First Earl I See Tonight by Anna Bennett
Series: Debutante Diaries #1
Subgenre: historical romance
Release date: 30 Oct 2018
Publisher: St Martin’s Paperbacks
Format: ebook and print
Length: 346 pages
RRP: $6.28 (ebook); $15.99 (print)
Miss Fiona Hartley needs to marry. A blackmailer has sent her a note regarding her sister, Lily, and her sister’s background. Fiona needs the money to pay them off. She has to think of a way to get the money. She comes up with the idea to marry and use money from her dowry. She sends a note to the Earl of Ravenport asking him to marry her and outlining the deal.
David Gray, Earl of Ravenport, has been newly dumped by his fiancée. His fiancée, Helena, took one look at his home and balked at the idea of living there. Gray has no idea who Fiona is until he sees her and remembers she is the girl he rescued from falling into the orchestra at a ball. He meets with her to reject her proposal, in a nice way, but finds that he is attracted to her. Gray is a hardworking member of the ton, but he is poor and was going to marry for love (and some money) until he was rejected. Then there is Fiona’s offer, so he wants to show her his reality. Gray has trouble trusting after what happened to his parents, and then with Helena.
Gray organises a country party at his home, the Fortress. He believes that when Fiona sees his home, she will call off her proposal. But Fiona falls in love with his home, his grandmother and him. It is here she discovers who the blackmailer is and is totally shocked. And she will have to break Gray’s heart.
I really enjoyed this story. I really liked that Fiona, her sister, and their friend had pledged to write down what happens when you fall in love. As we read Fiona’s diary entry we can see how naïve she is, but she believes that she is almost an expert in matters of love. It is only when she has the reality, that she realises dreams can come true.
reviewed by Heather

I loved this romance! It was so sweet!! This was my first from Anna Bennet and I’ll definitely be picking up more from her. As a lover of historical romance, I really enjoyed how it was Fiona who proposed and how she kept trying to win Gray over. It was really cute and gave me all the warm happy feels, especially the ending!! I thought the plot was good but I was a little confused over the whole blackmailing aspect. I was surprised as to who it was and I liked that it had a bit of a mystery element. I would have preferred to have a stronger reason for the black mailing part but the romance really sold this book for me! I’m a sucker for marriage of convenience stories, especially the house party setting! So fun!! If you’re looking for a really great be sure to grab Fiona and Grays! Thank you for sending this book to me!

Not for me as it turns out. Didn’t like the characters, didn’t like the plot, didn’t like the writing. Never mind. May work for other people, but given that the trope is usually my catnip, but didn't work for me in this incidence, I don't know.

This book was so fun to read! I wish I had picked it up sooner. I can't wait to read the others in this series. Loved the characters and their vulnerabilities. Loved the setting. Loved the passion.

Anna Bennett makes a splash with the first novel in her Debutante Diaries series! I adore historical romances, and this one sounds absolutely delightful! Plus, have you seen this cover!? GORGEOUS! I can’t wait to read this one during the holiday season! If you love historical romance, First Earl I See Tonight needs to be on your list!

Setting is good with an artistic heroine. The pace was uneven. The premise of Blackmailer in a house party was interesting but the ending was a little disappointing.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

The first book in the Debutante Diaries series felt underwhelming and, at times, aggravating. This Regency engagement-of-convenience story did have elements that could have made it stand out: the heroine proposes to the hero, the heroine is a talented artist, and the hero has a warm, close relationship to his grandmother and values her intelligence and wisdom. Unfortunately all of that is lost to some uneven plotting, a lack of internal conflict, and a dash of casual racism.

CW/TW: I don’t discuss it in the review, but I do want to issue a content warning that this novel does contain a graphic depiction of a suicide.

Fiona Hartley is in a pickle. She’s received a letter from an unknown blackmailer informing her that if she doesn’t pay an exorbitant some of money he/she will reveal to the public that her sister, Lily, is actually the bastard child of a notorious madam. Fiona is an heiress, so she figures she needs to find a husband who needs money and convince him to let her keep a little bit of her large dowry. She sets her sights on David Gray, Earl of Ravenport. Ravenport is broke and his family estate, jokingly called The Fortress, is falling apart. Fiona figures that Ravenport is desperate enough to agree to her proposal and that his status as an earl will also provide some protection for herself and Lily.

