In his nightmares Major Neil Wraxall is still battling the violent war that took the lives of his men and his only brother. He may have come home a war hero but as an illegitimate son, he is at the beck and call of his father; who assigns Neil the impossible task of bringing the headstrong Lady Juliana back home from the rundown Sunnybrooke Home For Wayward Boys and the twelve rambunctious orphans she is trying to keep in order. Juliana isn't going anywhere . . . so neither is Neil, who soon finds himself whipping the motley crew of boys into shape.



(In other news, I just got the title of this book...Get it? It's about a home for boys? No girls allowed. Also, I don't think there are any Earls in this book...Wraxall's father is a Marquess. . . )



No Earls Allowed sort of had the feel of a fun 80's rompy comedy as Neil uses his military know how to get the wayward boys in order . . .while also foiling a corruption plot? I don't usually go for books with kids in them, but there is something endearing about the flurry of chaos that erupts with everyone under one roof.



This series is all about self-assured war heroes meeting their match with plucky headstrong heroines and Lady Juliana is no exception. Lady Juliana is determined to turn Sunnybrooke into a real home and while she accepts Neil's help, she refuses to let any of the boys slip out of her protection.



Did I mention that this book has a virgin hero? I don't think it's that big of a spoiler because it doesn't have anything to do with the plot and is revealed early on. Knowing the difficulties of being an illegitimate child Neil never wanted to risk having one of his own. His choice to abstain is because of social constraints, something we usually only think about with women and I think it's worth noting Galen applies this to the hero.



A heartwarming romance that isn't afraid to bring the heat.

Sorry but I couldn't get into the book at all. I tried though, I'm so sorry for my ADD brain.

Lady Juliana has decided to run an very run-down orphanage on the edge of the slums. Neil Wraxall, one of Draven's Survivors, has been tasked by her father to make her move back home. She's quality, he's a nobelman's illegitimate although acknowledged, son. Neither has any desire to marry anyone. She's being harassed by one of the worst slumlords in London -- her father's money or her in his bed. Neil is fortunately very handy and helps repair the orphanage, and protects the boys and Juliana to the best of his abilities, helped when needed by the rest of the Survivors. However, both are very attracted to each other, and scandal looms. It's a lot of fun watching their interactions!

I just couldn't get into this. The writing style was not for me, the plot moved in sudden jumps and spurts that didn't seem to make much sense, and it felt like it was just all over the place. DNF'd about a third of the way through. (Sorry!)

Lady Juliana has taken up residency at boys home. Major Neil Wraxall is assigned to bring her back home. What he thinks is going to be an easy job turns out to be nothing but. Juliana has fallen in love with the boys and will do anything to keep them safe. With the odds against her, Wraxall jumps in to help. Being nothing more than the illegitimate son of an Earl he feels he can do nothing more than to admire her from afar. Some long nights at the orphanage change that and Lady Juliana finds she has more to love than just the boys.

In an Oyster Shell – It was a satisfying romance that will leave your heart full of the robust characters.

The Pearls – I love a good regency but this one stands all on its own. The Lady is running an orphanage which is really beneath her station. I liked the uniqueness of this. I loved how it had less to do with society and more to do with the orphans. This paired with a man who has no station by title but has earned it by the favor of his father and his work in the war efforts makes for a great story that stands apart from all other regencies.

There were a lot of characters but there was little confusion of who was who. The boys that Juliana is looking over will steal your heart. Wraxall being able to relate to the boys and in turn work on the demons of his past was really inspiring. This is a character-driven book that left me turning page after page in earnest.

