the grief-stricken household to restore order and take Benjamin’s son away. From all Jean has heard, she assumes he won’t care—but she doesn’t know how wrong she is.

As they come together to raise Geoffrey right, their budding attraction is undeniable. And when a nosey neighbor gets in their way, Jean has to face her darkest fears before all is made right.

Publishers Weekly…July 9, 2018
Ashford exhibits her skill with creating complex, intriguing characterization that feels comfortably in its period while incorporating modern concepts in an endearing, optimistic story of second chances, grounded in psychological themes of grief and parental neglect. Benjamin Romilly, Earl of Furness, has spent five years too mired in his sadness over the childbed death of his wife, Alice, to pay attention to his household and son. Young Geoffrey is precocious but wild. Alice’s distant cousin Jean Saunders, alerted to the situation by Benjamin’s well-meaning uncle, arrives with the expectation of bringing Geoffrey to live with his grandparents, but ends up remaining in Benjamin’s household. He begins to imagine what a life with new love for him and a mother for his son might look like, while Jean begins to let go of her resistance to the idea of marrying and having a family. Readers who crave deep romantic passion may find this bland, but those satisfied by cute kid and kitten antics, witty prose, and a message of redemption from difficult life histories will find plenty to love here.

Narrator Rosalyn Landor sets the stage for a delightfully emotional tug-of-war with especially thoughtful portrayals of a little boy who is caught in the middle in this historical romance. … With the attention to detail that listeners love about Landor, she beautifully conveys each stage of grief and subsequent recovery in three very different characters and integrates secondary characters in a way that sounds effortless. A.L. � AudioFile 2018

Those of you who have read and liked Julia Quinn’s To Sir Phillip, With Love will recognize a similar theme.