Simon Nugent, Earl of Fielding, knows he's flawed. He's arrogant, possessive, and haunted by a terrible choice he made long ago. So when a former friend's daughter gives him the chance to do a good deed, he grabs it. Ida Strong wants one thing – justice on behalf of her father. She has no room for anything else, in spite of her growing and (at times) inexplicable attraction toward a certain earl. However Ida knows what betrayal tastes like, placing her trust in others is hard. Risking her heart, would be downright foolish. Until it's the only thing that seems to make sense.
This is the sixth book in this wonderful series, it could easily be read on its own but we have met both Simon & Ida in previous books & also there are appearances from other previous characters too. A very well written, page turning read that was fast paced & it also had the mystery about who the traitor really was. I loved Ida who was determined to prove her father innocent & her faith in him never ever wavered. I liked Simon from the start but his arrogance did annoy me at times but he did eventually realise where his priorities lay. I was taken on a roller coaster of emotions plus was breathless after Simon’s run through the docks. I look forward to the next book in the series which was nicely set up at the end of this book
My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read

London  -  1821

Simon Nugent, the Earl of Fielding, 33, is weary of searching for a wife.  Several years ago, he lost out in marrying Gabrielle who is now the Duchess of Huntley and he just cannot find another woman who compares to her.  His friends tell him he needs to visit a brothel.

Ida Strong lives at Amourette’s brothel under the protection of her aunt who owns the establishment.  Ida enjoys watching what happens there.   When Simon comes in, he sees Ida and recognizes a bracelet she is wearing.  He knows who she is and is surprised that she is alive.  Now that she has been discovered, she tries to flee but Simon catches her and insists on helping her.  So, he takes her to his home and says she will be his ward.  Leaving her alone in the house, he leaves for the night.

The book started off with what seemed to be a good plot but quickly went downhill.  It became confusing and I felt like I had walked into the middle of a movie.  I have read many books by Sophie Barnes including several of this series and I have always enjoyed them.  But I was so disappointed with this book.  This is my big complaint about series.  They should read like a totally stand alone novel but often the reader is left scratching their head.  I’m so sorry, Sophie Barnes, but this one just did not do it for me.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Simon Nugent. Earl, is a typical stuffed shirt upper class member of the ton. 
Ida Strong is an orphan whose father, a general, was hung for being a traitor. 
Two people from two different classes.
They meet in of all places,  a brothel, where Ida lives, but not works. She lives there in hiding as her life is in danger due to what happened with her father. 
Simon recognizes her as the daughter of the general,  a man to whom he owed his life. Simon wants to help her prove her father was an innocent man. But first he has to protect her.
And so the adventure begins.  
Ida and Simon become so close sharing so much of themselves, while at the same time looking for a killer. 
But can the stuffy,  politically correct Simon overlook Ida's origins and realize she would be the best countess for him or will he break her heart. 
I liked ida's character, she was strong.  I felt Simon was a bit too full of himself. 
But overall I enjoyed the book.
4 stars

I found myself losing interest in this book less than a third of the way through and it was a chore to finish. I found some of the scenarios to be a bit contrived and silly, for example, a chaperone could easily have been found to stay with Ida. The ballroom debacle was another scene.  Was interrogating three suspects at a ball really the best place to do so when you are trying to conceal your identity to society? It was just ridiculous and I couldn't help but think these characters are too stupid to live.
I did quite enjoy the suspense towards the end but I really couldn't wait to finish the book ao I could simply mark it as read.

The sixth instalment in the Diamonds in the Rough series picks up where we left off in the last book with the mysterious bordello resident, Ida Strong being recognized and outed as the daughter of an infamous traitor. And who is the one to find our misses identity, but the one and only Earl of Fielding whom had his fiancé stolen from him by the Duke of Huntley in the first book of the series!!!

Our prim and and proper earl feels responsible for the wrong he has caused Ida, and decides to join her fight to find the true criminals that framed her father for treason.

There is a big class divide between these two, and their sparks of attraction only make it worse. Simon has a had time reconciling that in order to have anything with Ida, he needs to step down from his high horse of proper and respectable behaviour and truly accept her. I found Simon’s character and beliefs too condescending for me and I was not able to get behind him and his HEA. I love a good villain redemption story, but I just didn’t feel like he truly changed enough. 

My favourite parts of the story included the return appearances of Carlton Guthrie and the Duke of Huntley. I really liked seeing them join in and though around their weight in the peerage to help out Ida and Simon. This was made more entertain, by the fact that stuffy Simin hated these men, but ending up needing help from both of them multiple times! Bonus for how classy both Huntley and Guthrie were - love those guys!