Ravenport is taken aback when Fiona proposes to him because that’s just not how it’s done. He has no intention of marrying her. So in order to prove that to her he invites her, Lily, their mother, and some of her friends to a house party at The Fortress because…reasons, I guess.

I tend to think that inviting someone to spend a couple of weeks living with you isn’t the best way to prove to them that you’re completely disinterested in them romantically, but I’m not an earl.

So of course Fiona and Ravenport develop feelings for each other when they’re together. Of course the blackmailer is also in attendance at the house party. Of course Ravenport’s grandmother, whom he adores, loves Fiona.

And that was really the problem. There wasn’t a good reason to keep Fiona and Ravenport apart. Things might have started off poorly for them, but they had plenty of good reasons to get married. It would be an advantageous marriage for both of them, and now that they’ve started falling for each other, it makes even more sense.

About two-thirds of the way through the book, the internal conflict was gone. All that was left was an outside party ruining Fiona’s chances of being with Ravenport, and that conflict,

Click for spoiler!
…wasn’t sufficiently strong to warrant the couple being split up. There’s also a lot of action that’s packed in at the end, making the narrative feel uneven.

I did like the whole “blackmailer at the house party” bit, especially when Fiona tries to suss out who he/she is. The idea of a mystery being solved while everyone is at a house party in a crumbling mansion is kind of my catnip. Honestly, this book would have been better if it had a murder in it to really liven things up.

To be fair, the number of things I think would be better “if there was a murder in it” is pretty large (and possibly alarming now that I think about it) so I know that’s an unrealistic expectation.

Anyway, to really sour me on the book, we get a racist gypsy reference too. Ravenport is explaining to Fiona how The Fortress got so run down:

But after the space of several heartbeats, he said, “My father inherited the earldom when he was younger than I. He didn’t take his duties to the estate or his tenants seriously. Since he and my mother preferred to live in town, they closed up this house. Over the course of three decades, it fell into disrepair. Thieves broke in and stole some of the furnishings. Gypsies and other vagrants took shelter here for extended periods. Storm-force winds battered the roof and walls; nature had its way in the garden and fields.”

That one small sentence is just so offensive. Let’s lump an entire ethnic group of people in with “vagrants,” shall we? “Gypsies” just crapped the place up by their very presence there, huh? Can’t have a nice house once the gypsies have stayed there.

Fuck this noise. Can we just stop having racist references to the Roma people now please?

Anyway, this book did have some elements that I appreciated. I liked that the hero’s grandmother was an important part of his life, and not portrayed as doddering or as a burden to him. He seeks out her input and values it. I also liked that the heroine had close female friends and a good relationship with her sister. Her talent as an artist was also a nice touch.

None of that was enough to get past the uneven pacing, the lack of conflict and the awful reference to gypsies. In the end First Earl I see Tonight frustrated me far more than it entertained.

Fiona finds herself in a predicament involving her beloved sister that she vows to fix before it ruins her family. Taking it upon herself she boldly proposes to a jilted, "unlovable" earl Ravenport, who despite his lack of enthusiasm or interest finds himself intrigued enough to hear her out. Through the course of her trying to convince him this marriage of convenience works for both of them, Gray learns to open his heart and feel again. Fi learns to trust in another and love.

Great read!

The premise of the series is fun--three debutantes resolve to keep a diary of their launch into society--and Fiona's willingness to sacrifice her own future for her sister Lily's happiness is admirable. Though well-crafted, the book might have a hard time leaving a unique impression in terms of setting, character, or conflict. Read a fuller review at femmeliterate:

Recently jilted by his fiancée, David Gray, Earl of Ravenport is not in the market for a wife. Even if Gray didn’t have his hands full renovating his crumbling country house, it would take more than a bold marriage proposal from a headstrong young beauty to thaw his frozen heart. Gray is confident that spending a week at his ramshackle estate will change her mind about marriage, but every passionate moment he spends with her tempts him to change his…
This was a pretty standard story with a pretty common plot. The characters were ok.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

I actually liked this book! I had fun! It was interesting and I liked the banter between the characters! The romance was cute and I fell in love with the characters and the storyline! It was super fast paced and you didn't want to put it down when you were reading it! I think I would have liked it better though if we had an epilogue or something to kind of see where the characters end up. I feel like it ended too quick and it felt like it wasn't the end of this storyline in a way. I was just left wanting more even though this is a stand-alone I believe.