So refreshing! I’ll tell you why. The hero is a man born out of wedlock, a bastard, who never wants that stigma or shame attached to his child, so he’s made a life choice to remain chaste. Well, chaste is probably an over-statement since he's done everything but have intercourse, but for the purposes of this story, he's a virgin. I love that. He’s also a war hero who’s haunted, but loyal and still expecting to remain alone (if you don’t count the 11 men who cheated death with him whom he consider to be his brothers) yet, somehow he finds, love, purpose and maybe even redemption. The heroine and the kids in the story are great too, but the hero alone is worth reading this one again and again.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Neil Wraxall, bastard son of a Marquess, is just home from the war, fighting demons he can’t seem to shake when he is summoned by his father for an “errand”. Neil wants nothing more than to keep to himself and his bottle but knows he can’t disappoint and this errand should be easy. Easy goes out the window when he meets Lady Juliana.
Lady Juliana hates polite society. All she wants to do is run her charity- a home for orphans...boy orphans. No the home isn’t in the right part of town, no the building isn’t in the greatest shape, yes a hideous crime lord is making certain advances to keep Lady Juliana “safe”. She’s in over her head but refuses to give up. Her promise won’t let her quit.
When the most beautiful man she’s ever seen shows up to escort her back to her father the Earl, Lady Juliana is adamant about staying even as chaos reigns down around her. Neil has never met anyone like Lady Juliana nor can he turn his back on her plight and that of her “children”. Can Juliana help Neil find his way back into the light and can Neil help Juliana keep her promise?
This book has it all, mystery, laugh out loud moments, great characters, and an interesting storyline with a few twists. Just what you expect from a Shana Galen novel! Enjoy!

Another survivor bites the dust. This time it is Neil Wraxall and his load of guilt. He was the commander of the group and still feels the loss of friends who died. His current job turns out to be a lot more than he thought. Lady Juliana is stubborn and will not leave the orphanage that she is running. Neil must protect her from the danger she finds herself in. Both have issues in their past that are affecting their behavior in the here and now. A nice addition to the new series. Both Neil and Juliana are wonderful characters who must work to overcome events in their past in order to enjoy their present and their future.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

No Earls Allowed

The Survivors

Shana Galen

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release date March 6, 2018

386 pages, ebook, paperback, audiobook, audio CD

Historical Romance

✮✮✮✮✮
I was provided a complimentary ARC by Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley. This is my honest review for which I receive no compensation of any kind.

The cover is lovely with all that pretty blue that is so eye-catching. It really doesn’t say a whole lot about the book, but there are an old house and a lovely lady in the book, so I guess you could say it relates, but the old house is in town and the lovely lady is working in an orphanage wearing her simplest gowns and getting her hands dirty. The story is quite entertaining. I really enjoyed it. The characters were very well-done, good and bad ones. The bad, bad guy was really creepy and I wasn’t sorry to see him finally get his just rewards. The pace was brisk with all the mishaps and trouble the orphans got into and the trouble brought on by the bad guys. The tension was pretty constant, even during the love scenes, when you were just sure they were going to be discovered!

And here begins the reveal…

This is a series called The Survivors. The survivors are from a suicide troop hand-picked to go because they answered the question “Are you afraid to die?” with the correct answer. Of the thirty who went, only a dozen came back. They called themselves Draven’s Dozen after the man who sent them and established the Draven Club, a gentlemen’s club, for themselves in London that was available to them 24-hours a day. With their PTSD and other battle induced problems, often they used it 24-hours a day. They had given each other nicknames over the time they were together. Our hero, Neil Wraxall, the recognized bastard son of the Marquiss of Kensington, was known as The Warrior. To those who were close to him, he was known as The Virgin Warrior. The Warrior because he was the recognized leader of their group and a mighty fighter. The men took orders from him without hesitation and still do. The virgin part took a bit more explaining. He was a recognized bastard. He had been educated and raised as a gentleman, however, when it came to women and marriage, he was still a penniless bastard. It was hands-off as far as society was concerned. He never wanted to pass that on to any child of his, so he refused to chance to foster any bastards. He was a virgin. That’s not to say he hadn’t made love to a woman, but he had never had actual intercourse. He had made an art of the act of love without intercourse.

Our heroine is Lady Juliana, the daughter of the Earl of St. Maur. The only surviving daughter. Her sister was dead, lost in childbirth. Her son lost to his highly unsuitable father at six months of age. Her sister had been mistreated and discarded in her marriage, and Juliana had set herself against marriage as a whole and for herself specifically. She dedicated herself to caring for the discarded boys at Sunnybrooke Home for Boys, previously known as St. Dismas’ Home for Wayward Youth. This was a crumbling house with twelve boys of varying ages. Lady Juliana had moved in there against her father’s wishes, but she felt she needed to be onsight. Her lady’s maid had quit last week. Mrs. Nesbit, the cook, quit today sighting the crumbling house and old equipment that no number of promises to replace would fix. And 3 rats!

