Book Review | In Bed with the Earl

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Title: In Bed with the Earl (Lost Lords of London, #1)

Author: Christi Caldwell

Format: eBook (Kindle Unlimited)

Pages: 383

Categories: Historical Romance

To solve a mystery that’s become the talk of the ton, no clues run too deep for willful reporter Verity Lovelace. Not even in the sewers of London. That’s precisely where she finds happily self-sufficient scavenger Malcom North, lost heir to the Earl of Maxwell. Now that Verity’s made him front-page news, what will he make of her?

Kidnapped as a child, with no memories of his well-heeled past, Malcom prefers the grimy spoils of the culverts to the gilded riches of society. Damn the feisty beauty who exposed the contented tosher to a parade of fortune-hunting matchmakers. How to keep them at bay? Verity must pretend to be his wife. She owes him.

The intimacy of this necessary arrangement—Verity and Malcom thrust together in close quarters—soon sparks an irresistible heat. But when the charade ends, the danger begins. Will love be enough to protect them from a treacherous plot devised to ruin them?

In Bed with the Earl is the first book of a new historical romance series by Christi Caldwell called Lost Lords of London.

Verity and Malcom both have learned to struggle through life. Verity being the bastard daughter of an Earl and Malcom, being kidnapped from his family (his father was an Earl also). Malcom has been found and the title and all that come with it restored to him, but society doesn’t know much about this lost Earl. Verity is making ends meet by being a newspaper reporter except being a female reporter means no one takes her seriously. But she has her sister to care for so she will do anything to survive, even if it means hunting down the lost Earl to get his story.

• I learned a lot in this story especially about toshers or sewer scavengers! It definitely opened my eyes to the way of life and how some people had to survive in London during those times. I found it interesting that Malcolm felt comfortable still doing that job even though he got his title and lands back. But his explanation to Verity made lots of sense, at least I do understand him wanting his sense of control.
• On the other side of the spectrum was Verity, struggling to work an honest job as a female reporter. Her stories get stolen or they are not published at all or she gets to job of writing the gossip column. Yet Verity is a fighter. She definitely said what she wanted to say to her boss and that was entertaining.
• Malcom story is sad! And when he remembers things about his past it’s heartbreaking but it also frees him.
• I enjoyed that though Malcolm is an Earl, this story does not even venture into the usual ton life. There are no balls they attend, Malcolm is so reluctant to take this role as Earl, he wants to keep living the way he was living before he got the title. I felt like we had a glimpse of the commoner life in this story which was a nice change.

• As far as chemistry goes, they do have it but I think I wanted more. Malcom is a hard character because of the trauma he experienced and it takes him awhile to open up but I felt like I needed a little more between the two to show the growing love especially when they have a fake-marriage situation.
• Why do Christi Caldwell books seem so short when I read them?! Is it because I enjoy them so much I never want it to end? I always feel like by the time I read the last pages, it was rushed. HAHA…but thank goodness I have the next book in the series in my NetGalley shelf. 🤗

This is a great start to a new historical romance series! Malcolm’s story is heartbreaking and Verity’s tenacity and determination is something he could appreciate in the end. I also liked learning something new and can only imagine scavenging the sewers of London 😖. This story is about struggle and love and I’ll definitely be reading the next book asap.