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Sandra Hoover's Reviews > Girls Before Earls

Girls Before Earls by Anna  Bennett
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really liked it
bookshelves: arc-publisher, historical-fiction, publisher-smp, romance-historical

Having grown up alone in a school for girls, Miss Hazel Lively knows how beneficial the experience can be for young girls - especially those with no where else to turn. She has finally found the means to open Bellehaven Academy, a school for girls, a place where the wealthy are willing to pay dearly for their daughters to learn the necessary skills for their coming out season . . . and a place where Hazel plans to take in less fortunate girls and offer them a safe haven like she received. Admittedly, she's off to a slow start with only five girls, but Hazel's ever hopeful business will pick up as her school's flawless reputation builds and word spreads. She needs wealthy students - so why does she turn down the Earl of Bladenton's request to enroll his orphaned, belligerent niece Kittie when he drags her into Hazel's office . . . mostly in an effort to get the girl out of his hair?

Hazel Lively is a strong woman surrounded by a protective shell about as hard as the Earl's head. While she's puzzled by the strange feelings stirred within her by Earl Gabriel Beckett aka Blade, she brushes them aside having learned long ago that love, lust and other such non-sense wasn't for her. Why at twenty-eight years of age, she's practically a spinster, the respected headmistress of a school for girls. Blade is a man at wit's end left to raise an orphaned niece he'd never met before her parents deaths - a girl who's been kicked out of at least three other finishing schools for her foolish pranks. In other words, he's desperate to park his niece at Bellehaven and return to his bachelor life in London including his soon-to-be fiance. He's dumbfounded when Hazel turns him down cold. How dare she refuse him! Let the games begin.

Girls Before Earls is a delightfully sweet, funny and touching historical romance story. Hazel was everything I love in an heroine - strong, sassy, smart and fighting her attraction to a man tooth and nail. Blade is damaged goods and knows it. Having been devastated by a woman who loved another, he's closed his heart to love, vowing he'll never let another woman close enough to hurt him again. Blade's willing to play, but he'll never stay. The author does a great job presenting characters that are authentic and well-fleshed out. I loved Hazel's interactions with her girls. The plot line is original and well-written with a few twists thrown in to keep characters and readers off-kilter. I read this book from cover to cover mostly in one sitting. Fans of historical romance will love this one. Highly recommended.

Special thanks to St Martins Press for an arc of this book.
Reviewed at Cross My Heart Reviews
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Reading Progress

September 8, 2021 – Shelved
September 8, 2021 – Shelved as: to-read
September 8, 2021 – Shelved as: arc-publisher
September 8, 2021 – Shelved as: historical-fiction
September 8, 2021 – Shelved as: publisher-smp
September 8, 2021 – Shelved as: romance-historical
September 22, 2021 – Started Reading
September 23, 2021 – Finished Reading

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