Earls Trip
Archie, the Earl of Harcourt, finds his 1821 vacation with his two best friends diverted to rescuing a neighbor’s daughters, Clementine and Olive Morgan, from a failed elopement. At the ramshackle castle they’ve rented, Archie finds that reconnecting with Clem, his childhood friend, reawakens a part of him that went dormant when he acquired the earldom. But Clem is a woman who prefers the outdoors, and she doesn’t want to be bridled with marriage. She does want to know pleasure, however, and asks Archie to demonstrate. Passion and shared confessions bring them together, but when it’s time to return to London, both wonder if their affair can continue.
It’s a joy to see characters being truly kind to one another, and Holiday creates an entertaining cast of characters with their own eccentricities and vulnerabilities. The two leads are relatable and modern in their sensibilities, including the issue of Clem’s vegetarianism, which becomes the focus of the book for a stretch. At this point it’s hard to take a fresh angle on any of the Regency novel’s beloved tropes, but Holiday’s humor and her prose make this eminently readable. Romance readers will delight in this first in a series.
