What Ales the Earl

June 15, 2018
Despite the strict social mores of the Regency period, Penelope Barnes has created a safe home for her illegitimate daughter, Harriet, until mean-spirited rumors crack her mask of respectability and her aristocratic lover reappears.Penelope seduced Harry, the second son of an earl and her childhood crush, before he went off to fight Napoleon. After he left, she discovered she was pregnant and fled her abusive farmer father, ultimately finding sanctuary at the Benevolent Home for the Maintenance and Support of Spinsters, Widows and Abandoned Women and their Unfortunate Children. Thanks in large part to her knowledge of farming and agriculture, she was able to "manage the orchards and other crops and nurse the all-but-abandoned hopyard back to life," and she helps launch a brewery. Penelope and Harriet have been happy, but lately a new mother-daughter resident pair at the Home has been teasing Harriet mercilessly and spreading rumors about Penelope, claiming that Harriet is the illegitimate daughter of the philandering former Earl of Darrow. In fact, Harriet is the illegitimate daughter of the current earl, who has come into the title after his brother's death. Penelope has long claimed she's the widow of a war hero, but thanks to a genetic oddity that runs in the earl's family and has recently manifested in Harriet, their cover is blown. Things get more complicated when Harry, on an errand from a friend, comes to investigate the Home and discovers he has a daughter. Obviously an earl can't marry a farmer's daughter. Or can he? MacKenzie delivers an engaging plot, and the enlightened moments at the end redeem some mind-boggling choices Penelope and Harry make in the beginning, though a comeuppance for Harriet's tormentor would have been nice.A fun, heartwarming Regency romance elevated by witty dialogue and a unique concept.

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June 25, 2018
In MacKenzie’s improbable but fun Regency-era series launch, a respectable young woman’s scandalous past catches up with her when her onetime lover reappears after many years. Penelope Barnes was the daughter of a tenant farmer when she fell in love with Harry Graham, a member of the aristocracy. After Harry left to fight Napoleon, Pen, pregnant, was repudiated by her strict father. Posing as a married woman, she found refuge—and discovered lucrative beer-making skills—in a home for women, where she has brought up her daughter, Harriet. Ten years later, Harry, now Lord Darrow, arrives in Little Puddleton on an errand just as Pen is unmasked humiliatingly as an unwed mother. Harry is supposed to propose to an eligible young lady, but he finds Pen as passionate as ever and is delighted to have a daughter. He invites Pen to be his mistress, forcing her to decide whether that is enough for her. The plot is awash in convenient coincidences, but the Cinderella elements and quirky characters keep it afloat. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds.