cover image The Earl’s Complete Surrender

The Earl’s Complete Surrender

Sophie Barnes. Avon, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-235889-9

Barnes’s second Secrets at Thorncliff Manor just-post-Regency romance (after Lady Sarah’s Sinful Desires) follows James, who is an earl and a spy, and Chloe, a well-born widow whose husband abused her, as they search the aforementioned manor for a book in which evil antimonarchical conspirators called the Electors have for some reason decided to write a list of their members. James must learn that he cannot devote his life entirely to espionage, Chloe must learn to come out from under the shadow of trauma, and the reader, unfortunately, fails to learn why a conspiracy against a Hanoverian monarch is being run by the soi-disant Electors when one of the hereditary titles of the Hanoverian dynasty was Elector of Hanover. The book’s Electors are anarchists or something similar—it’s never made clear. This historical blunder is only one symptom of the general muddiness, inconsistent characterization, melodramatic plot, and tangled verbiage throughout the novel. There is a distinct sense that the characters are continually ducking into secret passages and secluded rooms solely in order to avoid bumping into the first book’s plot, as otherwise one manor, no matter how sumptuous, simply would not be large enough. (Dec.)