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Tallants #1
The Earl's Prize
The Earl's Prize by Nicola Cornick released on Nov 24, 2003 is available now for purchase.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
14 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Cornick
222 books1,170 followersInternational bestselling author Nicola Cornick writes dual-time historical mysteries that draw on her love for genealogy and local history. She studied History at London and Oxford and worked in academia for a number of years before becoming a full time author. Nicola acts as a guide and researcher at the stunning 17th century hunting lodge, Ashdown House and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Lydiard Park in Swindon. She gives talks and tours on a variety of historical topics.
Nicola lives near Oxford and loves reading, writing, history, music, wildlife, travel and walking her dog. She also loves hearing from her readers and chatting to them. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter @NicolaCornick and Instagram.
Nicola lives near Oxford and loves reading, writing, history, music, wildlife, travel and walking her dog. She also loves hearing from her readers and chatting to them. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter @NicolaCornick and Instagram.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 6, 2013
The Earl’s Prize is about Miss Amy Bainbridge, a well-bred lady who’s forced to live on reduced circumstances, and Joss Tallant, the man who represents everything she detests in a gentleman and at the same time intrigues every curious cell on her body.
“Love is for fools and it will only make you unhappy…” These are the words that Joscelyne, Earl of Tallant, lived by. He’s a jaded person, or he appears to be. Who can blame him when both his parents gave him the same advice, if you can actually call it that, and set a very fine example of what a relationship is all about, sarcastically speaking. I like Joss’ character. He tried so hard to put up a façade to keep everyone from seeing who he really is. He’s been telling himself this is this and that is that for so long he almost convinced himself of the fact until he met Amy.
Amy is the embodiment of honor and honesty to a point that it’s sometimes silly. It is admirable but I found her character hard to understand until she played and won at cards. She’s kind and compassionate, almost to a fault. I like the fact that her innocence is so affecting that Joss didn’t stand a chance of resisting it.
Joss and Amy’s story is set perfectly on the gambling backdrop; the one in a million chance spin of the lottery and the high stakes, winner takes all, game of cards. Love is gamble and they represented that stunningly.
“Love is for fools and it will only make you unhappy…” These are the words that Joscelyne, Earl of Tallant, lived by. He’s a jaded person, or he appears to be. Who can blame him when both his parents gave him the same advice, if you can actually call it that, and set a very fine example of what a relationship is all about, sarcastically speaking. I like Joss’ character. He tried so hard to put up a façade to keep everyone from seeing who he really is. He’s been telling himself this is this and that is that for so long he almost convinced himself of the fact until he met Amy.
Amy is the embodiment of honor and honesty to a point that it’s sometimes silly. It is admirable but I found her character hard to understand until she played and won at cards. She’s kind and compassionate, almost to a fault. I like the fact that her innocence is so affecting that Joss didn’t stand a chance of resisting it.
Joss and Amy’s story is set perfectly on the gambling backdrop; the one in a million chance spin of the lottery and the high stakes, winner takes all, game of cards. Love is gamble and they represented that stunningly.
December 19, 2020
Double standards, bah!
August 19, 2020
We start out the series with a scene that would give any young boy Mommy/women issues...and it does for Joss, Earl of Tallant. Next we see him he's an adult, and he is a degenerate gamblers, wastrel and a rake who doesn't believe in love, responsibility or caution. So he contrasts interestingly with our heroine, Amy Bainbridge. She's the daughter of a gambler and so grew up with the uncertain windfalls and pitfalls of it all and it has led her to a life of constraint and caution, railing against the evils of gambling...and even though her father is dead, her older brother has taken up his life's gambling work. Right out the gate, Amy disapproves of Joss and he's simply amused by that and her. So when Amy wins against his sister in a game of whist she never intended to play (I'm guessing this was to demonstrate the allure of gambling), the sister offers Joss up as an alternate payment. And Joss accepts the deal: a week in each other's company.