There were many elements of this book that I enjoyed...the artist heroine, the grumpy hero who is doing things to protect himself AND restore the house he knew for his grandmother...the sisters relationship with each other (and that being a driving factor of the conflict of the book). But between the uneven pacing (unexpected from this author), the not-twist reveal for the blackmailer, the less-than-pleasant step-mother who changed the loving father (who I really hope gets better explained in a later book)...I just can't see myself putting this in heavy rotation in my life or recommending it. Would I read the rest of the series? Probably, to find out if the step mother gets explained and what happens to the sister (and friend). But would I go out of my way and auto-buy? unlikely.

I had to DNF this one. I was frustrated by how long it took for Fiona’s secrets to come out! I skipped to read to the end hoping things got better, but it felt anticlimactic. This was a case of its me, not the book, and I will try another one.

I really wanted to at least like this story. I think it’s well written. The setting is great. It’s the pace and the plot that I had trouble with. There are some things that absolutely made no sense to me and the pace could have been better.

The characters themselves were likable and entertaining, so I did care for the predicament they find themselves in.

I’m hoping that the next book in this series has less plot holes.

Melanie for b2b

Loved how Fiona is able to see things past the surface and see the beauty that hides behind the things falling apart around her. Its sad that it takes the Earl of Ravenport sometime to see it. It almost cost him a chance at happiness.

2.5 stars

***ARC received in exchange of an honest opinion***

It's not always I read a book synopsis before I read a book, but I do it often enough when I'm browsing Netgalley. And from the synopsis of this book I was expecting it to be more than it turned out.

The heroine frustrated me a lot and I hoped more for the story as well. To be quite honest, the stoey bored me and I couldn't relate to it or connect with the characters. Unfortunately I had a hard time reading this one.

This is the first time I read a book by Anna Bennett and I couldn't put it down. This had a great story line with witty banter by the characters that will make you crave more.

A novel that held a lot of promise, but just fell flat. The story was overly dramatic without much of the plot actually making sense. There were were so many holes or plot points that felt weak, that the reader’s intelligences feels insulted. This could have been made up for with well written dialogue and characters, but, besides the debutantes’ relationship, those fell short too. As a romance reader, the broody, once bitten twice shy hero is so old and tired it’s exhausting.

Very good regency romance story. Gray and Fiona are an unexpected couple but they work. This story has lots of unexpected twists and turns.

Recently jilted by his fiancée, David Gray, Earl of Ravenport is not in the market for a wife. Even if Gray didn’t have his hands full renovating his crumbling country house, it would take more than a bold marriage proposal from a headstrong young beauty to thaw his frozen heart. Gray is confident that spending a week at his ramshackle estate will change her mind about marriage, but every passionate moment he spends with her tempts him to change his…

A talented artist, Miss Fiona Hartley desperately needs her dowry money to pay off a blackmailer set on ruining her sister. The handsome earl seems a sensible choice for a husband…if only she can convince him that romance will play no part. But marrying in name only may prove diffi-cult for Fiona. Gray can’t help but be dazzled by her genuine warmth. Yet as their feelings deepen, Fiona’s deadline looms. Will her secrets destroy them, or is true love their final desti-ny?

OMG I absolutely adored this book (6 stars from me) and it has become one of my favourite historical romance reads of the year. I loved the fact that the heroine makes the proposal and makes a lot of the first moves to capture the Earls heart. The strong cold Earl of Ravenport who has had his heart broken and now lives for his Grandmother and their crumbling country house is a sweet portrayal of a man learning how to love and trust a woman again. The chemistry between these two was very well written and kept me riveted to the story. I want more by this author and will definitely be seeking out her other works.