An Earl Like You by Caroline Linden is the second book in the Wagers of Sin series and features a plot where the hero is involved in deceiving the heroine in a significant way. I really struggled with this plot and with finding any empathy for the hero, and I spent a lot of the book cringing internally over the humiliation the heroine would ultimately face. This book gave me a lot of second-hand embarrassment.
When Hugh Deveraux’s father dies, Hugh inherits his Earldom and discovers that his father left the family so deeply in debt that it’s unlikely he can recover from it. Hugh doesn’t have the money to feed his family, and both of his sister’s dowries have been spent. This is especially problematic as his older sister, Edith, is out in society and very nearly engaged.
Rather than tell his family what happened, Hugh resolves to take on all their financial burdens alone so that his mom and sisters can continue to think that Daddy Deveraux was a great guy.
This is a bad plan.
Hugh plans on earning the money for Edith’s dowry by gaming at the Vega Club. He has a talent for winning and is a cautious gambler. He expects he can earn his income this way.
This is also a bad plan.
One night after Hugh handles a large loss graciously, he’s approached by Edward Cross, a man with lots of new money who made a fortune speculating. Cross is looking for a husband for his daughter Eliza. Eliza is plain and shy, preferring to spend her time in her garden or with her rescue dog, Willy (he’s a mutt she found in a hedge). She hated her Season and was a wallflower. The ton turns up their noses at the Crosses because of their new money and how Cross earned it. So far Eliza has avoided other suitors as she suspects they just want her money anyway.
Cross buys all of Hugh’s considerable debts and gives him two choices. He can woo Eliza, and if she chooses him of her own free will, he will cancel the debts once they are wed. Otherwise he can pay up now (which he can’t, obviously) or face the bailiff.
Hugh chooses option one.
Hugh makes very poor decisions.
So Hugh woos Eliza, who has no idea what’s really going on–and that’s where my achy tummy, second hand embarrassment cringe-fest started. Eliza is earnest and kind. She is initially very wary of Hugh’s interest in her because she’s not foolish. She doesn’t travel in his circles and she often feels shy and awkward. She’s plain and not very witty or accomplished. She’s most comfortable talking about how much she loves her dog. Hugh knows that and engages her on that subject, which for me felt extra mercenary, because if you involve the dog, you’re going for a new level of douche-baggery.
Here’s the thing: I’m socially awkward. I’m really shy and introverted, and I spend most of my time at social gatherings making friends with the host’s pets. I have hobbies other people would consider nerdy. I could take about cats for hours. Thirty-five year old Elyse is pretty much okay with all of this. At this point in my life I care very little what people think about. Nineteen-year-old Elyse (Eliza’s age in this book) was much, much more insecure and would have been absolutely devastated if someone had pretended to be interested in the things I liked, and in me personally, in order to achieve financial gain. I can feel the pain and utter humiliation of that level of deception acutely.
So when Eliza makes herself vulnerable to Hugh, and when she starts to believe that he might just love her for her, I felt like I was vulnerable, too. Because I knew this was all a deception, the whole thing made me want to curl into a ball as I was anticipating just how crushed and humiliated Eliza would eventually be.
Of course Hugh starts to have feelings for Eliza. Those feelings start off with lust and affection, though, and they don’t stop him from lying to her. When he finally proposes to her in the garden folly he thinks:
He wanted her. Every nerve in his body was urging him to kiss her again. And a small, cold, calculating part of his brain whispered that seducing her right now would seal the bargain. Cross couldn’t object, couldn’t wriggle loose, couldn’t change his mind or impose any other conditions once she might be carrying his child.
This section bothered me so much. First of all, Hugh is considering having sex with Eliza in order to trap her into a relationship with him–but he’s not even considering her in this. He’s not worried Eliza will leave him; he’s worried her father will break their agreement. Eliza isn’t important in this. She’s not a person. She’s a pawn being used by her father and Hugh. She’s collateral.
Once Hugh and Eliza do marry, his mother and sisters are cold and aloof around her because they disapprove of Hugh’s commoner bride.
If I had to sum this book up, I’d say it’s “Everyone is shitty to Eliza, and she deserved so much better.”
Of course his family comes around eventually. Of course he falls in love with her. Of course she finds out that their entire relationship was a business transaction and it’s as excruciating as I figured it would be.
The only people in this book who do deserve Eliza are her friends, Sophie and Georgianna, and her dog. Everyone else can go jump in the river.
I really identified with the heroine of this novel, but I didn’t forgive the hero in the end. His deception was too hurtful and too painful to Eliza for me to care very much about him at all. I didn’t forgive her father, either. Mostly I felt relieved that my looming second-hand embarrassment was gone and deeply disappointed in the book overall. Eliza forgives him, but Hugh’s apology came too late in the story and was too weak considering the length of deception for me to accept it, or to accept their romance overall.
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Sometimes there just can’t be enough grovel.
Second-hand embarrassment is watching a Jerry Lewis movie; this sounds like it would induce full on depression-level empathy. Thanks for the nope on this one.
Wow, the hero sounds like a complete asshole! She should have fed him to her dog Sansa Stark style..
