First Earl I See Tonight (Debutante Diaries)

by Anna Bennett

She needed a husband of convenience. She got her one true love instead.

Miss Fiona Hartley's huge dowry should have ensured that finding a husband would be quick. True, she's a tad older than the average debutante, and spends too much time sketching brutally honest character portraits. She desperately needs a husband so she can access her dowry, lest the man blackmailing her reveals a secret that would ruin her family. So desperate in fact, that she's willing to do the unthinkable - propose marriage to the most surly, irritable gentleman in town.

As a matter of principle, David Gray, the Earl of Somerdale, avoids two types of women: those who are obviously desperate, and those who are stark-raving mad. And it soundly appears Miss Fiona Hartley is both. Yet David can't help but be drawn to her, and gives her a test - if she can spend one week in his dilapidated estate - the same one that caused his previous fiancee to jilt him - then he'll consider her proposal. But as the week goes on, Fiona's refreshing wit find a way into his heart. What started out as a marriage of convenience has turned into love but will Fiona have him for the rest of her days?

• ISBN13: 9781250199461
• Publish Date: 30 October 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 4 April 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Imprint: St. Martin's Paperbacks
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: http://melia.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9781250199461

Reviews

[Lindsey Gray]

David Gray, Earl of Ravenport, just wants to fix the family home and restore his life. Miss Fiona Hartley needs to get her hands on her dowry to pay off a blackmailer set on ruining her dear younger sister. A daring proposal just might solve both of their problems.

Anna Bennett starts her new series with a bang! Fiona, while a little too headstrong at times, is a dynamic heroine with a compassionate heart. Ravenport grew on me as the novel progressed. The last thing he wants after a jilting is to jump into another relationship. Even though his mind was telling him to run away from Fiona, his heart had a different idea.

I am a sucker for mystery thrown in with my romance. The villainous blackmailer caused havoc on Fiona and Ravenport’s lives as well as their relationship. What I love the most about mysteries? That would be the fact that I can’t figure out who it is before the big reveal. I hate that I can’t give you any clues! I will say you won’t see this one coming and I love how Bennett kept me guessing on every page.

I can’t wait to see how Bennett tops The Ravenport’s love story as this series continues!

I received this book for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[chymerra]

I am not going to go into my entire spiel about how much I love historical romances. Because you all have heard it before and I don’t want to bore you. I will say that I was becoming bored with historical romances. As well written as some might be, they all seemed to follow 1 of 2 formats. You have the plucky heroine who gets in over her head and the alpha male hero rescues her. Or, the hero is tortured over something that happened in his past and the heroine heals him. While First Earl I See Tonight does have a tortured hero, that is the only part of the plot that was predictable.

First Earl I See Tonight is about Fiona Hartley. Fiona had received a note from a blackmailer demanding money by a certain date. If he/she didn’t receive that money, an article would be published in a prominent newspaper about her younger sister, Lily. The blackmailer claimed to have evidence that Lily was the illegitimate daughter of a well-known madame. If that came out, Lily would be shunned by the ton and her chances for a good marriage would be over. Desperate to avoid that, Fiona writes a note to the Earl of Ravenport, asking him to marry her and outlining why they would have a good union. Gray, having been dumped by his fiancée, is amused and shocked by the note. Determined to scare her off, he invites her to his crumbling country manor house, The Fortress. Instead of scaring her off, it charms Fiona. Gray realizes that there is so much more to Fiona than what he thought. But he cannot love. A traumatic event when he was a child had forced him to seal that part of him off. Can he open up and let Fiona into his heart? And will Fiona find out who the blackmailer is? Can she trust Gray enough to let him know what-is going on? Will she have to let true love go to protect her sister’s reputation? Read the book.

I loved the cover of First Earl I See Tonight. It encompassed everything that was going on in the book, except the blackmail. The model looked exactly as I thought Fiona would look. I loved that The Fortress was in the background. And the diary was there, along with Fiona’s deceased mother’s necklace. Loved it!!!!

I loved Fiona. For a girl of her time, she was very forward. I mean, she wrote to Gray, asking him to marry her. That is unheard of for her era. Girls did not do that. And it was so freaking refreshing and new!! I had menioned above that I was getting bored with reading historical romances. This book pulled me back from the edge of not reading them. I loved her argument for making her case and her reaction to Gray asking if she was with child. I laughed out loud at that. Fiona was not graceful either. I mean, she met Gray by falling into the orchestra playing at a party. She was also loyal to her family. She would do anything to keep Lily’s parentage out of the papers and save her from becoming shunned. Her only fault was that she should have told Gray sooner than she did about the blackmailer.

I liked Gray. I will admit, I did laugh when I read his response to Fiona’s request. I would have noped the heck out of there. Burned the note and not looked back. But, he was intrigued by it. Which is why he visited her at her home and questioned her the way he did. Which was hilarious because of Fiona’s responses. I liked his plan to scare her into not wanting to marry him by inviting her to The Fortress. That blew up in his face, big time. It was her way of seeing the beauty in everything that sent him down that slippery slope to love. Because he kept his emotions shuttered, I wasn’t sure about his feelings for Fiona until they had sex. What cemented it for me was when he read that sweet but awful poem at the ball. While it was bad, it was so sweet. I cried when he told Fiona about his family and why he felt he couldn’t love. I wasn’t expecting what he told her. I was sobbing because, man, he was only 11. Which is my son’s age. He was a baby. Being exposed to that broke my heart for him.

I have had issues in romances where there is zero romance. That there is no build-up to the sexual relationship. Whelp had no issues with that here!! Gray and Fiona had a friendship that evolved into a relationship before they fell in love. Loved it. It made the sex scenes so much more juicer to read knowing that.

Let’s talk about sexual tension. OMG, it was insane. All Gray had to do was look at Fiona and bam, it was there. I did like that the author did attempt to hold them off from having sex. She had them do everything but sex. But, it was meant to be and it was fantastic. They were like bunnies. In a cottage, In a lake, In a closet (I sound like Dr. Seuss…lol). I did wonder how people didn’t know what was going on.

I was surprised at who the blackmailer was. It was a twist that I didn’t see coming. But, what I also didn’t see coming was that person threatening Gray. Which set off a series of events that made me both mad and sad. What also made me mad were the reasons why this person decided to blackmail Fiona. Man, talk about petty. I did like that Gray ended up getting the last word in, though. “My hero” did go through my head.

The end of the book was fantastic. All the storylines were ended in a way that satisfied me as a reader. I cannot wait to read book 2.

What I liked about First Earl I See Tonight:

Fiona
Gray
The storyline
What I disliked about First Earl I See Tonight:

Fiona not telling Gray about the blackmailer
Why the blackmailer chose Fiona
What happened to Gray when he was a child
I gave First Earl I See Tonight a 4-star rating. This was a well written, humorous book was an engaging storyline. I connected with the characters. I did not like who the blackmailer ended up being and that person’s reason for choosing Fiona.

I would give First Earl I See Tonight an Adult rating. There is explicit sex. There is mild violence. There is no language. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread First Earl I See Tonight. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Paperbacks and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review First Earl I See Tonight.

All opinions stated in this review of First Earl I See Tonight are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**