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A review by feliciarene
The Earl Not Taken by A.S. Fenichel
2.0
Unfortunately, this book was just not for me.
The Earl Not Taken is an enemies-to-lovers romance novel that follows a free-spirited woman named Poppy as she navigates the strict gender roles of her society. When one of her three closest friends announces her engagement to a man she’s never met, Poppy and her friends make it their mission to uncover the secrets of the husband-to-be. In their efforts, they are joined by Poppy’s best friend Aurora’s rakish brother, Rhys, who Poppy despises. As the search progresses, Poppy and Rhys are thrown together in all matters and must overcome their differences in order to help a friend.
Firstly, I wasn’t particularly keen on the fact that this was a romance romance - in that, I prefer a story that has a romantic subplot, one that is equal to or lesser than the plot that plays a skeletal role to the story. In The Earl Not Taken, there was zero plot aside from the romance.
My real problem was this novel was the backhanded, often vulgar comments made regarding Faith’s - one of Poppy’s friends - body. Not only does Poppy refer to her own friend’s body shape in cruel terms, comparing her to the friend group in a way that makes my skin crawl, but you also cannot get through the first few chapters of Rhys’ perspective without reading him refer to her body in overtly sexual terms. Yuck.
Overall, the concept didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Poppy was extremely wishy-washy in her values. She constantly alternated between modern ideas and traditional, conservative values - it seemed that her “values” constituted what worked best for her. And the modern ideas were significantly out of bounds for the time period of this novel - which, although it wasn’t explicitly stated, appears to be the Regency Era. The contemporary concept mixed with a historical setting, as well as the roundabout romantic plot, lost my interest more than a couple times.
All around, I didn’t enjoy this novel. I’m not sure if romance is a genre suited for me, or maybe this particular book just didn’t work for me!
Full Review: Link
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The Earl Not Taken is an enemies-to-lovers romance novel that follows a free-spirited woman named Poppy as she navigates the strict gender roles of her society. When one of her three closest friends announces her engagement to a man she’s never met, Poppy and her friends make it their mission to uncover the secrets of the husband-to-be. In their efforts, they are joined by Poppy’s best friend Aurora’s rakish brother, Rhys, who Poppy despises. As the search progresses, Poppy and Rhys are thrown together in all matters and must overcome their differences in order to help a friend.
Firstly, I wasn’t particularly keen on the fact that this was a romance romance - in that, I prefer a story that has a romantic subplot, one that is equal to or lesser than the plot that plays a skeletal role to the story. In The Earl Not Taken, there was zero plot aside from the romance.
My real problem was this novel was the backhanded, often vulgar comments made regarding Faith’s - one of Poppy’s friends - body. Not only does Poppy refer to her own friend’s body shape in cruel terms, comparing her to the friend group in a way that makes my skin crawl, but you also cannot get through the first few chapters of Rhys’ perspective without reading him refer to her body in overtly sexual terms. Yuck.
Overall, the concept didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Poppy was extremely wishy-washy in her values. She constantly alternated between modern ideas and traditional, conservative values - it seemed that her “values” constituted what worked best for her. And the modern ideas were significantly out of bounds for the time period of this novel - which, although it wasn’t explicitly stated, appears to be the Regency Era. The contemporary concept mixed with a historical setting, as well as the roundabout romantic plot, lost my interest more than a couple times.
All around, I didn’t enjoy this novel. I’m not sure if romance is a genre suited for me, or maybe this particular book just didn’t work for me!
Full Review: Link
Blog | Twitter | Instagram