My favorite so far. This is Sarah's story. After an unsuccessful season.she is back home in Cornwall and goes to visit Tintangel Castle, she tries to save a man falling and falls on top of him. They are stranded overnight. She is considered compromised and he offers to marry her. Turns out he is an Earl's son and they make her life miserable.
Until our heroes The Duke and Duchess from.the previous book show up and great her happily.
I love Sarah for her knowledge. She is a reader and spouts information. She and her new husband are both lovers of King Aurthur lore and their discussions and hopes for a magical realm are a lovely part of the book. One thing Ashford illustrates in her books are the constraints put upon women of this era.
Meanwhile we see the growing maturity of James and the continuing story of James and Cecilia. I strongly suggest you read the first 2 books of the series as each one builds on the next. I am eagerly awaiting the next.
I received an eARC from NetGalley and Sourcebooks . I appreciate and offer this honest review.

I had fun and thoroughly enjoyed this story. Two unusual, sweet, and fleshed out characters. A well plotted story that made me root the characters and turn pages.
Love it, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Future earl Kenver Pendrennon and Sarah Moran are forced to wed after being inadvertently trapped by the rising tide overnight in Cornwall. Sarah is sweet, well educated and from prosperous land owners. When Kenver returns home with his bride by his side his parents take every action to keep them apart. Assigning rooms in separate areas, well placed staff etc. In fact the only drama in this book is how far the parents go to not accept the marriage. When a Duke and Duchess arrive as special guests the in-laws are flummoxed to learn they are friends of Sarah. But even that doesn’t soften their disappointment in the marriage.

This is a third in a series but I read easily as a stand alone. Clearly the guests were a couple from another book but all the action takes place at Kenver’s family home. The story was disappointing. Kenver is such a milquetoast and passive I couldn’t cheer for him. The more over the top the actions of a villainous mother the more the comeuppance should be. She literally tries to steal his inheritance from him. But the resolution is that Kenver and she will work together to manage the estate. Nope. That doesn’t work for me.

I liked Sarah, she is young and innocent. She wants the marriage to be real (consummated) but her husband can’t stand up to his parents. And this goes on for pages and pages. By the time they are together I didn’t care. This is on the lowest end of a spice meter. In fact I’ve read clean books with more passion and sparks. I did think the cover is attractive but I’m sorry it is on a book I really can recommend unless you love the series or author. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. (2.5 stars)

I did not think I would like this book, but I was wrong, it was a good story and romance.
Spoiler Alert:
This story starts out with a young lady investigating some local ruins on a daily outing with her parents. She is a an only child and tends to be bookish. She has always enjoyed the stories of King Arthur. She feels that the ruins would be a place where King Arhtur would have lived. As she is wandering around, lost in her musings, she comes across an opening. She enters and is in a part that thw floor has fallen into the ocean and there is a cliff dropping into the water. It looks like there is a set of steps leading down. She is surprised at a young man who was in the same space and he decides to try to walk the "steps". But they are canted wrong and as he tries, he is falling into the hole. The heroine grabs to help him and they both tumble over. They land on a wet, sandy area and cannot climb back up. The water is rising so they walk the beach towards a crevice. They enter the crevice and using the water line as a guide, they find a ledge that they can share and spend the night together, freezing. They introduce themselves and talk through out the night. They are attracted to each other. In the morning, when the tide has fallen, they leave the crevice and walk the small beach until they can climb a path back up. The heroine's parents are there and after they express their relief, they demand the hero do the correct thing. At that time he introduces himself as the heir to a local earldom. The hero's parents felt that the heroine, even though she will receive her father's estate, was not a correct wife. They refuse to attend the wedding. The young couple are facing an uphill battle, and they haven't even declared their live for each other yet.
This story was about overcoming obstacles and realizing when you can change a person's perceptions and when to let things go. I enjoyed this story because it was the right blend of romance, adventure and drama. I liked the main characters and felt integrated in what happened to the. The author was very descriptive, but not overly descriptive. I felt like I could close my eyes and see the setting in my mind. It was a well written story that I would give 5 stars to, with a recommendation to read.

This was charming, actually. I know Ashfords books are usually closed door and don’t always enjoy that, but it worked for these two love interests. The major issue I had was that the villain, the mother in law doesn’t get enough of her just desserts. The resolution lacked fire and satisfaction. I did love watching Kenver (which is a great name) grow and take charge, I also actually enjoyed all the obstacles that kept the couple apart.

