Anne Bradley is always a delight to read! I enjoyed this book and I am glad that it's the beginning of a new series. It stars Jonathan and Emmeline, a case of mistaken identity, lovely sisters bonding, wagers, great characters - all the tropes that I enjoy :)

After Emmeline's sister Juliet accepts an outrageous wager that takes her to London for a season, scandal arises when the Earl of Melrose mistakenly kisses Emmeline. So starts a search and a journey to an enjoyable HEA commences.

This was a a fun read and I am thoroughly looking forward to the next in the series.

Thank you to the Publishers and NetGalley for the ARC ( )

Not Just Any Earl by Anna Bradley
Games Earls Play #1

Mistaken identity, a sizzling kiss, and then the search to find out who Lord Melrose actually had his interlude in the library with titillates the ton for days in this introduction to a new series. There is no glass slipper but instead an elusive scent and also the search for the rose necessary to finish making a perfect perfume.

What I liked:
* The introduction to the Templeton sisters and wondering how all five will find their happily ever after
* Mrs Fosberry: kind of like a fairy godmother and a friend of the sisters’ father – gives Juliet and Emmeline a chance in London
* Emmeline: loves roses, enjoys science, is seeking an elusive rose to recreate a perfume her father once made, has most of her beliefs about couples perfect for one another blown to smithereens
* Lord Melrose: brother, earl, ready to settle down, knows immediately the Lady in Lavender is meant for him…but who is she?
* Lord Cross: probably the man for Juliet and perhaps their story will come next
* Juliet: Emmeline’s sister, the beauty, outgoing, a perfect match for Lord Cross
* The set down Melrose renders grasping Christine and her mother
* Thinking about what is happening with Helena who left at the beginning of the book to become a governess to the Marquess of Hawke
* Wondering what is up with the oldest and youngest sisters…there is much more to learn about both of them.
* Knowing there are more books to look forward to

What I didn’t like:
* What and whom I was meant not to like…the gossiping ton and nasty vipers making up stories
* That scandal ruins not only the scandalous but their families as well
* Not a dislike but a wish – that there will be more about Emmeline and Melrose in the future books as I felt there was more to their story than written in this book

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Oliver Heber Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars ( )

Scents and scentsability!

A Cinderella remix / mashup with the glass slipper being replaced by a ribbon redundant with a subtle yet heady scent of roses.
Emmaline Templeton is one of five daughters whose scandalous mother Alice ran off to the continent with her Marquis lover years before. (Members of the Ton find that hard to forgive!) Their father died a year later. The young women are trying to make ends meet. Emmaline is trying to work out the elements constituting her father’s most perfect perfume. He never wrote the components down. The search is her passion.
Lady Fosberry (fairy godmother figure) descends on the family to whisk Lady Juliet away to spend the season with her. Emmaline will join them but stay in the background. Her desire is to search out the missing ingredient for her botanist father’s rose perfume.
What Emmaline didn’t expect, during a ball at Lady Fosberry’s house, when she crept downstairs into the darkened library, was to to be thoroughly kissed by Lord Melrose (aka the Nonesuch)
This wouldn’t do. In her head she’d seen Lord Melrose as a potential partner for her sister Juliet.
The ton is expecting Lord Melrose to become engaged to Lady Christine Dingley, a vacuous and, as it later proves, vicious and spoilt young woman. (Ugly sister equivalent!) But after the ball, with no announcement, the ton is awash with speculation and gossip. Society’s top group is portrayed as a rapid monstrosity baying for blood. Hounds of the Baskervilles are tame compared to the ton’s dismembering of its own!
I must admit Emmaline does my head in with her excuses, pondering and double takes about how the man she loves must marry her sister Juliet. I really, really lost all patience with Emmaline during these moments.
And yes, this Regency romance has its fairytale ending. A pleasant quick read.

An Xpresso Book ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) ( )

** 3.5 Stars **

This was a nice, straightforward introduction to the series, Games Earls Play, the Templeton sisters, and, of course, it includes a sweet romance. If you are looking for an exciting, heart palpating, hold-your-breath kind of read, well, this isn’t it. It is a steady, lovely romance between two very likable people who seem totally wrong for each other but are really so very right. I would have liked for it to be a tad longer so we could have gotten to know the characters a bit better – and so we could have spent more time seeing the dastardly dirty folks in the ton get their comeuppance.

The Templeton sisters are Emmeline (our current heroine), Euphemia (the oldest), Mathilda (the youngest), Juliet (her book is next I think), and Helena who is in service as the governess to the Marquess of Hawke (maybe he will be her hero???). Three years ago, two of the Templeton sisters had been in London for their season when their mother, Alice, ran off to the continent with her lover. The scandal, of course, drove the girls out of London and they’ve never set foot in it again. Since their father’s death, their circumstances have become direr and direr – until all of them will probably end up in service. So, when their father’s old friend, Lady Fosberry, coaxes Juliet and Emmaline back to London, it is their hope that Juliet will make a match – particularly with Lord Melrose.

Jonathan Parrish, the Earl of Melrose, is the male equivalent of a diamond of the first water. All the ladies admire him, sigh over him, and wish he’d notice them. He’s decided he’ll marry this season – and he supposes it might as well be Lady Christine Dingley since his mother once expressed a desire for that. He’s not particularly attracted to her, but he does have to marry. Isn’t it nice that fate has a way of stomping all over our best-laid plans?

At Lady Fosberry’s ball, Jonathan heads across the ballroom to request a dance from Lady Christine but becomes distracted when he notices a lovely widow with whom he’s spent some pleasant hours. Did I mention Jonathan is drunk as a skunk? He follows the lady from the ballroom and thinks he has lost her until he enters the library and notices her (well, he thinks it is her) there. He quietly comes up behind her and -- well, she didn’t stop him from kissing her – and she even kissed him back. Only, it wasn’t the lady he thought it was. Oops! He never saw her face because it was so dark – and now, he really wants to find her, she intrigues him – but he has no idea how to find her nor can he even describe her.

I really liked Jonathan because he was a lovely, sweet, caring, honorable man. I also really liked Emmeline who was all about family, and it was heart-warming to see the two of them become friends and then come to love each other. Again, I would really have liked the book to have been just a tad longer so we could see more of their coming to love each other.

I would recommend this book to a friend as a nice set-up for what promises to be a very nice series. The writing is good, the characters are very likable, the plot is a good one, but, overall, it is a pretty bland read. The set-up for the next book, which I assume will feature Juliet and Jonathan’s friend Lord Cross, is threaded throughout this one.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

I am voluntarily posting an honest review after reading an advanced reader copy of this story.

I love this book, it gets a rare 5 stars from me. I was lucky enough to pick up Anna Bradley's first book, A Wicked Way To Win An Earl, by chance at a bookstore. I had never heard of her but the cover looked divine. I've been following her ever since, not creepy just on Facebook. Not Just Any Earl, also with a divine cover, has likeable characters and I read the book in one evening. I was up past my bedtime but it was worth it. Emmeline and Jonathan are good together from their first meeting, fabulous as a couple. Emmeline is scared of the Ton and frankly so am I. Johnathan isn't and being a man he can get away with anything and still be invited to dinner. I'm going to give away one tiny spoiler, the meet cute & hot was in a library. Pure gold to a bluestocking like me. I'd recommend clearing your calendar and ordering out for pizza because you won't want to put it down.

I'm now waiting on Juliet and Cross to finish their story, it's bound to be a whopper.

#AnnaBradley #NotJustAnyEarl #GamesEarlsPlay #Oliver-HeberBooks #Netgalley #historicalromance ( )