Michelle@3
Although that could be considered cruelty to animals…
There are going to be readers (like me) who are attracted to the book because of the deception plot. I would like to warn those readers that this is a B- book.
It did give me a bad decisions book club night because I couldn’t stop reading until I discovered how the heroine would learn her husband had been blackmailed/purchased for her, but the emotional fallout was unimpressive. The hero, in general, is unimpressive. There’s a significant side plot re: his sister’s suitor where the hero underperforms by being neither authoritative enough to make the right decision on behalf of his sister nor mistorically New Age man enough to actually let his sister know what’s going on so she can participate in the decision-making. He just waffles.
I read a different book by this same author and it was a miss. This one also sounds like a big miss. I’m pulling her off of my list of authors to look up. I don’t think she’s for me.
This reminds me of a Madeline Hunter book I read last week – the last book in her Wicked Trilogy (“The Wicked Duke”).
The hero and the heroine’s uncle arrange a marriage in an attempt to get the uncle to officially make the murder suspicions about the hero go away. So, he marries the heroine, and then, when the uncle doesn’t come through, he 1) breaks her heart, 2) punishes her sexually for her uncle’s perfidy, and 3) allows her to feel ashamed and guilty for the fraud. For me, it did not matter that the hero eventually came to realize he loved the heroine, I simply could not get over #2. What an absolutely horrible person! Hunter tried to make it OK by making the heroine have submissive thrills during the experience, but nope! A thousand nopes!
I haven’t and will not be picking this one up, but in my head I’ve re-written the ending. When Hugh is about to propose, he instead tells Eliza of the deception and professes his love and willingness to prove it by letting her decide and having the chips fall where they may, with him and his whole family financially disgraced. And he spends a good chunk of time groveling and showing his love before she accepts of her own free will. The end.
Great review Elyse, I am avoiding this one, this author was on my radar to try, think I’ll skip for now.
Oh no. As the neuroatypical girl whose only friends are dogs (and who got made fun of viciously in undergrad for this), I’m sure this book wouldn’t sit right with me, either. And I imagine Eliza’s situation would strike a bad note with many bookish, introverted romance fans. :/ #ElizaDeservedBetter
Thank you for this review, Elyse.
I’ve seen a lot of positive reviews for this one, so it’s interesting to see a parallax view; it’d make me uncomfortable too, honestly.
I like Caroline Linden’s novellas fine, but haven’t been wowed by her full length books because of plots like this.
Deception plots, and broke Dukes, are popping up all over in Regencies! I just finished reading To Woo a Wicked Widow by Jenna Jaxon. Two, count ’em, two gentlemen were trying to court a new widow, one for politics and one for money. Her father was an awful man, too. The heroine vaguely reminded me of one of those bodice-ripper heroines of the 80s who made bad decisions and had to be rescued. All that said, the winning aristocrat groveled and explained himself in a way that worked for me and Lady Charlotte. I am looking forward to Elizabeth’s story.
I remember being chatted up for a bet (to a count of 50 or something) when I was 17. Even though I knew it was a bet – I’m not stupid, and saying “count faster” kind of gave it away – it was painful and awkward and of course I still remember it over 35 years later.
This will be a hard pass for me.
@ Emma
Ouch! I’m so sorry that happened!
It’s the second book with this type of trope in this series. I intensely disliked the first one and I had no intention of reading that one. I detest this sort of story, and it sounds as unpleasant as I thought it would be. Thanks for the review.
I’m giving the series a pass. Thanks for reading this so I wouldn’t be tempted to.
Also, excellent delivery for “Hugh makes poor decisions”.
Sounds like the trope of ‘The Bet’ which was common in old rom com movies.
I had a hard time with this one. Linden is an author that I think writes well, but it reminded me waay too much of The Secrets of Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn (the book that finally took her off auto-buy for me). Like, it’s just not interesting anymore to read about a man who’s arc is to learn that women deserve agency.
All through reading it, I thought, “Man, I wish Courtney Milan had written this. She’d have gotten this plot out of the way in the first 80 pages and then REALLY had some fun.” If you want to read a book where the hero is forced to court the heroine but didn’t act like a total lying twatwaffle, try the Heiress Effect.
In summary, I agree with Elyse, and I hope Linden can start being more consistent because when she’s on, she’s good.
ER, *whose.
It also sounds like the author took major plot points from Georgette Heyer’s A Civil Contract (there’s no deception in the Heyer story), but decided to give the heroine a HEA. The Heyer ending is a really tough one — it’s happy-ish, but the heroine loves the hero far more than he loves her.
It sounds like the author just had no experience with being in the heroine’s position and can’t imagine how awful it would really be.
@Deborah As a reader who loves deception plot lines, I appreciate your comment.
Thank you, Deborah. I enjoy deception plot-lines, as well, but it’s got to be done right. Like, you gotta have that sincere Apology World Tour and strong redemption arc for the deceiver — the earlier in the story, the better. Otherwise, it’s just a sad tale of manipulation and/or Stockholm Syndrome.
Bummer, my hold on this one just came in! I just wanted to say that if you’re disenchanted with Caroline Linden and haven’t read her Scandalous series, I’d encourage you to give that one a try. She’s on auto-read for me because of that series, but I’ll probably have to skip this one.