This book was not for me. The characters felt very simple and one-dimensional, and the writing was somewhat juvenile (the conversations were simple, the dialogue felt weird, and there were some oddly placed exclamation marks, for example). There wasn’t a lot of development in Sarah and Kenver’s relationship, and the romance in this book was severely lacking, which was disappointing since the romance is supposed to be present in a romance novel. Overall, I just couldn’t care about the characters or the plot, and was just reading in order to finish the book.

This book is very sweet, there isn't really any conflict besides the way Kenver's family treats Sarah, which plays a pretty big role in the story. Kenver's parents, well mostly his mom, do not want Sarah in the family, and she does everything she can to make her feel as unwelcome as possible. Thankfully, even though Kenver has a problem standing up to his parents, he gets Sarah out of the house when he's able, which really helps their relationship grow. Both Sarah and Kenver are really sweet people who for the most part like to avoid conflict, so it was nice when Kenver finally stood up to his mother.

I liked that from the moment they meet they feel very comfortable together. Sarah is very smart and knows quite a bit about a lot of different things, and Kenver finds it absolutely charming whenever she throws out some random fact. It was pretty charming how much he liked it.

I also really enjoyed the resolution between the family at the end, especially the way Sarah won over her father-in-law.

One misplaced notion of chivalry causes a huge scandal in the English countryside. This forces Sarah Moran and Kenver Pendrennon to get married. What began from a mishap might blossom into something beautiful...and real.

Jane Ashford never misses with her historical romance books. They always have the right amount of pinning, angst, romantic moments and drama.

This was my first Jane Ashford book, and the cover and book description are lovely! I was a little disappointed in this book, however. The hero and heroine, Kenver and Sarah are absolutely delightful. I adored Sarah, her kindness and intelligence, and Kenver was a darling. I liked the beginning, which hooked me in and wanted to see where this unexpected meeting and entrapment in a cave went. I just could not stand the constant abuse heaped on both of them, as well as servants, Kenver's sister, and everyone-- so much it made the book hard to read, and made the book unenjoyable. I also felt like the stress and conflict made all the characters one-dimensional and we didn't really get to know Sarah and Kenver too well, or at least together as a couple.
The writing and dialogue is good, if a bit boring. If the book was focused on Kenver's mother's puppetry and abusive treatment throughout the whole book, secondary was the Arthurian/ancient civilization dialogue, which was really boring. The ending was satisfying but nowhere near close to the un-satisfying read of the strife created by Kenver's mother throughout the book.
Blame It on the Earl was given to me as an ARC, and I felt like I should continue on reading because of that. There is absolutely no angst, no conflict between the two main characters-- which is strange given how they are thrown together and there is a little of connecting it to fate and what is meant to be will be-- this is probably a good thing because if Kenver didn't stand by Sarah always that would have been the reason why I would stop reading. I think this book has a good premise, just all-in-all not a very good or entertaining read, as-is.

I received a copy from NetGalley and this is my freely given opinion.

This is the third book in the Duke's Estates series and I enjoyed the story of Sarah and Kenver and the development of their relationship. Sarah was a side character in one of the previous books, a wallflower friend who was overlooked by suitors during her season. She was enjoying a solitary walk near the ocean cliffs, by a local attraction one evening, when a strange man comes upon her and he suddenly slips, and grabs onto her, pulling them both over and onto the sandy beach below. Because the tide was coming in, they end up seeking safe shelter in a nearby cave, but forced to spend the night together. In the dark, they establish a bond, but when they make their way out in the morning, they are witnessed by others and this leads to Sarah's reputation being ruined. Kenver does the chivalrous thing and offers marriage. Sarah is reluctant, not wanting to be forced into marriage, and not initially realizing that Kenver is the heir to an earldom, but ultimately, they do end up wed and she is brought to his family home to live.

Unfortunately, what Kenver does not tell Sarah is that his parents, on finding out what happened, are both vehemently against the marriage, thinking Sarah is entrapping him, is not good enough, and wanting Kenver to have a more suitable match, and they work actively to ruin the marriage and manipulate Sarah and Kenver. Sarah is belittled, and made to feel terribly unwelcome by her in-laws and their servants, and any attempt to progress their relationship by Kenver and Sarah is thwarted as well. Kenver and Sarah do develop feelings and respect for each other, and desire to be together, despite the hateful environment around them.

