REVIEW: No Earls Allowed

No Earls Allowed by Shana Galen

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a lady can do anything a man can do: backwards and in high-heeled dancing slippers.

Lady Juliana, daughter of the Earl of St. Maur, needs all the help she can get. She's running a ramshackle orphanage, London's worst slumlord has illicit designs on her, and her father has suddenly become determined to marry her off.

Enter Major Neil Wraxall, bastard son of the Marquess of Kensington, sent to assist Lady Juliana in any way he can. Lucky for her, he's handy with repairs, knows how to keep her and the orphans safe, and is a natural leader of men.

Unfortunately for both of them, the scandal that ensues from their mutual attraction is going to lead them a merry dance...

Neil Wraxall is plagued with nightmares as result of his time on the battlefield.  Under his command, several of his friends and his brother lost their lives-all of which he feels tremendous culpability for.  To dull the pain, he always keeps a glass of gin on the bedside and when the terrors of the past become to much, he indulges.

In the warzone, he felt rage and now that the rage is gone, there is a heavy weight on his shoulders.  One his unable to divest himself of. He relives his past constantly and barely sleeps and is almost always alone.  When he wishes company, he goes to the Draven Club.  And although he gets company there, he cannot completely escape his demons as there is a in memoriam to the fallen soldiers that he commanded that hangs directly in view of all who enter.

Neil is used to taking orders and following them.  So, when he receives a summons from his father, he answers.  On this occasion, he is told by his father to retrieve Lady Juliana from the orphanage in Spitalfields and take her home to her father.  His father tells him that it is a trifling request and should not take much time to complete.  When Neill arrives, however, he realizes it is anything but.  Juliana is headstrong an willful and she outright refuses to return home.  However, he is a soldier and he always completes his missions no matter how difficult they may seem.  He knows Lady Juliana will not leave due to the issues surrounding The SunnyBrook home for Boys.  There is no cook, the orphanage is in disrepair, the roof leaks and she has a violent crimelord demanding payment – or else.  He decides to stay despite the impropriety of it all and solve her problems so that she will be more amenable to returning home.

Lady Juliana, daughter of Earl St Maur, lost her sister in childbirth and lost her nephew to his cold-hearted, selfish father.  You can also say that she lost her father for all that his is alive.  Since the death of her mother, her father has been emotionally absent and she spends most of her time at the Sunnybrook Home for Boys. 

One night she is called away from a ball by Robbie, one of the orphans she has charge of and races back to the orphanage to find out that her cook is packing her bags.  She knew this was an eventuality due to the disrepair and the missing staples in the larder disappearing.  Never mind the friendly rats that run amok.

Now, Julia has much responsibility and no where to turn for help.  She uses her pin money to buy food and to do whatever repairs the orphanage requires but it is sadly not enough.  Her father does not like her staying in such a run-down part of the city and wants her to come home.  Julia, who loves her charges, refuses.  She will not loose another child she loves.

Juliana now has greater worries.  Mr Slag, a crimelord, who runs the rookery where the orphanage resides is violent and cruel.  He has set his sights on Juliana and demands payment of a thousand pounds for her protection or she must warm his bed.  She tries to avoid him but due to the time she now spends at the orphanage, its almost unavoidable. .  Juliana refuses to accept but she must make a choice, Mr Slag will not wait forever.

I absolutely loved Neil’s character.  He is known as a hero but refuses to acknowledge it because he believes that he is to blame for the deaths of the men who died under his command.  He is also a tortured as a result of finding his brother’s dead body on the battlefield.  It is an image he cannot forget. Neil is lonely and is verging towards alcoholism to solve his problems.  He is also kind and a caring as well as a virgin!.  I love when he makes the rats a cage for the boys even though he absolutely detests them. 

At the orphanage, he starts off not caring for any of the boys nor Juliana besides getting her home.  Towards the end, he is actively showing them how to cook basic meals and make their beds and a few other things a long the way.

Julia’s character however, I did not like as much.  She seemed to be completely absorbed with the orphanage and had no real care for Neil besides the attraction she feels. But attraction does not equal love. She has a lot of distrust of men, understandably, but I believe it was overblown and that she projected too much on Neil.  He does good deed after good deed and still she mistrusts him.  I have a hard time with that.  I really wanted to love Julia’s character but something about her character rubbed me wrong.  I did love how she cared for the orphans under her care but besides that, I don’t have much to say.

The flow of this book, for me, was really slow in the beginning.  I found myself putting down my kindle many a time to do other things.  However, because I loved Neil's character, the children at the orphanage and Mrs Dunwitty, Juliana’s governess as a child, I forged on. 

Around the three-quarter mark, the writing I was expecting from this author came through, the pace picked up and my enjoyment of the book and Juliana skyrocketed. From there on, I did not put the book down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.