One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean

Sorry, I'm going to blame my book club (which does not read romance novels I'm sad to report) for my delay in blogging but really our last book was, while long, not as time consuming as some of our others have been (Luminaries anyone?).

So Sarah MacLean won me over years ago with her ridiculously long titled Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord.  Since then there have been one or two that weren't quite up to that standard.  This one I enjoyed a lot.  I will admit that almost all of its merit rely on sexual tension. Which really, if you can pull off 374 pages on sexual tension, well, hats off.

Phillipa is a scientist in 1831 and she is to be married to a very nice simple honest gentleman in fifteen days.  She decides that since she doesn't understand sex, she must find a man to explain it all to her so she does not go into her marriage uninformed.

Cross is an erstwhile Earl in his own right who now runs the most successful gaming hell in London. He tragically failed his family seven years ago and is now embroiled in a plot against his sister that he must subvert.

If I have complaints, it would be that the book is just a bit long. That there could have been more sex, even if not consummation which Cross refuses to engage in, of course.  But Pippa is lovely and I always enjoy the evolution of how a hero sees his heroine changes as he falls in love with her.

Historical Romance 2013: 4 out of 5 philtrums.