Luckily, Sarah's friend, Cecelia, the Duchess of Tereford and her husband end up staying at the Earl's estate, as there is a Ducal estate nearby that they need to inspect and restore. They work to help her friend and counteract the in-law's poison.

Again, I like Kenver and Sarah as a couple, but I felt that the mother's cold and poisonous hatred of her and her treatment of Kenver and her own family was over the top and hard to swallow; it really made her seem quite cold and evil, especially how she was when the Earl became ill. The thick layering of her coldness, hateful machinations, and contempt for her husband and own children also made the ending where she seems to thaw more a bit unbelievable. It felt more like she was an old fashioned evil witch cartoon or fairy tale character that should have been melted to death or made to magically disappear; irredeemable. An almost cartoonish/fairy tale-like story of good/evil. Also, other side characters, such as "Merlin" felt like they were over the top too and detracted from the story rather than contributed to it. Perhaps it was supposed to be comic relief? In light of how Sarah and Kenver are treated by his father and mother, I also had several points where I wished Kenver would grow a pair and give it to them to save himself and Sarah grief, or that Sarah would lay it on the line and leave, for her own sake.

3.25 stars out of 5.

This was a lovely story. It is in some ways a quiet book—there’s not a lot of angst outside of the hero’s awful parents, there’s little sex, and there are no major conflicts between the main characters. I know some reviewers have not appreciated those qualities, but I do. I find myself growing weary of angst. Sarah is an absolute delight, and Kenver grew from a timid boy to a brave man over the course of the book. His parents’ cruelty to Sarah was hard to read, but once that was no longer such a prominent part of the book, the story really took off. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC; all opinions are my own.

* Received a copy for review*
A young woman and man fall down a cliff and are trapped by the tide. They are forced to marry fir propriety’s sake.
His family is terrible. This story was a quick read but not enough steam for me.

4 stars.

If your looking for a story filled with passion, lust, and danger, this is not the one. Still, it is quite the adventure, and a wonderful read.

While there is romance involved, this was more of a story of two people who grow into their own together, and independently.

Sarah was a delight. She took her new role as wife in stride, and was so kind and gracious. But, to me, Kenver was the star of the show. Not in a “he’s so hot” kind of way, but more of a “I’m so proud that my boy is becoming a man” kind of way. The book starts out with Kenver being a passive young man, and ends with him learning to lead, and be more assertive. Throughout the book you see him learn so much, and grow more confident in himself. It was a pleasure to read. I also like that even with is newfound gumption, he still expresses discomfort with the role. It felt true to life.
( but when he said he made all those changes for Sarah, I swooned a tiny bit)

What also spoke to me the in the book was the dealings with family dynamics. It can be hard to go against the flow, especially if your family has been doing things a certain way for years, and you have become accustomed to that way too.

The one thing I was confused about was the Merlin/Oliver storyline… are we getting a story with him… I’m not sure what was going on with that

The main characters fell a little flat for me. I wanted to root for them, but it felt like they were stuck too long in the same situation before it moved along.

Sarah Moran's attempt to save Kenver Pendrennon—the heir of an earl—as he slips off the Cornwall cliffs plunges them into scandal. Now, marriage is the only option to save their reputations, but her family is pushing for the marriage and his are horrified that he offered.

His family is atrocious and I struggled to believe that anyone could be so bad and that Kenver would be so passive.

Worse than that, the writing was simplistic. Sarah and Kenver’s personalities are very flat. The premise itself wasn’t well executed. The drama over the accident wasn’t shown in a believable way. No romantic tension, no significant character development, and the regency setting didn’t come through.

For something claiming to be part of a Scandalous Regency Romp series, this was dull. Everything about this story was unpleasant. These two had zero chemistry and we were told they were drawn to each other without seeing why. His parents’ cruelty played a larger role in the story than their relationship. Words like clean and wholesome are usually applied to books like this. But even those don’t have to be boring.

The beauty of this story is the interplay of characters. There is, to put it in the trite old way CHEMISTRY between them. And mild humor. A touch of passion. Some more humor. A bit of pain. In the end, triumph. That's all that counts, and all's fair in love.

