Title: The Elusive EarlAuthor: Maddison Michaels
Series: Saints & Scoundrels #2
Publication: August 27, 2018 by Entangled: Amara
Genre: Historical Romance
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Rating: 4/5★
She’s determined not to lose her heart to such an icy, infuriating man.
Brianna Penderley has a knack for getting into precarious situations, especially when it comes to her love for archaeology. In the heart of Naples, her terrible Italian has her accidentally becoming engaged to two men at the same time. Of course, Daniel Wolcott—the Earl of Thornton and the only man ever able to vex her—shows up to rescue her.
Daniel has spent the majority of his life exercising rigid control over his emotions, determined never to become the rake his father was. But when he goes to aid his mentor’s danger-prone niece once again, he finds himself struggling to control his attraction to a woman who is his complete opposite.
When their situation goes from bad to worse, Daniel and Brianna find themselves swept up into a perilous adventure, and they must work together to set things right. Now, if they can just avoid killing each other in the process.
The Elusive Earl features Daniel Wolcott, the Earl of Thornton (+ Sophie’s brother from the first book) and Brianna Penderley, who has a real talent for landing herself in sticky situations. Case in point: Brianna is currently on a trip in Italy — and unintentionally — engaged to two men at once. When Brianna’s uncle asks Daniel, once again, to go save Brianna niece from this precarious situation, Daniel reluctantly agrees. What starts as a misunderstanding quickly plunges Daniel and Brianna into a risky adventure on the hunt for a legendary treasure, where they’re eventually forced to come to terms with their growing attraction to one another.
Brianna and Daniel are opposites in every way. She hurls herself into danger, he thinks things out thoroughly before he acts. It was definitely a opposites attract romance and I highly enjoyed the banter between the both of them. The story was also quite action packed with Daniel and Brianna landing themselves in all kinds of danger, with an unstable and menacing villain who’s hot on their heels and where they have no idea of who he is.
Another thing I loved about the story was the setting of Naples, Italy. Brianna’s mother was Italian and also big into archaeology, just like Brianna is. There’s a whole backstory behind this that I don’t want to spoil but I really liked this aspect. The treasure itself comes from a real-life legend that the author goes into in the afterword, so definitely don’t skip that part. It was highly fascinating! Archaeology being a huge part of Brianna and the story of course made my history loving self very happy. The only thing I wish this story had more of was romantic scenes between Daniel and Brianna. I just needed just a little more of that.
I’d really recommend the audiobook. I already loved her way of narrating the first book, but in this second one she was also great to listen to.
The Elusive Earl by Maddison Michaels is the second book in the Saints & Soundrels series by Maddison Michaels. And while I didn’t love it quite as much as The Devilish Duke, I still enjoyed the story and its characters thoroughly.
About the author:
Maddison Michaels, is an award-winning historical romantic suspense author, who captivates readers with her signature blend of “Sexy History with a Dash of Mystery.” Her debut novel, “The Devilish Duke,” won the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award in 2019, along with several of her subsequent novels being finalists in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 RUBY Awards. Maddison is the published author of ten historical romance novels, that promise page-turning mystery and suspense, and keep readers hooked until the last word. She’s also set to release two non-fiction writing craft books, aimed to help her fellow writers let their stories take flight!
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This sounds fun and I’m glad the heroine had some kind of basis for being in Italy. But “Brianna” seems an improbable name for this era. As a former romance editor, anachronisms really bother me.
I don’t know much about names in this era but Brianna does seem a bit modern