I struggled with liking Joss. He doesn't seem to take Amy or her justified opinions about gambling very seriously and he doesn't seem to mind making a fool or scandal of her. After Amy wins that game of whist and is ashamed of herself for gambling and giving into her principles and she more or less leaves the gaming room in tears at her own humiliation, Joss never once apologizes or even acknowledges what he and his sister had ended up doing. And it all felt like some sort of extra amusement for Joss instead of any real desire to be in Amy's presence. That does start to change but it takes some time...so time for me to warm up to him. And this is even more difficult since as he's getting to know Amy, Joss is continuing on with his mistress, which starts to feel like infidelity, though in fairness to him, he hadn't even kissed Amy yet. And it's his feelings for Amy that cause him to end things with his mistress. Added more angst, but not my favorite kind. So by the time we get to the 70% mark, I was more in Joss's corner, because he'd started taking Amy more seriously and was defending her to his friends and family (don't get me started on his sister...can't believe she's going to be the heroine of the third book)
Amy, for her part, is an interesting character. Having borne the brunt of the stress of being a gambler's daughter, she obviously hates it. And the rub of it, for her, is that she cannot condemn her brother for being the wastrel gambler, she only condemns the people he gambles with. Classic enabling, but this never really gets dealt with in the story sadly. Presumably, her brother continues his gambling addiction, but at least Amy has her lottery money (which, wouldn't that then belong to Richard anyway since he's head of the household? Seems to me if he was losing big he'd be able to just take that money if he needed it). I liked that Amy stuck to her core values and even in the face of finding herself enjoying what she hates (which was an interesting bit of self-conflict for Amy), she sticks to her values. She's obviously a morally upright character, and she has moments where she comes across as a prude, but she doesn't ever really become unlikeable (perhaps a bit unbelievable in how good she is, but she also doesn't feel Mary Sue). So I feel like she was a well-written character.
Overall this was an okay story. I set it down around the 40% mark to do something and for some reason I didn't want to go back and finish it...had to force myself to do it. That's not a good thing, but maybe it was just where I left off. Things did pick up after that, so I was more invested by then.
I struggled with liking Joss. He doesn't seem to take Amy or her justified opinions about gambling very seriously and he doesn't seem to mind making a fool or scandal of her. After Amy wins that game of whist and is ashamed of herself for gambling and giving into her principles and she more or less leaves the gaming room in tears at her own humiliation, Joss never once apologizes or even acknowledges what he and his sister had ended up doing. And it all felt like some sort of extra amusement for Joss instead of any real desire to be in Amy's presence. That does start to change but it takes some time...so time for me to warm up to him. And this is even more difficult since as he's getting to know Amy, Joss is continuing on with his mistress, which starts to feel like infidelity, though in fairness to him, he hadn't even kissed Amy yet. And it's his feelings for Amy that cause him to end things with his mistress. Added more angst, but not my favorite kind. So by the time we get to the 70% mark, I was more in Joss's corner, because he'd started taking Amy more seriously and was defending her to his friends and family (don't get me started on his sister...can't believe she's going to be the heroine of the third book)
Amy, for her part, is an interesting character. Having borne the brunt of the stress of being a gambler's daughter, she obviously hates it. And the rub of it, for her, is that she cannot condemn her brother for being the wastrel gambler, she only condemns the people he gambles with. Classic enabling, but this never really gets dealt with in the story sadly. Presumably, her brother continues his gambling addiction, but at least Amy has her lottery money (which, wouldn't that then belong to Richard anyway since he's head of the household? Seems to me if he was losing big he'd be able to just take that money if he needed it). I liked that Amy stuck to her core values and even in the face of finding herself enjoying what she hates (which was an interesting bit of self-conflict for Amy), she sticks to her values. She's obviously a morally upright character, and she has moments where she comes across as a prude, but she doesn't ever really become unlikeable (perhaps a bit unbelievable in how good she is, but she also doesn't feel Mary Sue). So I feel like she was a well-written character.