While exploring the ruins of a castle with her family, Sarah Morand and Kenver Pendrennon fall off a cliff. Wounded and unconscious, Kenver is saved by Sarah, who drags him to safety before the tide comes in. However, they are stuck overnight until the tide goes out. To dissuade scandal, Sarah and Kenver become engaged and quickly marry. However, not everyone is happy with their union, and this newly acquainted couple must learn how to stand up for themselves and their love.

I have mixed feelings about this story. On one hand, I enjoyed the slow-burning romance and a few of the secondary characters. But on the other hand, I didn’t love Kenver. He was so passive throughout much of the story. I understood the reasons behind his aversion to conflict and willingness to comply with his parents’ wishes, but the way they treat Sarah is terrible, and I wanted Kenver to take a stand. That being said, I think Kenver shows a lot of growth by the end of the story, much of which can be attributed to his relationship with Sarah.

With antagonists that are easy to hate balanced with friends that are easy to love, the book has an interesting cast of secondary characters. I also like the references to King Arthur, Merlin, and the stories surrounding Arthur’s beginnings. Sarah and Kenver share an interest in this history, which is sweet and romantic.

Speaking of romance, Sarah and Kenver have an angst filled love story with two major obstacles- Kenver’s atrocious parents. They do everything they can to show their displeasure and lack of support of the marriage. However, Sarah and Kenver are committed to each other. Their romance has a lot of yearning and sweet moments that show their deepening feelings for each other, which is lovely.

While reading, I was constantly thinking about the lack of opportunities women had at this time. The dependence they have on men – husbands, fathers, brothers, etc. – in all aspects of life is startling. There are some good messages about women’s rights, gender inequality, tradition, and ridiculous social conventions.

Overall, this is a good read, though it’s not my favorite in the series. The ending felt a bit forced and too easy in comparison to the trials Sarah and Kenver experienced throughout the story. And I wanted Kenver to be more forceful with his parents way earlier than he did. I also wish the couple communicated better. It would have helped some of their issues.

Thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

I was initially fully captured by the characters and storyline and could not wait to keep reading. However, mid way through I was disappointed. I was expecting a better storyline for the sister and a few more steamy scenes with the main couple.

I have read several of Jane Ashford's books now, and I am not sure that I will read any more. I have finished each of the books of hers I have picked up, but more because I cannot stand to leave something unfinished than because I was super enthralled by the story. Blame It on the Earl was no exception. The story is entertaining enough - a sort of plain h rescues the H, heir to an earldom, from drowning and in the process compromises her own reputation. Marriage due to compromise is a historical romance trope I enjoy, and is what led me to pick up this book. This story, however, simply didn't hold my attention.

*Possible spoilers*
The H is wishy washy and spends much of the book being so afraid of his own parents that I wanted to tell the h to run run run. The h is generally fine to allow the H to set the guidelines for everything, even when she knows his parents are acting in deliberately cruel ways. She does find some strength towards the end of the book, but I have serious trouble believing that the H, the h, and the H's parents lived together HEA (or at least for the decades his parents are expected to live). Some of the plot points seem to come out of nowhere - suddenly the h's mother has a highly effective stillroom never previously mentioned? - and the times where we moved into one of the secondary character's POV interrupted the story's flow.

Overall, not a terrible book, but not a great one.

*I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are my own.*

While exploring the ruins of an ancient castle, strangers Sarah and Kenver fall over the edge of a cliff. They end up spending the night in a sea cave and rescue themselves. But in this historical romance the damage is done: a single man and a single woman together overnight means he’ll have to do the honorable thing and marry her. But his parents chillingly disapprove and when Sarah and Kenver move in every obstacle is put in their path.

Sarah is a cheerful sort who at first tries to work around Kenver’s mother’s barbs and slights and machinations. Kenver is described as meek because he won’t stand up for Sarah against his parents. At least at first. Finally Sarah and Kenver move out of the house in order to have a normal marriage. But events take them back. Will their love and marriage survive the antagonizing parents?

Although this might be a richer read if read as part of the series I think it could be enjoyed as a standalone. It was hard for me to identify with Kenver in the story. I see him as a victim of child abuse and understand why he does not push back against the parents at first. But then his honor and protectiveness of Sarah comes out. Still, knowing this and having a natural empathy for victims of abuse, I still could not find him a sympathetic character. I could, however, identify with Sarah. She is charming and engaging.

There are no steamy parts so it would be a good book to suggest to patrons who don’t like heavy sex scenes.

I enjoyed other books in this series more than I liked this one. I would give it a 3.5 but will round it off as a 3.