Mr. Slag comes to call to make an offer of protection. Mr. Goring has let him in, which Juliana isn’t particularly happy about, but she figures Mr. Goring is as afraid of him as she is. Mr. Slag’s price for protection includes time in Lady Juliana’s bed as well as a whole lot of money. She tries to keep things polite and double talks him with polite misunderstanding, but Mr. Slag is just totally unpleasant and evil. Thankfully, there is a disaster with the boys’ breakfast burning and she is able to escape Mr. Slag. Then Mr. Neil Wraxall shows up. He ends up buying pies for breakfast and getting a firsthand introduction to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. When he inquires about John, he is told: “We don’t discuss John”. Matthew, Mark, and Luke happened to be the boys’ pet rats. Little Charlie is especially fond of them. They do have a cage, but it’s not terribly secure. Neil promises to make them a more secure cage at his first opportunity. Rats are not his favorite animal.

The Earl has contacted his old school friend the Marquiss, who has sent his son to bring the recalcitrant daughter home. But the daughter is not coming home. She feels the orphanage is her home now. So Neil decides what he has to do is figure out how he can ensure her safety in the orphanage. He finds the house itself is wide open to invasion… no a single latch on windows or doors fastens properly or securely, things have been fiddled with so only look like they’re locked or latched. The roof leaks really badly as well, to the point that they can’t cook a meal if it’s raining since it requires all the buckets, pots, and pans to catch the leaks.

The teacher, Mrs. Fleming quits as well. So Lady Juliana calls in her former governess, Mrs. Dunwitty. Mr. Goring keeps going missing and no one seems to know where, so Neil sets Lord Jasper Grantham, Runner on his trail to find out just what the servant is up to. In the meantime, Neil is treating the boys the only way he knows how, like a bunch of tender, young soldiers, and they love it. They’ve started calling him Major and they see him as a father figure. They’re working on keeping the old house clean and neat and getting repairs done as well as learning the basics of how society gets along.

Neil and Juliana have a run-in in the library one night. Both are exhausted and frustrated. They talk, actually talk, for the first time about each of their points of view and start to really see each other as people rather than adversaries. Neil talks about the war. Juliana talks about her sister. They both fall asleep on a couch in the library and are still there the next morning when Mrs. Dunwitty arrives. Thank heavens she’s an understanding woman with a lot of common sense. She takes over the boys’ education and that leaves Neil and Juliana more time for other things. Things like kisses, going to balls, setting fire to the Ox and Bull (Mr. Slag’s business), and falling into bed together. The first ball is an opportunity for Mr. Slag to get close enough to Juliana to threaten her again and tell her that the price of his protection is now doubled and a month in her bed. This leads to a fight at the Ox and Bull, to which Wraxall takes The Protector, Ewan Mostyn, and Lady Juliana (at her insistence). A fire starts and the Ox and Bull burns with Mr. Slag inside. It is assumed Mr. Slag is now dead.

Not so! The Protector is left in charge of sleeping boys while everyone else is at another ball. They come home to find a sleeping Charlie in The Protector’s arms. “He needed a hug.” Upstairs Juliana finds Mr. Slag, burned to look like the evil he is and still threatening them. Another fight, this time Neil has Rafe Beaumont with him and it is finally an end to Mr. Slag’s evil. Mr. Goring is set straight. Billy is given a choice. The boys are all safe and sound. And Neil and Juliana are married. As a special surprise, Neil tracks down little Davy, Juliana’s nephew, and bribes his father to let him go. He brings Davy home to Juliana, who couldn’t be happier with her bastard husband, bought nephew, and house full of orphans. She’s even on better terms with her father now.

A wonderful romp, a hot love story, and a lot of fun!

Recommended.

I’ve really enjoyed this series; out of the ordinary heroes and heroines that deserve these strong and caring men. I loved the orphan boys in this book, they brought out the best in all of the characters.

Loved it! Start to finish simplay
an amazing read!

