My Best Friend’s Earl is the second book in Bethany Bennett’s Bluestocking Booksellers series. I haven’t read any of this author’s books before, but I liked the idea of a bookseller heroine and thought I’d give it a try. It was a fun romp, and if you’re not a stickler for period details, you may enjoy it too.

Constance Martin is definitely not a simpering miss. As the daughter of booksellers with hopes to keep the store going when her parents retire, she sometimes appears a bit scatterbrained but is genuinely goodhearted. She left her betrothed at the altar when she realized what their married life would be like (boring and cheap), and although that caused a small scandal it was contained to a small area of London. Now that her cousin Caro has married a Duke and is a bona-fide Duchess, Constance has come to know Caro’s friends, including Miss Althea Thompson.

Althea is engaged to Oliver Vincent, the Earl of Southwyn, best friend to Caro’s husband, a marriage arranged by their fathers many years ago. Oliver was supposed to marry Althea’s older sister, Dorcas, but Dorcas has eloped with her love so Althea has been put forward as a substitute in order to honour the agreement. As far as Althea is concerned, Oliver is rigid and duty-bound, and even though she’s asked him to release her from the arrangement, he attributes it to nerves and has offered reassurances that they will have a good (if unromantic) life together. Although Althea has known Oliver since they were children, she’s desperate to get out of the marriage – especially as she’s interested in someone else). When she approaches Constance for help, figuring that since Constance has managed to avoid marriage she will know what to do, they come up with a plan to make Oliver break the engagement. Together they come up with some ideas, like surreptitiously rearranging items in Oliver’s house at every visit, replacing some of his staid waistcoats with flamboyantly coloured ones, and even convincing him to adopt a feral kitten. Anything to make Oliver reconsider his plans.

Oliver has known since a young age that he’d marry into the Thompson family. The arrangement suited him as their lands are next to each other and he will regain access to a river that flows through land that once belonged to his family, where he has building plans for a lock and transport system that will help raise funds to support his estate and the people living and working on it. He’d tried to just purchase the river outright from the Thompsons on more than one occasion, but had been rebuffed by Althea’s father, so marriage is really the only option. But Althea’s friend Constance always seems to be underfoot and is such a distraction! In her presence Oliver can sometimes forget that his life is supposed to be all planned out. As his attraction to her grows, can Oliver figure out a way for all of them to get the happy ending they deserve?

The author’s note explains that Constance has ADHD as she herself has, something that would never have been diagnosed as such in Regency England. But it explains Constance’s character, how easily she gets distracted or has difficulty focusing. I quite liked all the characters in this story, even if their behaviour is more modern than would have been true of the time at which the book is set. I’m sure no-one in Regency England ever uttered the phrase “Girls before earls”, for example. As well, Constance seems to spend a lot of time alone with Oliver with no chaperone in sight (and yet there is no sense of them doing something improper), and a reference to the ‘there’s only one bed trope’ when they get stuck in such a situation is a bit over the top.

Because Althea is wholeheartedly trying to get out of the marriage, there is no sense that Constance is going behind her friend’s back or should feel guilty about developing feelings for Oliver, and to her credit, she tells her friend right away when things between her and Oliver start to get intimate. The sex scenes (later in the novel) are spicy, and to make things even more interesting, Oliver is a virgin hero whereas Constance has had sex before (although not good sex of course!) so they take their time learning what they like. I appreciated Oliver’s ingenuity in figuring out how to find a way to eventually break the engagement to Althea while still making sure she’d be protected and not subject to the whilms of her father. And there is some low-stakes drama near the end to get the characters on their way to a happy ending. My Best Friend’s Earl is no Loretta Chase or Julia Quinn novel but the characters made it an enjoyable read and I’m inclined to pick up another book by this author in the future.