This book overall was entertaining and I enjoyed the mystery around the treason plot, the hero was just not my personal cup of tea.

The Formidable Earl by Sophie Barnes is scheduled to release November 24th, 2020.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Sophie Barnes through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
 
#TheFormidableEarl #SophieBarnes #NetGalley #pinkcowlandreads

Simon has to make huge amend.s.

Without giving away too much, Simon is the reason her father hung.
So when Ida pops up in his orbit, he's vested in finding her.  He saw her bracelet. 
Simon was jilted three years ago, by the way. 

Ida is strong (pun intended as her last name is Strong). She's had to be. 
She's smarter and stronger than Simon. Not sure if he's worthy of her. 
But Ida is a very active, engaging character. 

Recommend. 
Purchased.

When I first started reading this I was very excited. But sadly it was not my favourite historical romance, but I did have a good time reading it

Will a woman the total opposite of all his expectations move his heart ...

Simon Nugent Is a man who always followed the framed path sets for him, never straying from it.
Until once to challenge his reputation of a bore, he goes somewhere he would never have usually gone.
There, he meets the woman who will shake is life, disturbing it until she destroys everything he believes to let him rebuilt it from its fondations. Yet to reach it, he must forgone everything he was held to, a slow process as while he quickly knows he can not let Ida go, he is only ready to give her the place Society would solely allow, as his mistress, never as wife.
And while Ida thought she had found a man who stands by her side, and hopes for more. Will she  have to corrupt her dreams for a temporary affair.
Their chemistry is off the chart from their first encounter but the prim and proper Earl sees only one fonction to keep her in his life.
And while he confirms to the ton’s judgmental rules, Ida refuses to cover and kisses goodbye to a different less shameful future.
She does not mind being disgraced if it would bring in her life a man who will hold her hand, lend his shoulder, share his heart with her. But she would never accept to be seen lacking or not enough.

« He was, after all, willing to give her the sun and the moon. Just not the stars. »

This novel is the narrative of a man who lets go of every shred holding him back to his past life, who discovers the freedom of acting without thought of the others’ opinion. Simon goes from an aloof dandy to a man ready to risk everything for the woman who has come to mean more than life.
5 stars as I enjoyed watching Simon evolves from a man who prized his peers’ gaze to one seeking only his loved one acceptance, he went running to the ruination of his longly embedded education to rise to a new self determined to choose love over duty.

I was granted an advance copy by the author, here is my true and unbiased opinion.

Simon is. an Earl and is haunted by a choice he did not make years ago. He has become a very by the book person and tries to be the one to keep everyone else out of trouble. He is known for being not to take chances and so people think he is stuffy! 

Ida strong’s  father was hung as a traitor based on lies. As a result of her investigating to prove his innocence she has been attacked so she has been in hiding for several years. 

The two meet under circumstances that are comical and Harri ends up hiding her in one of his homes. 

This is where the journey begins for the couple and the book starts to lag and become choppy. 
I am an avid reader of the author and I have read the other books, but this one still didn’t work for me. The storyline premise was there and the characters could have been molded but they ended up being lackluster and the overall dialogue just seemed to phase out. There were moments when it picked up and flowed, but then it went downhill! 

I will still definitely read and recommend this author to others because she is a gifted writer! 

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

In most books you either like the hero or you don’t. In this story I started off liking this staid uncompromising Earl then I really did not care for him until he redeemed himself, the big bumblebrain. I wanted to shake him and am so glad Ida did not put up with his stupidity. She stood by her convictions. There is a bit of a mystery which I love but the real story lied with Simon’s attitude towards people. I loved seeing how he overcame it and thought the love story was beautiful.

Simon Garrison, Earl of Fielding, had been jilted three years ago by Gabriella Harding. She ended up married to the Duke of Huntley. He could not seem to find a wife, that he liked. He was thirty- three and was not getting any younger. 
Ida Veronica Strong was in hiding. Her father had been branded a traitor and hung.  But anyone who knew her father knew better. She had stood below him while he died and threatened that she would get the man who did this to her father. Soon after she was shot and left for dead. Now she had been found by Simon in a brothel. Her aunt, Philipa Harding had been hiding her for the last four years. When Simon came the first time to visit, he saw her, then saw her bracelet. The one her father bought her just after getting back from France and the war. 
He tried to speak to her but was stopped by this huge guy. Ida had left by the back door and was attacked again but Simon having just been thrown out was walking toward home. He just wanted to help. He heard her scream and saved her. 
So much happens in this story. Simon meets a crime lord who has become a Duke. A Scot who is his second in command and various other people. He also gets to know the Duke of Huntley. It gets very exciting. She is unsure of Simon for a while, trust can be a hard thing to give. The tale is easy to read and moves smoothly. The characters are cute and their chemistry is something else. They don't even realize they are falling in love, which can be tough to do while trying to outrun someone, trying to kill her. It is very entertaining and engages you.
I received this ARC from Net Galley and voluntarily reviewed it.