Neil Wraxall is the illegitimate, though acknowledged, son of Marquess Kensington, who educated and provides for him. While he was a soldier, Neil was part of a squad now known as Draven's Dozen, because only twelve of the original thirty men survived. Neil is wracked with guilt over the death of his half-brother, and is plagued with nightmares. He spends the bulk of his time at his club with his fellow survivors. Neil is pulled from his melancholy when his father has an assignment for him. He must go to the St. Dismas Home for Wayward Youth, and ensure that Juliana St. Maur is removed from the premises and escorted safely to her home.

Juliana (Julia)has been attempting to keep the home afloat, though one disaster after another has befallen the place, which she now calls "Sunnybrooke." She refuses her father's summons to return home, and Neil Wraxall is not going to persuade her to leave. When Julia stubbornly refuses to leave, Neil determines that he, too, will remain until he can persuade her to change her mind. What ensues is that Neil finds himself becoming involved with the orphaned boys living in the home and in the daily activity. His military experience soon has the unruly boys working about the place, cleaning, building, and repairing.

While this activity is happening, Julia and Neil are finding that they are greatly attracted to each other. Neil's feelings of guilt and unworthiness make him feel that he could never deserve a woman like Julia, and his own illegitimacy has caused him to vow to never take a chance on fathering a child of his own outside of marriage. The road to their happy ever after is rocky, as the baggage Neil is carrying is great. He is even further panicked when he realizes that the boys might be looking to him as a father figure.

I loved the character of Neil, and felt heartbroken over his misplaced guilt. Julia's heart was in the right place, but she did not always act in the most intelligent manner. I believe part of that was her being naive, but part of it was just being stubborn. There are some amusing moments, and some action to go along with the sweet, yet steamy romance, which made NO EARLS ALLOWED a satisfying and enjoyable read.

I absolutely adored Julia and Neil's story. Though I haven't yet read Ewan's (the first book in the series, Third Son's a Charm --there's no excuse, because I own a copy already!) it didn't matter a bit because this one worked just fine on its own. Though the brief glimpse we do get of Ewan has me more than curious about what his story could be so...

(Sleep. It's totally overrated.)

Events in Julia's past have propelled her from a life of luxury to take charge of a home for orphaned boys, which is where (former Army) Major Neil Wraxall, the recognized but illegitimate son of a marquess finds her while performing a job for his father. Neil thinks getting Lady Julia will be no problem at all, but obviously has more than a few thinks coming on that front...

I loved that Ms. Galen gave all twelve of the boys at the orphanage such distinct personalities and made them all feel like characters in their own right rather than mere plot moppets. Watching them all interact with "Major" made for some of my favorite parts of the book. And those pet rats--LOL, he never will be free of them, that's for sure!

With Julia and her boys within the sights of the local crime boss, there were many edge-of-your-seat moments in this book, nicely balanced with equally charged (but in a different way, of course!) moments between Julia and Neil. It was a refreshing change to have a hero and heroine who manage to stay (technical) virgins until their (you know it's coming, right? Slight spoiler here if not) wedding night; not to worry, though, they do get up to some other very steamy shenanigans in the meantime.

I finished the book blinking back more than a few happy tears, looking forward to the next one in the series!

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

I must confess that wounded war heroes and children in novels are not usually my cup of tea and yet ... I was completely enchanted by Shana Galen's latest, No Earls Allowed, which features a wounded war hero and an whole orphanage full of children. After witnessing her beloved sister's disastrous marriage, Lady Julianna is determined to remain unwed. Instead, she devotes herself to running an orphanage and avoiding the neighborhood crime lord. As gently bred ladies are wont to do.

But her father has Other Ideas and sends war hero Mr. Neil Wraxall to fetch her home to a respectable life in Mayfair. Instead, Neil stays. When he's not repairing the roof and imposing military order on a household of troublesome orphaned boys, he's falling hard for Lady Julianna. Though he's a war hero, he's also a bastard son and so is convinced he's not good enough for her, but Julianna finds he's just the man she needs. This is a sweet and soulful romance about two wounded souls finding love and family together. Spoiler alert: This novel also features a rare sighting of the elusive Virgin Hero!

