Ms. Bowman has made me fall in love with love all over again. She took two of my favorite stories, My Fair Lady and Can't Buy Me Love and turned them into the perfect regency adaptation of romance. Forgotten sister Alex dreams of her one true love are dashed by her father's machinations. Owen's carefree existence has just gotten complicated. Faced with ultimatums and an impending engagement he seeks help from an unlikely source. I received an ARC of the Untamed Earl by Valerie Bowman from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Of course it was predictable, but that was part of the charm. This story will make you believe that dreams really do come true. ( )

A delightful fairy floss romp!

Lady Alexander Hobbs (Alex) in fell in love with Lord Monroe when she was fifteen, just after she'd written her list of the things she wished to accomplish in her life.

'1. Become brave and daring like Thomas.
2. Become beautiful, willowy and poised like Lavina. Never stain my gowns with food, et cetera.
3. Have a come-out during which an exceedingly eligible gentleman asks me to dance, thereby making the affair a smashing success.
4. Marry my true love. Must be handsome, dashing, witty, kind and honrable. Name to be determined later.
Lord Owen Munroe.'

Now three years later at the ripe old age of 18 with her list not even begun, she's discovered that her father and Owen's have decided her true love, Lord Owen, is to marry her older sister, the perfect (and horribly spoilt) Lavina.
And that's when Alex decides to fight for her one true love, who has very little idea of her existence.
Enter stage right those three (now) grand ladies aka the Playful Brides' Lucy, Cassandra and Jane, (who cut a swathe through society with their high jinks as they pursued their true own true loves), and the situation becomes even more fraught. With Alex's natural inventiveness and these ladies' intervention things are far from dull, if not downright muddled.
Sister Lavina is so wonderfully and truly terrible that she's almost unbelievable. Will she ever change? Talk about the ugly older sister with a facade beautiful hiding inner demons! I don't see how, but perhaps Bowman might be able to bring about a miracle if ever she decides to write Lavina's story. Personally I think she should disappear into the mists of time.
Lots of wonderful stuff and nonsense dot the landscape of this true love's tale. A super read to while away an afternoon with.

A NetGalley ARC ( )

The Untamed Earl by Valerie Bowman is a 2016 St. Martin’s Press publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This fifth installment in the ‘Playful Brides’ series got off to a stellar start and although I was reading several other books along with this one, I kept itching to get back into this story, until finally I succumbed and let it carry me away.

This story is all about Lady Alexandra Hobbs, who at age fifteen, feels as though she is standing in the shadow of her brother, and willowy sister, Lavinia. She makes a list of things she wishes to achieve in her life, and after a brief encounter with Lord Owen Monroe, she vows to marry him someday.

Years pass, and to her utter horror, she discovers her father intends to marry Lavinia to Lord Owen!! The catch? Owen will actually have to win her heart.

Owen’s father has given him an ultimatum- marry Lavinia or lose his allowance. Realizing the jig is up, Owen admits he’s had a good run, and will have to comply with his father’s wishes. How hard could it be to woo a young lady, considering his irresistible charm? Well, Owen has never met the ill- tempered Lavinia…

After seeing Owen struggle with her sister after making a few awkward attempts to charm her, Alex steps up and makes him a most unusual offer. She will help him win Lavinia over, if he will help her become more popular, by teaching her to be coy, to dance, and to flirt, and of course ward off unwanted advances if need be.

Desperate, and with time running out, Owen agrees to her plan….

This hilarious setup, along with whip smart dialogue, combined to make this one of the more delightful historical romances I’ve read recently. Alexandra steals the show, with her plotting, and scheming, and Lord Owen never seemed to suspect the clever trap being laid for him. Of course, the best laid plans often have their flaws, and despite help from Owen’s sister, the road to romance remained a very rocky one, with backfired plans and unforeseen circumstances, which lead to horrible misunderstandings.

This story is supposed to be inspired by the Shakespeare play – “The Taming of the Shrew”, and I can see many of those elements employed here. Middle ways through the story, however, the pace faltered a little bit, but quickly rebounded. Due to the screwball plot, the character development was perhaps a tad weak, but this delightful romance had me turning pages excitedly, holding my breath at times, laughing out loud, and thrilled with the way things eventually turned out.

Often times, historical romances with lighter tones, can bore me to tears, because the tend to lack substance, and because I usually crave a darker, edgier type of story, but this one was definitely an exception and I had a blast reading it and was thoroughly entertained by it. ( )

I am no stranger to Valerie Bowman or her Playful Brides series. I have had the pleasure of reading a couple others in this series. I was anticipating this one. This series as an apt name. Playful was most certainly the experience that I have had with these delightful ladies from Regency England.

Lady Alex proposal was called indecent. I call it going for what she really wants. She gets her hearts desire if things go right. Seeing that she was to be cheated of the one true desire of her heart. Lady Alex plots to make sure that things don't go astray. In comes her proposal to Lord Owen.

Being told to straighten up and do right was not exactly what Lord Owen was looking for when he awake this day. Now he has to woo the shrew. With the help of the shrew in questions younger sister. He is on the path to do just that or so he thought.

I found this to be fun and entertaining. Lady Alex makes all the difference. She has a child's love when she falls for Lord Owen but during the process of making he acceptable to her sister. She develops womanly affection and a woman's love. Aptly appropriate historical romance.
**This ARC was provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.** ( )

This was a very enjoyable read, I loved it!
Owen has been given an ultimatum, his playboy days are over as he must become engaged or he will not see another penny from his parents, and the lucky lady has even been chosen for him. He excepts, the problem is, his intended bride turns him down, she doesn't want him.

Alexandra has been in love with Owen for years, and she happens to be the brides sister. She offers to help Owen in his quest to convince her sister to marry him, but really she is trying to get Owen to fall in love with her instead and not marry her sister at all.

There was some great moments that were very funny in the story as Owen tries to romance Lavinia, but she really was a dreadful brat and had no feelings for anyone except herself. Alexandra and Owen made a much better match, but poor Owen gets a little confused with his romancing with a little help from Alex. Great fun.

A very entertaining read. Very likeable characters, a fun story that had me grinning on many a time, and a very satisfactory ending. I highly recommend it! ( )