The Earl Next Door

I’m just going to call The Earl Next Door what it is – a wonderful debut offering from Charis Michaels with clever characters, wondrous prose and a plot that divides into plots, all while maintaining a sense of fun and joy in the story and the process. I’m so happy to see titles that celebrate the lighter moments, using descriptions that breathe life into the characters, demanding that you just enjoy their tale.

Michaels takes her time to develop the characters and get us familiar with their voices and personalities, told in multiple POV’s, each character has a unique perspective on the world around them. From the wonderful witty responses from Piety, to the often subtle and occasionally cutting remarks from Trevor, and the narration that uses references that instantly bring an image to life, the story keeps moving forward with new moments at every corner.

A bit of a slow grower, the plot has several twists and borderline improbable elements: Piety’s family is distasteful and devious, but their lack of subtlety in the machinations to get this young woman’s money, while clever, is akin to watching a train wreck. She’s not a simple and typical female character: an American testing the waters in England. Oh she and Trevor have sparks- their banter is clever and fast paced, and Piety’s deft handling of Trevor when he’s more hedgehog with prickles than polished gentleman is a treat. She can’t help herself – she is drawn to him, and is fully aware that this introverted man who is so clever and intriguing is completely unaware of his own destiny.

An engaging secondary set of characters bring a sense of depth to the story: not everything happens in the drawing rooms, and the clever turns of phrase and description are wonderful to behold. While the pacing does pick up rather significantly in the last quarter of the story, and there are some plot elements that seem to fall away, while Piety’s family seems to have one too many encores, the story is a fun and easy read, and perfect to just hide away in, whiling away the hours. It will be interesting to see where the story moves in the next installment, I only hope to see more from Trevor and Piety as their own connection matures.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.