ROMANCE AND SEDUCTION AT ITS BEST!!!!

Shana Galen is an outstanding, amazing author with a permanent home on my favored treasure list, has a permanent place on my auto buy list, and one of my go to authors when I need something to read and can’t make up my mind, but if I want something to really pull me in, I reach for one of hers. No Earls Allowed, as I knew it would, being written by Shana Galen, held me captivated from the very first page. This very well written complete romance is filled with passion and mystery, with characters that pull you into the story and make you feel as if you are present watching everything as it unfolds. This book is a page turner keeper shelf read and reread you will not want to put down. Make sure you have cleared your schedule when you open this book as it holds and doesn't let go until the last word is finished.

Lady Juliana, an earl’s daughter, is a feisty heroine who runs a ramshackle orphanage and needs all the help she can get. London’s worst slumlord has illicit designs on her, her father is determined to marry her off, and she also must deal with scandal. However, she believes that a lady can do anything a man can do: backwards and in high-heeled dancing slippers.

Major Neil Wraxall, bastard son of the Marquess of Kensington, is sent to assist Lady Juliana in any way he can. Lucky for her, he's handy with repairs, knows how to keep her and the orphans safe, and is a natural leader of men.

Unfortunately for both of them, the scandal that ensues from their mutual attraction is going to lead them a merry dance...

I highly recommend No Earls Allowed, book 2 of the Survivor series, and any other book written by Shana Galen, to anyone who loves reading historical romance. This read is one of those rare books a reader picks, reads, and doesn't forget. It can be read, reread, and reread, will never lose the ability to capture and hold each time as if it were being read the first time.

No Earls Allowed is book two in Shana Galen’s Survivors series, and like the first book, Third Son’s a Charm, features one of the men who had belonged to a specialist ‘suicide troop’ formed during the Napoleonic wars. The group consisted originally of thirty, all of them single men, some of them younger sons, some of them by-blows – but all of them expendable; and under the command of Major Neil Wraxall, the men were given the most dangerous missions, missions from which they were not expected to return – and many did not. By the end of the war, thirty had become a mere dozen, and even though the war has ended, Wraxall continues to carry a mountain of guilt for the eighteen men who did not return as well as for the death of his half-brother Christopher, the oldest legitimate son of their father, the Marquess of Kensington.

Neil’s life as an illegitimate son has perhaps been easier than many others in his situation given that his father acknowledged him from birth; he provided for him, made sure Neil had a good education and upbringing and then purchased his army commission. In spite of that, however, Neil still feels his status – or lack thereof – as a bastard, and has never really felt as though he fit in or belonged anywhere apart from with his company of men in the army. Now the war is over, he spends most of his time at his club with his closest friends – Ewan Mostyn and Rafe Beaumont – or alone, wallowing in guilt and consuming large amounts of strong drink in the attempt to keep the nightmares at bay.

When Neil receives a note from his father asking to see him, he isn’t too surprised. Neil performs the odd service for the marquess now and again, and he takes himself off, wondering what his father needs him to do this time. The last thing he expects is to be asked to retrieve an earl’s daughter from an orphanage for young boys located in one of the less salubrious areas of London; but Neil can’t imagine it’ll be difficult and arrives just in time to discover the earl’s daughter in question being importuned by an unsavoury character.

Lady Juliana (Julia) is the one remaining unmarried daughter of the Earl of St. Maur, and is currently residing at the Sunnybrooke Home for Boys in Spitalfields where she is trying desperately to keep the place running without sufficient funds and staff. When her sister, Harriett, was alive, the home had been one of the charities to which the two of them donated, although it had been Harriett who had been the truly tireless supporter of that particular orphanage and several others; but after Harriett’s death in childbirth, the home has become something of an emotional crutch for Julia, who sees devoting herself to Sunnybrooke as a way to keep Harriett’s memory alive. The earl is naturally concerned and wants Julia to return home to the world of the ton as befits her station in life, but she will hear none of it. The boys need her, and given the way her beloved sister’s husband treated her, Julia has decided she wants nothing to do with men or marriage.

