Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers copy of Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti!

This one was so much fun! The Regency setting. The clandestine trip to Scotland. The zebra stampede. The espionage and intrigue. The fake marriage. The blooming romance - and the steamy developments thereof. The found family. The actual family.
It was amusing and entertaining, with giggle-out-loud moments and some delightfully ridiculous and wild twists. It was also very touching, and dealt with very relatable aspects of *feeling worthy* and making oneself *vulnerable to love*.

Another wonderful book by Vasti! Radical taking the reins of her life x reclusive Scottish earl who has no idea coming his way! There is intrigue and a road trip and zebras. The meet cute is hilarious and the epilogue tear jerky. Go read Earl Crush now!!

Alexandra Vasti can do no wrong, as far as I am concerned. This is her second (incredible) novel, but I was a fan of her novellas, as well, and she perfectly captures the delight and whimsy of a historical romance with modern sensibilities, while holding onto the romantic and steamy aspects we know and love. The STAKES were THERE, the SITUATIONS were FUN, the TENSION was SEXUAL. Love love love. Can't wait for the next one!

Oh Earl Crush! I loved this historical romance by Alexandra Vasti so much more than her previous novel. From the beginning, with the heroine practicing a proposal to the Earl of Strathrannoch (whom she'd only corresponded with), to the zebras (you'll have to read it), to the cinnamon roll titular hero (surprise, whose brother had impersonated him via pen), everything was note perfect for me until the very end. The whole romance was predicated on the stolen identity, and the fact that the ne'er do well sibling had done the heroine an unkind turn.

spoilers

Except when said brother actually appeared I felt so badly for the story Vasti gave him and his reasons that I was all, gah! Well, please give him a story then. But alas, in the epilogue he has a somewhat satisfying short "he married X, was fine." Boooooooooo.

Almost 5 stars. Will round it up. But dang. So close.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

4 stars!

Alexandra Vasti sure knows how to write a charming, entertaining book! I devoured "Earl Crush" super quickly! It's so much fun. It is frequently wild and intensely funny. I laughed out loud every single chapter, I think. I adored these characters, the situations, the resolution! Lydia and Arthur FOREVER. I am going to be thinking about them for a long, long time. You know what they say when they say "opposites attract"? They are the perfect encapsulation of that notion. Their personalities and quirks play off of one another well. Arthur wants nothing more than to make Lydia happy because, while he is brutish on the outside, he is soft and squishy on the inside. Lydia is shy and tends to struggle in social situations. While it takes them a bit to realize their true feelings for one another, the payoff is absolutely worth it. *swoon* I really enjoyed this one. I will read anything Alexandra Vasti writes. I love how her historical romances are expanding my romantic reading tastes!

Thank you to NetGalley, Alexandra Vasti, St. Martin's Press, and St. Martin's Griffin for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Omg , if I loved the first one I adored this second one. Extremely cute . And the Scottish man 😍😍😍😍. This was so fun, I was cracking up most of the book. I like that it connects characters from the first book so well. The story is entertaining and fun. And both of the MMC are fun in their own way. Definitely recommend and hopefully we get more in this series

Alexandra Vasti has joined my "I'll read whatever she writes" list! This book centered somewhat around a trope I don't love, but I thought the book as a whole was delightful, and Vasti writes a great Regency with the right modern sensibility for this reader. I'll definitely be checking out the next one!

THE EARL CRUSH in Jamaica. I had been reading it, but social media currently just killed posting it earlier for me. Although I MUST post about this gorgeous book so here I am.

@alexandravasti has super adorable chaotic everything going on in here. And zebras. My gosh I love those zebras.

But my favorite part after all Lydia and Arthur go through the mad chase, the ridiculous diversion he cococts to get in the inn, the piecemeal deconstruction of the carriage wooden floor to escape, and so many more, is the brothers! 😀🤗😆😆😆
Here is what I mean, best line imo!

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By the time dinner began, Arthur had met the rest of the Hope-Wallace brothers and concluded that they ought to be separated from one another for the general safety of the British Isles. Preferably via incarceration.
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Lydia is shy , introverted , neurodivergent in modern terms, but is strong and determined when it matters the most. For Arthur, she breaks free of her chokehokds , dashes after him on a horse, and even stands up to her brothers to defend him. We all have that tiny corner in our mind that's a Lydia. She outshines when she thinks Arthur might be in danger.