After reading the blurb for this book I instantly requested it. I honestly had hopes for it. But in the end I’m not passionate about it. I liked it very much, don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed it, I only wish I had liked it so much more. But perhaps you, reader out there, will like it more than I did.

It started well, a stuffy snobbish man who needs to learn more than one lesson decides to demonstrate his friends that he’s not stuffy by going to a brothel. He meets a girl, feels protective over her and starts a detective mystery adventure with her. The story is quite exciting although I would have liked a slower pace… 

They become friends before they’re lovers. And that is the best part of the novel, their friendship. Even if they had a lover’s quarrel they’re still friends. The are quite sincere with one another, quite protective, easygoing, nice… and their love feels natural coming from that point. The build up of their sensuality is so amazing… but the sex is not. It felt rushed, all that build up and then nothing. There are hints of it having been sweet and hot and incredible, but all that, all the passion, all the wanting, when they’re actually at it is left unwritten. I had to read twice to realize that it had happened at all. 

Another thing that I didn’t like is that Simon behaves half the time as a peacock in mating season, but the other half he’s a bit like a child, his reasons for not wanting Ida as a wife are ridiculous, mostly because he’s scared of the scandal. Only when he realizes that in order to get what you want sometimes you need to sacrifice something does Simon consider the matter. And why do I think this is childish behavior? Because he had done the same thing in the past, twice. And he had told Ida that he wanted to change that about him, and he doesn’t.

But Simon being like that leads to an interesting and continuous debate on social standing, status and how they affect and dictate a person’s life: All of the characters talk about that at one point or another, especially the hero, as he’s going on and on about it in internal monologues. It’s not the first time I’ve found this in a novel, but I liked how it was presented in this one.

Ida on the other hand is fantastic. She’s her own woman, she knows what she wants and she can stand up for herself. And what’s more difficult, she stands up to the man she loves because he won’t give her what she dreams of. And let me tell you, it’s not emeralds, rubies, manors and servants. She wants what her parents had when she was little, and she’s willing to sacrifice her love for Simon in order to have that happy life. She’s amazing, brave… and of course not perfect, she sometimes makes stupid decisions. 

Of course this being a romance novel everything is solved and the main couple gets their happy ending but you will have to find out how for yourself.

In conclusion, it is a good book to read with a cozy blanket and a mug of your favorite hot beverage and actually have fun with all the mystery and the comings and goings. It’s just not a memorable book in my opinion.

The Formidable Earl by Sophie Barnes is the sixth in the Diamonds in the Rough Series.  This series has some interesting characters and many different storylines which makes the series interesting.  I have enjoyed them.  It is possible to read each story as a standalone.  

Ida Strong is a traitor’s daughter. Her father was found guilty of a crime, she knows he did not commit. She has been hiding out at her aunt’s brothel, for a period of time, knowing she is going to have to leave England and find a new place. Meanwhile Simon Nugent, Earl of Fielding decided to leave the straight-laced  life behind for the night only to recognize Ida Strong and give away her hiding spot. 

Ida has to find a new place to be safe, as people are trying to kill her to prevent her from finding out the truth. Simon ends up helping her and together they work toward finding the truth.  However, someone does not want the truth to come out.  Who was really responsible for sending secrets to Napoleon.  

I like how Simon and Ida work together and how Simon treats her so tenderly, when he finally realizes what is really important.  The twists were interesting and some of the other characters from past novels were fun.  The Formidable Earl by Sophie Barnes was a good read.

I absolutely did not like Simon until the very end when he started to get his head out of his ass. He was such a coward and a jerk.
Ida was a very strong and independent woman was way more mature than Simon at times.
The only thing that kept me reading was Ida and the mystery of finding out who framed her father.

This is my first book by the author and I was charmed by the heroine. Ida was smart, charming and a go-getter and I really enjoyed getting to know her. My heart ached when I read her back story and I wanted all the good things for her. That is why I will admit I was disappointed by the male lead’s character. Simon appeared like the typical HR lead, and like most he made a couple of very questionable calls early on. However, unlike most I don’t feel he redeemed himself too much to deserve Ida eventually.

I look forward to reading earlier books in the series as I liked a lot of the secondary characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

3.5 stars rounded up!