Added to Julia’s many problems – pilfering from the pantry, the resignation of the cook, the leaky roof and a trio of escaped pet rats – is Mr. Slag, the local crime-lord who is pressing her for payment of a large sum of money in exchange for his ‘protection’ – or if not money, he insinuates another way in which he would become her protector. Julia has just got rid of him – for now – when Neil arrives and stops her dead in her tracks. With his dark hair, well-muscled build and startlingly blue eyes, he’s the most gorgeous man Julia has ever seen and, lost in contemplation of all that male beauty, Julia fails to recall she’d been cooking breakfast for the boys when Slag had turned up – a fact that suddenly makes itself known courtesy of the burning smell emanating from the kitchen.

Neil hadn’t planned to spend the day sorting out breakfast, wrangling rats and a group of young boys alike, but he quickly realises that the notion he could simply tell the lady that her father wants her home and then escort her there was rather wide of the mark and that she’s not going to meekly obey the earl’s summons. He decides instead that the best way to get Julia out of there is to make sure the orphanage is safe (none of the door and windows lock properly), clean and dry (the roof leaks and the boys are slobs) and that proper staff are engaged… but it quickly becomes apparent, even when the place is tidier and more secure, that Julia isn’t going to go back to her father’s house. And if she stays at the orphanage, then Neil stays, especially when he discovers that one of Julia’s servants is working for Slag.

No Earls Allowed (a title which seems to have no bearing on the actual story) is an enjoyable and entertaining read, but I found the premise of an earl’s daughter running an orphanage while still being accepted by the ton to require quite a large stretch of my credulity. I did, however like that Ms. Galen gives Julia underlying and unacknowledged (to herself) reasons for her determination to run the place, rather than making her a blithe Lady Bountiful type – as I said earlier, it’s clear she’s using the place as some sort of emotional crutch and, as her former governess points out, that she’s using it to hide from life. She’s determined and gutsy, and I liked her – until, towards the end of the book, she turns into one of my least favourite heroine-types, the one who, when told to stay behind for her own safety (and because the hero wants not to have to worry about her while he’s confronting the bad guys) insists on tagging along and then has to be rescued. And while Neil is a wonderful hero – handsome, kind, honourable and just plain decent – he has his moment of stupidity near the end, which just feels tacked on in order to provide a bit of last minute drama. Which it doesn’t.

Some of the best moments in the book are provided by the interactions between Neil and the boys. I’m not normally fond of children in romance novels, but I’m pleased to say that Ms. Galen writes them all well, and does a great job of showing how they bond with Neil and adopt him as a father figure, and how he so naturally steps into that breach and takes charge of them and the orphanage. The romance between Neil and Juliana is sensual and nicely-developed; they have scorching chemistry and in making Neil a man who knows all too well the stigma of illegitimacy, of being ostracised, talked about and looked down on, she has created a hero who is a little different from the norm, a man fully aware of the consequences of passion and so unwilling to visit them upon an innocent child that he has remained (technically) a virgin – although luckily for Julia, he’s not inexperienced (!).

I enjoyed meeting Ewan and Rafe again; their unquestioning loyalty and the snarky banter between Neil and Rafe are other high points, and overall, I enjoyed the No Earls Allowed in spite of my reservations. I’ll definitely be reading the next in the series when it comes out later this year.

Neil Wraxall survived the war against Napoleon and all of its horrors but he's beginning to doubt his abilities when he cannot convince the lovely Lady Juliana to return to her father's home. She has taken over the responsibility of caring for twelve orphan boys at the Sunnybrooke Home for Boys and there's more trouble here than any one woman or man can manage. Fortunately, Julia learns to depend on Neil and the boys begin to look to him for guidance, too, until the local crime lord stirs up more trouble than one can imagine!

This is a delightful story and will not disappoint fans of war heroes, orphans, and damsels in distress!

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an ARC; all opinions are my own.

In the second book in Shana Galen's historical The Survivors series, Neil Wraxall known as The Protector finally meets his match in the indomitable Lady Julianna and her orphan boys. This was a totally delightful read, full of humor, witty banter, excellent brotherhood and a combustible sexual chemistry between Julia and Neil. It deals with a lot of social topics that adds depth to the story making the romance between these poignant, sexy and sweet. I cannot wait for the next one!