Arthur, the adorable giant earl, is a very strong and reliable hero. We know he'd not back out in any situation no matter how lacking he thinks he is, and he delivers. Even when he is self-conscious about his poor finances and what he can't provide to Lydia, he does not think to leave her side. Oh, that livery scene 😆😆😆. But he strongly moves through it.

All in all, this book kept me going this year (somehow making me cope with what's happening in the country). A big thanks!

Thanks, St. Martin and @netgalley, for this gem!!

Welcome back to Alexandra Vasti’s Regency Britain where a wealthy wallflower with a secret life as a political pamphleteer and a broke Scottish earl with whom she’s been semi-anonymously corresponding embark on a high-stakes mystery chase as they seek to stop a potential murderous plot. I love that Lydia - so bold when she puts pen to paper but an absolute wreck whenever required to speak to an human man - decides to reverse gold-digger herself, seeking out the practically destitute Arthur to to proposition him to marry her for her money. The twists, including the case of mistaken identity in the description, require one to suspend one’s disbelief, and the plot Lydia and Arthur hope to disrupt is more convoluted than clever. The characters are unevenly and broadly written and their behavior left me scratching my head on more than one occasion.

And yet! I enjoyed the heck out of this, as I did the previous book in this series, and very much look forward to the next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5 stars rounded up.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<b>Disclaimer!</b> This was an ARC granted to me from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Lydia Hope-Wallace is a wallflower, and perfectly happy to remain so, because she has crippling social anxiety and tends to throw up if forced to interact too much with people outside her immediate family or friends. She's been secretly writing seditious pamphlets and publishing them anonymously for the past three years, and for almost as long, she has been corresponding with a man she believes to be the Earl of Strathrannnoch. When she discovers that Strathrannoch castle is pretty much falling down and the earldom has no funds to fix this with, she rather impulsively decides to go see her penpal and offer him a marriage of convenience. Lydia may be a wallflower, but she's also the second richest heiress on the marriage mart, and all those buckets of money that come with her hand in marriage should be enough to restore any mouldering old castle and struggling estate.

Unfortunately, when she arrives in Scotland, her pragmatic and sensible friend Georgiana in tow, she discovers that Arthur Baird, the Earl of Strathrannoch, has no idea who she is. It turns out that it's Arthur's younger brother who has been writing to Lydia for all these years, and he's currently gone missing, having stolen one of Arthur's inventions to boot. Arthur isn't entirely sure what to do with the beautiful flustered redhead on his doorstep, let alone why she might be proposing to marry him, but Lydia is his best chance at trying to track down his missing brother, who might be wanting to use Arthur's invention (a telescopic rifle sight) for nefarious means. So while she's initially mortified and tries to run away, he's able to persuade her to help him locate his brother.

What follows is a road trip romp, involving zebras, awkward house parties, Arthur and Lydia having to pretend to be married, lying to family friends, and lying to Lydia's brother, who suddenly shows up in Scotland under an assumed name, possibly treasonous French people, spies, a possible plot against the Duke of Wellington and more. There is a whole lot of travelling from Scotland to London or from London to Scotland at speeds that seem implausible to me, and the rigours of travel mostly being ignored in service of the light-hearted plot.

Arthur is convinced Lydia is in love with his brother (she's not, she really did want to offer him a platonic marriage of convenience so he could use her money). Lydia is cripplingly shy and struggles in any social situation, and doesn't think anyone could ever want her. Both are madly attracted to the other, but it takes some time for them to realise this and act on their feelings. Once they do, there's a fair amount of smexy times, including outside in what seems to be rather a cold forest grove. There's a lot of pining and angst from both characters, even after they've actually started acting on their pants feelings, culminating in Arthur doing something truly stupid towards the end of the book (it's OK, he grovels and makes it all better after a while).

As well as the reappearance of characters the reader may have met in <I>Ne'er Duke Well</i> (Selina and her husband, as well as Georgiana), there is a rather large supporting cast, including the lovely retainers at Arthur's castle, who keep conspiring to make sure he and Lydia end up together, Lydia's four older brothers and even her rather meddlesome mother are all a lot of fun. This was an entertaining book, but there seemed to be too many shenanigans and a bit too much "he/she couldn't possibly love ME" for it to be one that I see myself revisiting for comfort rereads. I'm very excited for the third book in the series, though, where Georgiana finally meets her (sapphic) match. That's not out until September, sadly.

