Earl of Darling by Katherine Ann Madison and Maggie Dallen – book review

Disclosure.  This post is a review of an e-book I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.

I have received a free e-copy of the book Earl of Darling by Katherine Ann Madison and Maggie Dallen to review.

Here is the book blurb.

Is she making a deal with the devil or a saint in disguise?

A murderer, they call him. A beast. All Miss Rathmore knows is he’s the man who saved her while running away from her horrid fiancé. The least she can do is help Darling and his sisters adapt to good society. After all, the earl has gone so far as to offer his own hand in marriage to save her reputation. But that is merely an act of charity. And those stolen kisses? Those are sheer folly. For only a fool would fall for such a scandalous rogue…

Society is more dangerous than a battlefield for this soldier who was never meant to be an earl. Luckily for him, his new saviour is every bit the lady.

Give him a battle any day. Those were rules he understood. But the insipid whisperings of the ton? He hadn’t the faintest idea how to fight them. Until he meets Miss Rathmore. Now he’s found himself slaying her dragons when he ought to be fighting for his own good name. And proposing marriage? What was he thinking? His three sisters would say that he’d lost his senses, of course. Or, at the very least…his heart.

Katherine Ann Madison is a pseudonym of Tammy Andresen, who is a very prolific author. I have read lots of Tammy’s titles, but this is the first time I’ve read one under this name. I’ve also read a few others in the Wicked Earl’s Club series, but found this one to only have a very tenuous connection to the Club, with the Earl of Darling being invited to join. Perhaps that is why it has subsequently been repackaged as The Earl’s Runaway Bride, a sweet Regency romance.

The story starts with Miss Evelyn Rathmore climbing out an upstairs window as a way to end her betrothal to the awful cad Mr Stallworth, whilst her father’s attention is on their dinner guests. But one of the guests, Darius, the new Earl of Darling has just stepped out for some air, hating how society blames him for the bad luck which befell previous heirs to the title, directly below where Evelyn is climbing down. What a bizarre encounter.

Darius immediately realises she is running away and draws the tale out of her, offering to assist. In return Evelyn offers to help Darius introduce his three sisters Tabetha, Clarissa and Mariah to society.

Darius originally planned to find another man to offer for Evelyn’s hand via the Wicked Earls Club that he has just been invited to join, but he soon decided none of them deserved her. Were they just as bad as Mr Stallworth? So he offers to marry her himself, but Evelyn refuses. She doesn’t want him to marry her out of charity.

Darius assumes she has said no because of all the rumours regarding how he inherited the title. But he continues to fight Evelyn’s battles. How will Stallworth react to his interference? And what of Darius and Evelyn themselves?

The Earl of Darling is available on Amazon in Kindle format. A short light romantic read from Katherine Ann Madison and Maggie Dallen.

Tammy did team up with Maggie Dallen previously to write the prologue for the Wicked Earls Club which I reviewed here.

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