The Other Countess by Eve Edwards

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Duty.  Passion.  Which one will rule their hearts?

Ellie – Lady Eleanor Rodriguez, Countess of San Jaime – possesses a worthless title, but her feisty spirit captivates the elite of Queen Elizabeth’s court – especially the dashing new Earl of Dorset.

William Lacey, Earl of Dorset, has inherited his father’s title – and his financial ruin.  Now Will must seek a wealthy bride and restore his family’s fortune.  If only he hadn’t fallen for the beautiful but penniless Ellie…

Sparks fly whenever Ellie and Will are together; however, circumstances – and the conniving interference of others – threaten to keep them apart.

Every twenty-first century book love will fall in love with The Other Countess, the first novel in Eve Edward’s sumptuous historical romance series set in intrigue-filled Elizabethan England.

As you may have read in previous posts, I love historical romance.  So it was no surprise that I chose to review this book.  But after I started to read this, I felt like I was stealing away a book and review that was maybe also meant for Bibliojunkie Bel since she enjoys historical fiction so much.  The Other Countess ended up being a perfect blend of historical romance AND historical fiction.  Eve Edward’s has very obviously done the research to make this historical romance historically accurate in every way she possibly could.  She includes everything in this book that we associate with the Elizabethan time period – the Queen’s court, jousts, banquets, ridiculously uncomfortable clothing, loveless marriages, etc. 

This ended up being much more than just the Lord and Lady falling in love.  There was plenty of intrigue and a number of bad guys all with different agendas.  Ellie was a wonderfully strong and saucy female character that even with her strength became a victim of her era on more than one occasion.  I appreciated that the author did not make it all rainbows for her.  And Will….well Will is great too.  Your typical Lord that struggles with making life decisions based on his family needs or his personal desires.  And of course Will is hot and says beautiful flowery words that a boy would never say this day and age; at least not believably.  And I also have to admit that Will jousting made me think of this…minus the MTV soundtrack, of course.

To the point that I just started seeing Heath Ledger as Will throughout the entire story. So really?  What’s not to love there?

The secondary characters in this book are also strong and surprisingly multi-dimensional.  The only thing I found strange was the attention put on Lady Jane’s maid, Nell.  Her story seemed to have nothing to do with the others.  I can only conclude that she will play a bigger role in The Queen’s Lady which will be released in 2012.

All in all, this was a great read.  If you enjoy historical romance and/or historical fiction, I can’t recommend it enough.

~Nat