carolesrandomlife

11/2/15: Free on Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Earls-Just-Want-Have-Fun-ebook/dp/B00NH1UK2M/?tag=skim0x3783-20

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

4 Stars!

I am always looking for something a little bit different. That can sometimes be a little hard to find for somebody who reads as many books as I do. This book gave me exactly the unexpected element that I look for in a book. I used to read a lot of historical romances but moved to other genres when I found most of them to be overly predictable. Shana Galen has created a wonderful story and a heroine that is anything but predictable. I don't remember ever encountering a character quite like Marlowe.

Marlowe lives with a group of thieves. She spends most days dressed like a boy looking for easy marks and carrying out the plans of her group. Satin makes the plans and is the boss of her group of thieves, which she refers to as cubs. Satin rules with a heavy hand and everyone within the group makes sure that they do their job.

Marlowe is taken by two men as she plays her part. Before she knows what is going on, she finds herself in Earl Dane's home where she gets cleaned up and fed. Dane's brother believes that Marlowe is actually the Lady Elizabeth who was abducted as a small child. Dane is given the job of keeping an eye on her until Lady Elizabeth's parents can be contacted. Dane doesn't realized that he has met his match in Marlowe.

Marlowe was so wonderfully original! I loved her rough speech, her distaste for bathing, and the fact that she would rather wear men's clothing that a dress. Marlowe had a certain innocence about many things that really showed that she had never had anyone around to teach her. She also had wisdom regarding the lives of the poor that Dane needed to taught. They really made quite the perfect couple.

This book was wonderfully written. I found myself grinning quite often and found a lot of humor in the things that Marlowe would say and they manner in which others reacted to her. The chemistry between Marlowe and Dane was spectacular and their feeling felt so genuine on the page. The growth of both Marlowe and Dane as characters added a lot to the story. They both needed to figure out what they wanted and whether it was worth the cost.

I would highly recommend this book to fans of historical romance. This is the first full book of a new series. I did read the preceding novella but that would not be necessary to enjoy this story since there were only a few short mentions of that story. This is the first full length novel by Shana Galen that I have had chance to read but I plan to look for her work in the future.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley for the purpose of providing an honest review.