The Earl Returns by Lillian MarekMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
Lord (Tom) Merton was pressganged and spent three years as a virtual prisoner on a ship, until finally they landed in England and he and a friend managed to escape. Tom told his captors that he was a member of the aristocracy, but they didn't believe him, they had been told that he was illegitimate and a pretender. He returns to his country home to find his cousin Edgar has married Pamela, a grasping social climber who tried to create a compromising position to force Tom to marry her her, Edgar, his mother Arabella, Pamela's father Mr Browne, and Tom's grandmother Lady Merton are all staying at Tom's country estate in Sussex when he returns - and several of them are not best pleased to see he is not, in fact, dead. Once settled, Tom and his friend Hodgson set up a shipyard to bring employment to the area.
Miranda Rokeby is the daughter of a wealthy American trader and a former Viscountess, she and her parents have returned to England from Boston and she has accompanied her cousin Lydia to Tom's home in Sussex where his grandmother is parading a number of suitable young women in front of Tom at a house party, in the hopes that he will offer for one of them, marry and produce an heir.
When Tom and Miranda meet they are immediately drawn to one another, she likes his broad shoulders and smile, he likes her direct gaze and laughter, but her parents are disparaging of the aristocracy and his family would never countenance marriage to an American (think colonies) nobody.
Soon it becomes clear that Tom being pressganged was no accident when he suffers a series of further potentially fatal 'accidents' - clearly someone wants him dead and Edgar the new Earl, but which of the poisonous vipers could it be?
I did enjoy this, however reading this shortly after reading Home is the Sailor, I found there were just too many similarities, hence only three and a half stars.
Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
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