Tears prickled her eyes as they sometimes did when the world was being too much itself, too beautiful and terrible and capable of expressing a kind of steadfast rightness through its creatures and its colours.
Earl's Trip
by Jenny Holiday
Genre: Historical Romance
About: Archie needs a break, and luckily it's the time of the annual Earl's trip with his two best friends. But when he receives a letter from his father's old friend, begging for his assistance to bring back his daughters from the clutches of a scoundrel (or else force one of them to marry the rake), his trip turns into a rescue mission. Not that his childhood friend, Clementine and her sister Olive, are exactly damsels in distress. Clem has a gun, because, of course she does.
Thoughts
I really loved the characters in this. The friendship between Archie, Effie and Simon was great, the rocky then steady sister relationship between Clem and Olive was so lovely to see grow, and of course the main romance was the star of the show, turning unexpectedly steamy in sections. All the characters were well developed, except for poor Simon - I'm not quite sure what his purpose in the story was because Hermes the turtle got more of a role in the plot than Simon did.
But although the relationships were complex and endearing, this was far too much of a character driven novel for my personal liking. The plot just wasn't there for me. The story started off with a literal bang as we got Clem dressed as a man with a gun, but after that action simmered down nothing else ever took its place. There was no real conflict, no obstacles to overcome. I did enjoy the discussion around meat eating and the hunting culture of the time, although I would have preferred Archie and Clem to have agreed to disagree; it's okay to have different opinions in relationships as long as you show the other you respect theirs.
Overall, this was sweet and little bit spicy, but the pace was far too slow because ultimately nothing was happening on the epic Earl's trip.
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