<b>Judging a book by its cover:</b> I like that while the cover for <I>Ne'er Duke Well</i> was mostly in blue and green, here there is a lot of violet and purple to complement the green. What I don't like is how tiny the guy in the carriage is. Arthur is described as a big hulking giant of a man so many times throughout the book, this guy looks perfectly normal-sized. Disappointing.

Quick Synopsis: Lydia shows up on the Earl of Stanhope's doorstep and is like, "Hey, let's get married!" Except he's like, "So sorry, who are you?" Turns out she's been in communication with his brother who has been pretending to be him. So rude. And now they have to find his brother because he took off with a rifle scope that allows for *bang bang* to happen from very far away. Yikes! So, off they go on a rollicking adventure with lots of scheming and fun times. Including pretending to be married. *swoon*

I had so much fun with this book, even more than in Ne'er Duke Well, which was also great fun (review of that one to come). Lydia's intense social anxiety paired with Arthur's desire to make her comfortable and then the scheming of the people closest to Arthur to bring them together... A great mixture. I also love that this one is actually such an adventure that was just so much fun. I'm not sure that it's a favorite of all time, but it was an extremely well executed and super fun book that I can see myself revisiting if I just need some joy.

Not good. I had to stop reading. Nothing sharp or smart about this one. Sadly, I couldn’t finish. I tried.

Alex, does it again! She managed to write something that is both heartfelt and humorous. Arthur is somehow a brawny curmudgeony softy, with a heart of gold and also feels not good enough after being verbally beat down by his father. Lydia has social anxiety but is still very brave in writing opinions that could get her arrested. He's a goner for her from the start in typical Vasti-Verse. And I love it. She's totally taken by his size and enamored by his smell and voice. Also here for it.

The story is just as much about them falling in love as it is the plot of possible treason by Arthur's brother, Davis. I was captivated, and I was fully invested in finding out the truth behind Davis's motives and he's really up to. Vasti continues to surprise us with side characters and giving us little glimpses into their lives, leaving us with more questions than answers in hopes that we will see these people in future installments.

This was a captivating, original, and well written romance. The humor, wit, drama, exotic animals, carriage accidents, espionage, Bonapartests, intrigue, and other plot twists and emotional issues that kept me very entertained. I enjoyed the surprising relationship that built up to a steamy, passionate love and the delightful ending. I highly recommend reading!

A charming historical with a shy but opinionated heroine and an impoverished Scottish earl. The two are thrown together in the hunt for the earl's dastardly brother and, as you'd espect, shenanigans ensue.

This is a great option for anyone looking for Bridgerton read-alikes.

God I love Alexandra Vasti's books!! They are my new form of pure escapism. Move over Tessa Dare and Lisa Kleypas, there's a new historical romance queen in town! (I jest, there's seats at the table for all). If you've been craving something to fill the wait between Bridgerton seasons, might I suggest Earl Crush - and its predecessor, Ne'er Duke Well. They're funny, they're sweet, they're swoony.

Earl Crush is a historical rom-com with a dash of silliness thrown in. It took me a while to get sucked in, but once I did, I found it quite enjoyable. Even though it's the second book in a series, and I haven't read the first one, it wasn't a problem. The story stood perfectly well on its own. Overall, this was a delightful read. So, if you're looking for a light, fun historical rom-com read, I'd recommend it.

Overall enjoyed this! I think I preferred this one over the first book, and had a jolly good time reading it

I think both the hype around this author and the early promise of her Hellions novella series have been a detriment to my enjoyment of her novels, which still aren't able to deliver on the ambitions of their influences quite yet. This one was nonetheless a pleasant enough read and if I had gone into it with no expectations or previous exposure to Vasti's work I would have found it enjoyable if ultimately not memorable--which to be fair isn't the worst thing in the world, and the latter also applies to the vast majority of not just historical romance titles but the majority of books, period--but that wasn't the case. I did think it was a little better than the previous novel, though, and the next in the series is about sapphic Gothic novelists so just based on that alone I'll probably give it a chance to see if it does more for me. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!