ARC Review: Earl's Choice (Regency Royals #2) by Jess Michaels
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Series: Regency Royals #2
Author: Jess Michaels
Published September 21st 2021 by The Passionate Pen LLC
Goodreads Synopsis
The second book in the regal series by 10 time USA Today bestselling author Jess Michaels.
Thomas, the Earl of Bramwell, has one duty: to repair his family’s fallen fortunes by marrying Princess Ilaria of Athawick. It’s not something he looks forward to, but he is resigned to it and it seems the princess is equally unenthusiastic. Everything changes when he meets her body double, Sasha Killick. His life is immediately turned upside down by the beautiful woman who catches his attention far more than any princess.
Sasha is an adopted daughter of the royal family, but she’s always felt on the outside looking in on her family. Because of how similar they look, she does what is required to help protect the princess, which is how she finds herself out on a terrace with Thomas. Now her head is spinning. This is the man intended for a woman she considers her sister. She cannot betray someone she loves, even if Thomas does make her heart flutter.
An immediate attraction begins to build to a love that can never be. But when Sasha’s life is endangered by people seeking to harm Ilaria, Thomas must decide if he’s willing to lose the woman who has altered his existence in every way that matters.
Heat Level: All the longing and eventually...all the other stuff.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
Adopted into the Athawick Royal family from the age of 6, Sasha Killick owes her family everything. She has that strange position of adopted daughter/sister, and companion/body double, so is always feeling like she is on the outside looking in. No one outside the family has ever discovered that she sometimes stands in for her sister, Ilaria, until now. When Thomas, Earl of Bramwell, discovers that the only way for him to save the estate is to marry, and marry well, his mother thrusts him towards the beautiful Princess Ilaria. Needing to breathe from the expectations, he slopes off to the terrace during the Royal Ball, and meets Sasha, and is immediately drawn to her in a way he's never been before. He knows that he should do his duty, but whenever he thinks of Ilaria, he's always drawn to Sasha, and then as Sasha puts herself in the way of an assassin to protect Ilaria, Thomas will do just about everything to save her, even if it breaks his heart in the process. Can they be together, or is duty too strong to overcome?
I loved Sasha and Thomas when we met them in To Protect a Princess, and this story basically runs alongside the action of Ilaria and Jonah's book. Sasha occupies a strange position with the royal family. Her parent's died when she was six, and she only had her father's steward, Dash, for company and protection, and he's become a father figure to her since working in the king, and later, queen's household. The king didn't care about her, but Queen Giabella loved her like a daughter, and wanted her to be honoured the same way as her adopted siblings, the princes and princess. However, as a teenager, she was made Ilaria's companion, and body double, so was now somewhat of a servant, but one who called the queen Mama. I felt for her so much. Sasha would do anything for her family, but was wholly aware of her position, and never thought much about just how much the royals loved her. She expected to stay with Ilaria her whole life, but when it seemed like Ilaria would marry the only man she could ever love, it was too much for her. Thomas was the same, really. He inherited a broken estate, and the scandal of his sister's marriage to Nicholas Gillingham, before regaining some of their reputation, lead him to realise he needs to marry an heiress, to keep afloat. He doesn't expect to find love, and resigns himself to marry Ilaria, though there's no spark there, but meeting Sasha makes him wish everything was different. So many forces are going against them, and it's only because I've read To Protect a Princess that I knew a happy ending could be expected. Jess creates fantastic romances, and I am desperate for the other three books in the series, especially Giabella's!
Dates Read:
September 3-4, 2021
Rating
4 Stars
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