Overall this was an okay story. I set it down around the 40% mark to do something and for some reason I didn't want to go back and finish it...had to force myself to do it. That's not a good thing, but maybe it was just where I left off. Things did pick up after that, so I was more invested by then.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2024
Un conte che sa innamorarsi
Dalla vostra Lyanne Quay di Un Conte per Tiranno!
Bene nuova scoperta: Nicola Cornick. Ho trovato un’altra di cui sciropparmi gli historical romance. Grande sicurezza di scrittura e da ciò deriva subito il relax di affidarsi a una penna che sa molto bene cosa sta facendo. E infatti trama a orologeria, coerenza dei personaggi, alto grado di strutturazione, con personaggi ben caratterizzati. Ovviamente con questa mano esperta l’autrice tende a sviluppare poco l’interiorità, – voglio dire Balogh è ineguagliabile in questo – e tuttavia il risultato è molto gradevole. Questo romanzo alla fine è una favola levigata, confortante, con un protagonista maschile che acchiappa tanto, il suo progressivo intenerimento verso la protagonista è palpabile e il suo innamoramento credibile (che non è poco) 🙂 Oltretutto è in KU, consigliato caldamente, per me cinque stelle.
Dalla vostra Lyanne Quay di Un Conte per Tiranno!
Bene nuova scoperta: Nicola Cornick. Ho trovato un’altra di cui sciropparmi gli historical romance. Grande sicurezza di scrittura e da ciò deriva subito il relax di affidarsi a una penna che sa molto bene cosa sta facendo. E infatti trama a orologeria, coerenza dei personaggi, alto grado di strutturazione, con personaggi ben caratterizzati. Ovviamente con questa mano esperta l’autrice tende a sviluppare poco l’interiorità, – voglio dire Balogh è ineguagliabile in questo – e tuttavia il risultato è molto gradevole. Questo romanzo alla fine è una favola levigata, confortante, con un protagonista maschile che acchiappa tanto, il suo progressivo intenerimento verso la protagonista è palpabile e il suo innamoramento credibile (che non è poco) 🙂 Oltretutto è in KU, consigliato caldamente, per me cinque stelle.
January 21, 2019
The regency era was awful for women. No rights or control of their lives or money if they had any. Selfish self centered, self absorbed men (in this case a brother). This book kinda made me mad. The lead character was a doormat, her mom lived in a totally fantasy world in poverty because the son/bro gambled all his money away. Ugg.
May 9, 2023
3.5 stars
I loved the h&h. I thought the premise was original. I liked 96% of the characters. All-in-all it was a good read. I liked the villains but hated Amanda. I skipped around 30 pages of useless details. And thus my rating is 3.5 stars instead of 5. I enjoyed the benevolence of the heroine. I only wished that she was tougher and more opinionated.
I loved the h&h. I thought the premise was original. I liked 96% of the characters. All-in-all it was a good read. I liked the villains but hated Amanda. I skipped around 30 pages of useless details. And thus my rating is 3.5 stars instead of 5. I enjoyed the benevolence of the heroine. I only wished that she was tougher and more opinionated.
May 15, 2025
A very cozy and sweet romance about a gambling rake --who is not as bad as he seems--and an impoverished spinster--who learns not to judge a book by its cover. The story was fairly straight forward with very little twists and turns, or the dreaded "Misunderstanding". Recommended for those looking for a comforting, cozy read.
December 3, 2023
Muchos errores de redacción, saltos en los párrafos…
Es una pena, porque parecía una historia interesante, pero tiene muchos errores y saltos en la historia. Deberían hacerle una buena revisión, antes de publicar.
Es una pena, porque parecía una historia interesante, pero tiene muchos errores y saltos en la historia. Deberían hacerle una buena revisión, antes de publicar.
May 28, 2018
PBS Copy- blah
May 29, 2022
I enjoy rereading old favorites and this is one of them
April 1, 2024
Rating: 5 Joss Stars ⭐️
This is a great story. I loved the banter, the period feel, and the character driven plot. Highly recommend.