Simon Nugent, the Earl of Fielding, lives to preserve his pristine reputation.  He was never able to earn his parents’ approval, despite his best efforts, and lives with the guilt of his past mistakes.  When he discovers the daughter of the man who saved his life during the war alive, he sees his chance to make amends.  Too bad he’s also fiercely attracted to the woman.

Ever since her father was wrongfully executed for treason Ida Strong has been determined to prove his innocence and see justice served.  She’s done hiding away, especially now that a certain bothersome earl has blown her cover and she can’t afford distractions, no matter how handsome.  The earl claims to want to help but Ida understandably doesn’t trust easily, and she certainly has no intention of risking her heart, although that seems inevitable.

I really liked this premise of the wronged heroine seeking justice and the hero operating as more or less her sidekick.  However, many of the decisions they made in an effort to investigate didn’t make much sense given the clear attempts being made on her life.  I also was not a big fan of this hero.  He spent much of the book enumerating the myriad reasons why Ida could never be his wife and being puzzled as to why she wasn’t leaping at the chance to be his mistress.  His epiphany came a bit too late and this watered down some of the romance for me.  The mystery element was enjoyable, and I loved Ida as a heroine.  She was strong, knew her own mind, and stood up for herself without coming off as shrewish, which is so rare in recent reads.  Despite the danger she faced, she never seemed helpless.  The ending was very dramatic, maybe a little too much so, but it did have me feverishly turning pages.  I do wish we’d gotten a bit more information regarding the villain’s comeuppance and more of a chance for Ida’s vindication to be shown on the page after it was so hard-won.  Overall, this was a solid story and I look forward to Blayne’s HEA next.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is certainly a book of opposites attract. Simon is a most upstanding Earl, his friends accuse him of being stuffy and boring. Ida has been living on the edge, in hiding in her aunt's brothel since her father was hanged for treason. Simon is shocked to find her, as he thought she was dead. Despite her father's supposed crimes he feels he owes the man a debt for saving his life during the war. Despite his misgivings, he agrees to help her trackdown the true traitor. Simon knows that with all the scandal surrounding Ida, he can never marry her, but that doesn't stop him from wanting her in his life permanently. Though Ida can't deny her growing feelings, she can't accept the idea that she can be Simon's mistress but never his wife. As danger surrounds them, both realize what is truly important and what they are willing to give up to be together

Ida Strong is an orphan in hiding due to her father being executed for treason. Shes been hiding for four years after publicly claiming she is determined to find the traitor who set up her father. Along comes Simon Nugent, Earl of Fielding, who identifies Ida when she's hiding out in a brothel. He knew her father and never believed the rumor of his treason, but he feels guilty for not speaking up. So, he offers to help Ida and work with her to discover the truth in the plot to free Napoleon. As they are working on the truth, people discover her identity at a ball after Simon thinks it is a good idea to take her even after Ida protests it. When people assume the worst of her because she's living in Simon's house, he won't marry her if it means harming his own reputation which is what turned me off about the book. If he'd spoken up for Matthew, then Ida wouldn't have this awful reputation in the first place. There's a side story about Simon's brother which frankly took away from this story.

An honest review was provided in exchange for receiving a free ARC from Netgalley.

2 of 5 stars

Simon Nugent, the Earl of Fielding, decides to throw off his prim and proper reputation and visits a brothel where he finds Ida Strong, the daughter of a traitor, hiding. Now that she's been discovered, Ida has to run, but as soon as she leaves there's an attack on her life. Simon follows her and stops the attack. He feels responsible for outing her and agrees to hide her while trying to uncover who set her father up to be accused as a spy. Ida doesn't trust Simon, but has little choice but to accept his help. The closer these two get to the truth, the more her life is in danger. Can they uncover the real criminal before Ida is killed?

I thought the premise of this book was good, but I felt like I'd been dropped into the middle of it. I've only read one other book in the series about Carlton Guthrie but it was more than a year ago and I don't remember if Ida was mentioned there or not. In any case, I thought Ida's character was strong especially with everything she'd been through. I wasn't a fan of Simon though. What really puzzled me was how did all of London hear about Ida the next day after Simon discovers her in the brothel. Who told the papers? Even though Simon was helping to uncover the real criminal, I didn't warm up to him. One minute he vowed to protect Ida and then the next he's sleeping with her. As they get closer to the truth, he decides to bring her to a ball. What? He's supposed to hiding her and then Ida accuses two men at the ball. This whole scene was just too silly for words. So much for sleuth. Unfortunately, this was not one of my favorites.

This book was not what I expected. The book started out a little slow, but once all of the background information was over, the book became incredible. I was cheering for Simon and Ida the whole time and it was charming to see happened to the two of them to find true love.