Not the Kind of Earl You Marry by Kate Pembrooke Review

Not The Kind of Earl You Marry

by Kate Pembrooke

Rating: 4.5/5 
Genre: Historical Romance
Steam: Explicit
Publisher: Forever Books
Pub Date: July 27, 2021
Available: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop

Not The Kind of Earl You Marry Summary: William Atherton, Earl of Norwood, is shocked to find that when he reads the paper that he is engaged. Charlotte Hurst may be a wallflower, but she has no want for Atherton for a husband. With the possibility of scandal on their hands they agree to a fake engagement until the culprit is found. With Atherton’s political aspirations on the line and maybe Charlotte will benefit too. But when things start feeling less like a fake arrangement, they have to decide if things feel real enough.

Not the Kind of Earl You Marry Review:

This was such a cute, sweet read and not in the steamy level sense. Like a one sitting book and then going back later to reread my favorite parts kinda book. The writing was delightful and the plot was quick. This book had the right amount of plot and character development that made me not want to put it down–and I didn’t.

Loved:

William was such a likable character. The amount of love he had for his family and the level of responsibility he felt was everything I love in a duke character. I love when pent up characters with rigid moral code break, and let me tell you this one doesn’t disappoint. Plus William is so smitten with Charlotte that I 🥺. Like he’s so freaking cute and in love and is so concerned for her the entire book. 10/10 great love interest.

Charlotte was so headstrong at times I wanted to yell at her, but I really enjoyed her nonetheless. Her character arc was stunning, I loved watching her change and develop over the book. I felt like she really grew and it was such a believable transformation over the course of the book that you 100% believed in it, or at least I did.

I want to be apart of William’s family. His sisters were an absolute delight. They were so funny and trying to help out Charlotte and William. And they weren’t shallow secondary characters either. They were purposeful, added to the story, and gave a level of depth I adored. Like I said before, I want his sisters to be my sisters.

Charlotte and William’s interactions were so flipping cute. They didn’t want to fall in love so bad and ah, it was delightful. The slow burn the entire time was perfection. The will they won’t they was drawn out in a way that wasn’t too long but still was enough for me to be completely enthralled by their relationship the whole book.

This book takes off and sucks you in. On page one we’ve already established the conflict, like that soon. Then it keeps going from there. There’s a little lull in the middle, but overall between the plot and the characters you quickly get through this book.

The Meh:

Charlotte’s constant persistence that she and William weren’t similar when she herself was changing became redundant after awhile. Plus they had spent so much time together and she was enjoying herself, so that constant “no” felt insincere and straight up annoying towards the end.

There were times where it lagged in the middle, but the plot did help move things along when William and Charlotte weren’t together, which was a lot in the middle. William’s sisters and Charlotte’s adventures were enough to keep me going but I had wished there had been just a little something extra.

Long Story Short

Do I recommend this book? Yes! I highly recommend this book. It is a perfect “fake dating”/marriage of convenience book. The plot was interesting, Charlotte and William were an amazing couple, and the side characters were so good too! Plus if you’re newer to historical romances this would be an excellent one to start with. It involves many of the well loved tropes, but handles them in such a wonderful way. And you don’t even need a bookmark for this one!

If You Liked This One..

If you liked this one I would highly recommend checking out The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George (review here). This one is a different enemies-to-lovers/forced marriage than this one, but they play out similarly and compliment each other very well! Or if you want something similar in the contemporary world I would recommend The Dating Plan by Sara Desai (review here). Another fake dating novel with heavy family involvement, but deals with second chance romance. So good!