I liked the heroine and that was about it. The duke was a selfish ass. I didn't find anything about him interesting or sympathetic in the first part of the book, and so when he started to do slightly nicer things I didn't care much.

Their sojourn at the lords house in the village just introduced characters who I didn't like. Grasping mother, blustering arrogant father, bland children, and the dukes secretary was also not a kind person. I didn't like any of the characters except the governess. ( )

Unsatisfying. Why people still write switching places plot is difficult for me to understand. This book seemed very long and could benefit from either removing large parts of the inner monologues or moving the action around to make the book flow smoother. I found myself on the border between dislike and absolute hatred of most of these characters except the governess. Perhaps the contrast between her and everyone else enhances her likeableness. Not as pleasant of reads as the Blue Raven series. ( )

I did like the romance. You could see how Ned had changed and truly fallen in love. However, the overall story really dragged. It was so slow going and we spent too much time disliking Ned (before even getting to the slow character growth). ( )

I got this book for free through the First reads giveaway. Also, I totally adore Kate Noble's books, so it wasn't just yay! free book, it was YAAAAY FREE KATE NOBLE BOOK.

I was a little worried at first because I'm not a big fan of Prince & Pauper story lines, but after about 50 pages and a couple days break, I really got into it.

The basic story line is the main character, an Earl, makes a wager with his secretary/ex-Captain/once and future friend, that he is lucky even without his title. In this case the 'luck' refers specifically to 'with the ladies'--he is sure he can charm women even without his title. They swap places on their way to a house party with no one of any import, and he must get certain tokens (material and otherwise) from a lady within the two weeks of the party without her knowing about his title. If he wins, he gets the mill his secretary has been trying to save, if he loses, the secretary gets enough money to save the mill and quit his job/go back to his original career. And more importantly, if he loses, he'll be admitting that his luck is only due to his title. The first couple of chapters are borderline meh--he has culture shock because he's suddenly a servant, not an earl, and he flubs his way around. I'm not sure why I disliked these chapters. I think maybe it felt too easy for him to adapt to his new place? Something annoyed me. But then he shares a dessert with the Governess of the title, and hits on her inappropriately, which she calls him on, and he's super shocked and goes away to lick his wounds.

And then he really thinks about what he'd been doing, and realises he'd been a total jerk--that he'd been interpreting the night based on what he wanted to happen, not on the reality. It was very humanizing, and I think that's when I started liking the book.

I'll ignore the rest of the book since I don't want to spoiler it, but it managed to not require stupid misunderstandings for the most part. He admits to part of the wager to the governess, and so later on when someone is trying to deter her interest in him, she knows why he did what he did, and doesn't go off in a snit about it. And he lets her make her own decisions about her life even though they're not what he wants.

So overall, LOVED it, and totally looking forward to the next one. ( )

Eigentlich könnte es Lord Ned Granville, dem Earl von Ashby, nicht besser gehen. Er ist attraktiv und beliebt und an Geld mangelt es ihm auch nicht. Doch sein Freund John Turner fordert ihn mit einer Wette heraus. Er glaubt nicht, dass der Earl ohne seinen Titel und sein Geld das Herz einer Frau gewinnt. Der Earl ist so von sich überzeugt, dass er die Wette annimmt. Er gibt sich als John aus. Phoebe Baker war erst siebzehn, als ihr Vater starb und das Vermögen verloren ging. Nun verdient sie sich ihren Lebensunterhalt als Gouvernante. Als Phoebe und der Earl in seiner angenommenen Rolle aufeinandertreffen, fühlen sie sich zueinander hingezogen. Doch kann das gutgehen?
Dieser Roman konnte mich nicht überzeugen. Gut, er lässt sich flüssig lesen, aber die Handlung ist langatmig und hat mich nicht gepackt. Das Leben der Protagonisten ist ziemlich ausführlich dargestellt. Dagegen sind die Charaktere doch recht oberflächlich beschrieben. Einzig Phoebe gefällt mir. Der Earl in seiner angenommenen Rolle wirkt etwas aus der Welt gefallen.
Ich hatte mir von dem Roman mehr versprochen, doch das Buch entsprach nicht meinen Erwartungen. ( )