Book Review – Earls Just Want to Have Fun (Covent Gardens Cubs #1)

Earls Just Want to Have Fun by Shana Galen
Series: Covent Garden Cubs #1
Published by Sourcebooks, Inc. on February 3rd 2015
Genres: Historical, Regency, Romance
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

His heart may be the last thing she ever steals...

Marlowe is a pickpocket, a housebreaker-and a better actress than any professional on the stage. She runs with the Covent Garden Cubs, a gang of thieves living in the slums of London's Seven Dials. It's a fierce life, and Marlowe has a hard outer shell. But when she's alone, she allows herself to think of a time before - a dimly remembered life when she was called Elizabeth.

Maxwell, Lord Dane, is intrigued when his brother, a hired investigator, ropes him into his investigation of the fiercely beautiful hellion. He teaches her to navigate the social morass of the ton, but Marlowe will not escape so easily. Instead, Dane is drawn into her dangerous world, where the student becomes the teacher and love is the greatest risk of all.

Lynn’s Review:

Marlowe has grown up in a gang in the cheap side of London. Stealing what she can to survive. Dressing as a boy to keep the other gang members at bay. Lord Maxwell Dane is an Earl, a member of parliament, and a proper gentleman. He has society, the ton, and the Earldom to think of. Marlowe and Dane are thrown together when Lord Brook, Dane’s brother, and a skilled investigator, determines that Marlowe is really the daughter of gentry, who was abducted as a child.

One of the most jarring aspects of reading Earls was the heavy usage of colloquialisms in Marlowe’s speech . HEAVY usage.

That woman walking two yapping dogs was another easy bubble. Marlowe could have riled the dogs and stalled her up, then done the trick. The woman might not have much blunt in her reticule, but she probably had a wipe in there. There was a market for silk handkerchiefs, and dolly shops who’d buy them, no questions asked.

At the beginning of Earls, I was actually looking up definitions for all the words I couldn’t quite figure out with context. But then I gave up after a while because I just didn’t care. I honestly don’t know if I would have enjoyed reading this with less colloquialisms or not. But they are very off-putting.

The relationship between Marlowe and Dane starts off very confrontational. Marlowe has never had anyone to trust. And Dane doesn’t know where to even begin with the hellion with no table manners. Sparks fly between the two. And there are loads of sparks. Marlowe has some understanding of what transpires between men and women. But has never experienced gentleness. And the “spark” between a couple. Dane has always been more concerned about appearances, and not sullying his name. But he does seem to have a knack for wooing. And waltzing. I would have never thought waltzing was so scandalous. Til I read the scene in Earls.

He held her tightly, ensuring she would not lose her footing – at least that was what he told himself. But he could not deny the closeness of her body affected him. She was warm where his gloved hand touched her bare back. He knew her skin was as soft as the satin of her dress. … Now he had the urge to stroke that bare flesh, to remove his glove and touch her, skin to skin.

As I side note, I’d like to point out that the title is silly. And doesn’t seem to fit with the theme of the book. Is the fact that Dane is “having fun” with Marlowe the meaning? I’m not really sure. But I doubt I would have picked up the book at all if I wasn’t already familiar with the author.

Overall, Earls was ok, but not great. I wasn’t overly thrilled. I do already own the second in the series. But the third, about Lord Brook, seems much more interesting. I might just skip the second, and head straight for the third.

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