This is a great story. I loved the banter, the period feel, and the character driven plot. Highly recommend.
August 12, 2024
Gamblers, charlatins and rakes, Oh my.
March 5, 2025
maybe working on something about a different genre
February 22, 2012
My first exposure to this author was in a Christmas anthology and the characters featured seemed to have a common past leading me to wonder if they starred in earlier books. Here's the first one about the Tallant family.
Some seriously dysfunctional parents emotionally cripple their children: Joss and Julianna. As adults they dally and defy society but inside they're miserable. Joss comes across Amy and her family through Amy's brother, Richard who is an inveterate gambler like his father leaving the family in genteel poverty.
An undeniable attraction between Amy and Joss is cemented by an unlikely event that brings money to Amy but not necessarily happiness. Well, not until the final few pages.
Some seriously dysfunctional parents emotionally cripple their children: Joss and Julianna. As adults they dally and defy society but inside they're miserable. Joss comes across Amy and her family through Amy's brother, Richard who is an inveterate gambler like his father leaving the family in genteel poverty.
An undeniable attraction between Amy and Joss is cemented by an unlikely event that brings money to Amy but not necessarily happiness. Well, not until the final few pages.
April 22, 2013
I found myself torn about the book. I liked the result and most of the chase to get there but the disgusting character of his sister I found really appalling. I wanted to feel she was redeemed at the end. I also disliked how her supposed friend Lady Spry told her secrets and then was going ratio use her at the end. I understand going to her for help, but not thinking someone ass impoverished as her could part with that huge sum of money. I did want Spry and Fleet to have their own happy ending. over all not a bad read but I found myself wanting something more.
May 27, 2009
I hadn't read any romance in quite some time before I picked up this book. I was so glad I did! Such a fun plot...a woman of little means finds a winning lottery ticket and all the hi jinx that go along with it.
Fun read, and I really could picture the characters and the settings.
Great way to spend a flight or rainy afternoon.
Fun read, and I really could picture the characters and the settings.
Great way to spend a flight or rainy afternoon.
February 10, 2017
The writing was bad, the history was wrong, and don't get me started on the author's overuse of the exclamation mark.
But the characters were so good and the plot was so intriguing that I didn't want to stop reading it.
I'm hoping that this was a first effort and that subsequent books were better. But the editor should be given a warning for letting those mistakes through.
But the characters were so good and the plot was so intriguing that I didn't want to stop reading it.
I'm hoping that this was a first effort and that subsequent books were better. But the editor should be given a warning for letting those mistakes through.
May 17, 2015
Well!!!! I got halfway through the book!!!!! I couldn't take all the exclamation marks any further!!!! They distracted me to the point that I was expecting them instead of being engrossed in the story!!!!! Just too many!!!!!
December 5, 2010
How much do I love this book!!! It is, without doubt, one of my favorite ever regency historicals.
January 3, 2011
Solidly good.
March 15, 2017
The Tallant's 1st of 4
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 2, 2012
Cute regency, some nice touches of historical placement - like the description of the lottery.
December 4, 2012
I loved this book! It was very romantic and kept me up late at night to find out what was going to happen next!
Want to read
March 11, 2013Se
November 23, 2013
Enjoyed it
March 25, 2015
About mid-way through the book, I figured out that the hero was a secondary character in another of L Carlyle's books. It was fun to finally read that character's whole story!
May 21, 2015
This novel has some great touches to it. And I liked how the hero was flawed. I really want to read more by this author now!
January 5, 2016
This one is quite adorable. Gotta love those rakes who are just itching to reform. And I loved all of Amy's good sense.
February 2, 2016
Traditional regency romance between a wallflower and a rake. Well written and lots of chemistry, without being sexually explicit
December 22, 2024
oh to be a poor regency girl with a down bad earl after you who you’re obliviously falling in love with
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews