Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: NineStar Press

Genre: Regency Gay Romance

Length: 295 Kindle Pages 

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At: amazon

Blurb:

A chancer and a rogue, Kit Angel is down on his luck. Presenting himself at Rossingley Hall in the dead of night, he begs an audience with the eleventh earl, the most enigmatic nobleman in Regency England.

The visit has purpose. Kit, hungry to ruin the baronet who ruined his sister, believes Rossingley is the only man who can help him.

Lando Duchamps-Avery, Eleventh Earl of Rossingley, doesn’t trust the sinfully handsome stranger one bit. He does not care for the tales he spins, his hot temper, or his thick, ebony curls. And, most definitely, he is not in thrall to the delicious golden hoop dangling from Kit Angel’s left ear. Lando has his own motivations to ruin the same lord, and the two men form an uneasy alliance.

As the dangerous plot they hatch unfurls, the suspicious earl and the shady scoundrel are increasingly thrown together. Whilst the wily earl gradually surrenders to his growing attraction, Kit can’t make up his mind if he wants to swive him, declare undying love for him, or throttle him.

Bit by bit, as mutual desire swells between them, Kit wins over the earl’s body, his passion, and his trust.

But in order to win the earl’s elusive heart? The scoundrel must risk losing everything.

This first book in the new Rossingley Regency romance series introduces Lando Duchamps-Avery, nineteenth-century predecessor to Dr Lucian Avery of the contemporary Rossingley romance series. With Lando’s story, we return to southern England and the Rossingley estate. This book can be read as a standalone.

Review: 

I’ve read all the contemporary Rossingley series books so when I saw this coming out, a Regency prequel to a series close to my heart, I was in. This book is set in 1821 and Orlando Fitzwilliam Albert Duchamps-Avery, Eleventh Earl of Rossingley, is a great-great (whatever) grandfather of (doctor) Lucien Duchamps-Avery, the Sixteenth Earl of Rossingley, who is one of my absolute fictional loves. There are so many similarities. The almost white blond hair. The love of nightgown/lingerie garments, not good with eating, the pearls, the haughty authority that hides a lot of pain, and so forth.  

Similar to Lucien, Lando has suffered loss and depression afterwards, melancholia in this time. Lando’s love, Captain Charles Prosser, died three years ago. Lando is quite alone. His parents and his wife have all passed but he is the father to two boys at Eton, an heir and a spare. His job done, Charles was meant to be his forever love. He now surrounds himself with servants who are loyal, discreet, and think the world of him. Some of whom are also inclined to men. His half-brother, Robert, is also among his inner sanctum. The cast of characters, from one-eyed Jasper, his bodyguard/all-rounder, to his valet, Pritchard, are all incredibly happy with their life and work at Rossingley and support the quirky Lando.

Kit Angel is Charles Prosser’s nephew. Since their uncle died, Kit looks out for his sister, and that includes thieving. To this end – his sister – Kit arrives at Rossingley based off his Uncle Charles’ word that Lando is the right man if Anne was in need. Right now he needs some help from the Rossingley Earl. His sister has had her reputation ruined because another Lord, Gartfield, made unwanted advances, because women were total chattels in those days. Gartside is Lando’s neighbour and Kit is angry and wants revenge. Maybe a tad hotheaded but I didn’t blame him. He also wants his distraught sister given some safety, which Lando does provide. However, Lando believes Kit is out to blackmail him because Kit knew about Lando’s and his uncle’s relationship. Kit was using it to get support but Lando is icy and angry about his and Charles’ relationship being used as a potential pawn. Cue misunderstanding. 

This is where I dropped a star. I really didn’t like Lando for a while. It took the Dicken’s of a time for me to warm up to him. It’s a hard act to follow Lucien (and Jay), even though this is akin to a prequel. In a different period. In the beginning Lando treated Kit badly. He had his men physically rough up and kick Kit off the estate.

And despite grabbing Angel by the hair and booting him through the door—twice—his heart was telling him Charles would have expected Lando to assist his nephew.

Overall the writing was quite lush. It certainly gives you a sense of time and place. But if I NEVER read the word gadzooks again, it will be too soon. It honestly dragged me out of the story. 

In dark, gritty books, I’m good with a power imbalance. In contemporary or lighter romance, I’m not good with it. I read or listen to quite a bit of Regency Romance and I enjoy them, but with reservation. I know I don’t like snobbery and class structures and I know historical or Reg-Rom are going to give me that, but I really noticed it as opposed to it sitting more in the background to the characters and to the ruse Lando devised. I’ve just come off the back of listening to The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting, The Duke at Hazard, Any Old Diamonds – all K.J Charles –  which are in the same vein. They all get 5 stars except for A Duke at Hazard, which I gave 4 stars. Now I’m thinking on it, it was because it took me a while to warm to Cassian alongside the class and power imbalance. I have to really love a character to get past this and while I ended up liking Lando, I didn’t love him. Even with familial similarities, he’s missing that X factor that Lucien has in spades.

He was singularly beautiful though. His uncle hadn’t warned him of that either. Even if it was beauty of a wintry sort, savage even. Vacant and statuesque, dripping with ennui. One looked but didn’t dare touch.

Lando does come good and falls hook, line, and sinker for Kit. When he does, it’s quite lovely. When he believes and knows Kit is right, what if you could do something about someone who easily and deliberately continues to take advantage? Lando certainly delivers on something Charles would have been happy about. His niece and nephew safe and comfortable. That Lando could allow himself to love Kit more readily and vice versa, something Charles and Lando had to do sporadically and cautiously because of the laws around sodomy and because of their residing geography. 

Lando hoped to God Pritchard was right. Kit Angel brought lightness to his soul. He was like the sun, warming his bones from the inside out. With his charm, his touch, his kiss, his damned earring and ribbons, he’d driven darkness from Lando’s heart, taking his melancholia of the past three years with it.

I liked that Kit didn’t want to be kept but also wasn’t ridiculous around how he moved forward. I was glad that Lando came up with an idea to get back at Gartside, who had a long history of being an arsehole to all and sundry, including some of Lando’s friends. I’m also glad two lonely men found one another and love was the catalyst to bring Lando fully back to life again. All in all I finished feeling happy with the ending of To Tempt a Troubled Earl. It did make me think about Lucien and Jay. That made me smile, reminding me that it’s time to revisit them again. 4 Stars!

PS: I’m going to add one other thing, how NineStar Press cannot provide a mobi ARC is beyond me in 2025. I did not solicit for an ARC, just for the record, but was offered only to be told nope, NSP doesn’t do mobi copies. Sour taste.