3.5* rounded up.

Earl Crush is an enjoyable historical romance novel, with enough action to keep you interested throughout, though I did find the epilogue a little unnecessary. Lydia is an usual heroine, as she is incredibly shy and struggles to speak to people outside of her own family, but writes scathing political pamphlets and, somehow, summons the courage to travel to Scotland, and offers marriage to a man she has been corresponding with for several years but has never met in the flesh. Alfred, our hero, is an incredibly nice guy, a little dour and reserved, he is very unsure of his own worth. He is still struggling with the impact of his father's negligence and emotional abuse. He also owns a herd of zebra.

The central plot involves a mystery that concerns Alfred's brother – this is quite entertaining, and I rather enjoyed the intrigue and capers that resulted as Lydia and Alfred chased information and people across Scotland and down to London. I did, however, find some of the more 'romantic' moments a little repetitive after a while as each scene is quite similar.

The audio was well presented and engaging, read clearly and with pretty good accents all round by Ella Lynch and Alex C Stewart. It's 9h 23m long.

This was such a fun read! Lydia and Arthur were brilliant characters and by the second half of the books the side characters were just as engaging as the two MCs. The pacing was perfect with the perfect balance of chaos, romance, humour and social commentary just like every Alexandra Vasti book I've read. AV will continue to be an autobuy author for me.
The audio book was great, as someone with a Scottish accent I always get a bit nervous when there's going to be a Scottish accent in an audiobook but this narrator did a good job!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free audio book of this book.

Bridgerton fans, this is for you.

Letters sent, a case of mistaken identity, a marriage of convenience, a romp to track down a brother involved in espionage.

Lydia is painfully relatable. Anxious, introverted, more at home writing and reading than attending balls.
Arthur chases zebras, is overprotective, loyal, and stoically quiet.

<b>It was, however, the first time Lydia had vomited in front of a man whom she had recently offered her hand in marriage.
</b>
This is definitely not a clean romance. After the 45% mark, I felt the plot was taken over by steam. For me, this is what brought down the rating as I was fooled by the cute cover and naive, innocent, sweet beginnings.

Arthur’s need to protect EVERYONE started to grate on me too. He refuses to let anyone become involved even if they already are or want to be.

Overall, this is silly, sweet, absurd with weird pacing and an awful last 10% misunderstanding.

Audiobook arc gifted by W.F. Howes Ltd.

Who knew a good bang could cure an anxiety disorder?

I read 'Ne'er Duke Well' last year (via e-book, it must be pointed out) and it was one of my favourite books of the year. It was fun, it was frothy, I had a great time. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for its follow up 'Earl Crush'. Pacing? Structure? Literally any other trope but miscommunication? Who even is she?

'Earl Crush' has a strong enough premise, but the whole thing quickly unravels. The pacing, particularly in the first half, is awful, and the two leads fall head over heels with each other (and start fantasising about having sex with each other) in less than 100 pages, despite the fact that they've just met and there's clearly been an issue with communication between them. Once again, Vasti tries to incorporate the trickier issues of the time - in this book, it's the active displacement of the Scottish people by English overlords by destroying villages - but it's clumsily done. This really isn't the medium through which to explore this issue, particularly as its effects are still felt to this day. 'Ne'er Duke Well' tried to do the same with the slave trade and it sort of worked but this book really reveals the cracks in the foundations, so to speak. Can you really have a pastel cartoon cover and talk about English colonialism at the same time?

I disliked the female audiobook narrator - we hear from her most frequently and the breathy, slightly whiny tone just grated on me like cheese on a...well, a grater. The male narrator was fine and I was glad that their Scottish accents weren't terrible. For a long time, I had a hard time following what was going on - there were so many narrative threads that, rather than developing the central romantic leads, seemed to just be fodder for introducing dozens of new characters and a bizarre plot involving the government. It's almost like this book could not decide what it wanted to be - was it more Mary Balogh or Sarah MacLean?

I found Lydia unbearable. Arthur was painted with maybe one shade of grey, so he didn't necessarily have much to offer between wanting to pull Lydia into bed every five seconds and having a bad relationship with his brother. But Lydia. Oh MY GOD. For a woman who writes radical political pamphlets, I expected her to be less of a snivelling wet blanket all the time. We were spoiled by Selina in the first book, because Lydia was everything I dislike about this genre. Grow a pair woman! You're supposed to be a radical thinker!

I was frustrated by this book. And when I wasn't frustrated, I was bored.

Earl Crush - 4.5

As soon as Lydia meets Arthur at the door of his castle, I was chuckling out loud. There was quite a lot of slapstick in the first third of the book, before the interesting political and mystery plot fully kicked in. The plot was balanced well with the emotion and spice of the romance.

I really enjoyed both main characters. Arthur was sweet and protective, but is also insecure due to his upbringing. Lydia is intelligent, anxious in most social situations and assured in her beliefs. They both felt like complex and realistic people and Arthur had me crying near the end of the book.

Although duet is my favourite kind of narration for more character voice consistency across the two POVs, the dual narration here was good and both narrators were individually great in their sections.

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Listener Copy from NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.