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The MacLerie Clan #4
The Earl's Secret
The Earl of Treybourne was not going to lose a public argument with a petty, scribbling journalist.
So he headed for Edinburgh, disguising himself as plain Mr. Archer, eager to discover the anonymous writer. A flawless plan, until he found himself distracted by the beautiful Miss Anna Fairchild. A bluestocking long on the shelf, Anna had no desire for a husband. But she felt a strange kinship with the dashing - and enigmatic - gentleman.
With secrets to hide herself, Anna was playing a dangerous game that could threaten their tenuous bond. Caught between deception and desire, could love flourish?
298 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
22 people are currently reading
318 people want to read
About the author
Terri Brisbin
215 books552 followersTerri Brisbin is the USA TODAY Bestselling author of more than 50 historical, paranormal and fantasy romances and her books have been released in more than 20 languages and 25 countries around the world since 1998. She's been published by Berkley/Jove, Harlequin, Kensington Books, NAL/Signet, Dragonblade Publishing and Oliver Heber Books. Terri has also self-published her works and will have new books out through 2026!
When not living the glamorous life of a romance author in the southern NJ suburbs, Terri spends her time being a married mom, a grammy and a dental hygienist while plotting and planning future stories and trips to Scotland . For more info (more than you could possibly want or need to know) visit her website – www.terribrisbin.com .
When not living the glamorous life of a romance author in the southern NJ suburbs, Terri spends her time being a married mom, a grammy and a dental hygienist while plotting and planning future stories and trips to Scotland . For more info (more than you could possibly want or need to know) visit her website – www.terribrisbin.com .
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 4, 2017
There is a feud going on in the newspapers regarding political beliefs. Representing the Tories is David Lansdale, Earl of Treymount, who truly sides with the more liberal and progressive Whigs, but is the mouthpiece for the conservative Tories in order to continue receiving funds from his father. He uses that money to support numerous charities (and his father would be appalled to find out!). Representing the whigs is A.J. Goodfellow, a pseudonym for Anna Fairchild working as a teacher for unfortunates, writing for her newspaper and raising her younger sister. The tensions mounts when David shows up in Edinburgh to learn the identity of his adversary. Under a pseudonym of his own, he gets close to Anna Fairchild. But a romance between them has no possible future - she's a disgraced reformer and he's nobility. Not to mention overcoming the dishonesty and lies on both sides.
Evidently this is a part of the MacLerie world and there is a Lord and Lady MacLerie in this story, but I have no idea how they fit into the original "Highlander" series nor how these people relate to Connor and friends. I also read the novella that comes after this, about Julia, Anna's sister and it makes so much more sense now that I've read this.
On the whole, this is a pretty nice story. Plenty of angst, betrayal and deceptions. I like that Nathaniel wasn't heartbroken, but came to the realization that as much as he loved Anna, he wouldn't want her for a wife. I also really liked the angst there towards the end (which was not part of the big misunderstanding). The consummation of the romance also didn't take place until the last chapter - if you're a bit ADHD with that sort of thing and struggle to get through a whole book for that little reward, this might be difficult for you. I'm a bit impatient with it, but if the relationship is engaging, I can wait. This kept my interest.
Evidently this is a part of the MacLerie world and there is a Lord and Lady MacLerie in this story, but I have no idea how they fit into the original "Highlander" series nor how these people relate to Connor and friends. I also read the novella that comes after this, about Julia, Anna's sister and it makes so much more sense now that I've read this.
On the whole, this is a pretty nice story. Plenty of angst, betrayal and deceptions. I like that Nathaniel wasn't heartbroken, but came to the realization that as much as he loved Anna, he wouldn't want her for a wife. I also really liked the angst there towards the end (which was not part of the big misunderstanding). The consummation of the romance also didn't take place until the last chapter - if you're a bit ADHD with that sort of thing and struggle to get through a whole book for that little reward, this might be difficult for you. I'm a bit impatient with it, but if the relationship is engaging, I can wait. This kept my interest.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2017
Anna is a bluestocking and a very gifted writer. As a woman who has to work hard she owns a publication and challenges the Tory spokesperson, Lord Treybourne by writing essays as AJ Goodfellow. David is under pressure from his father to best the woman. The romance is minimal and I felt a lot of the book is set-up. It's the introduction to the couple but they never seem to get far emotionally. Anna is painted as a veritable saint, she's perfect in every way and she never acknowledges her own mistakes, her own deception. The Earl however, or David Archer is more forthcoming, open about his feelings and so I found the characters unevenly balanced. I didn't see anything of the MacLerie clan here. It is not part of that series.
January 25, 2016
:) muito bom!
de uma forma subtil, a historia contem elementos que nos fazem "ver" a sociedade real da epoca.
a realidade não é bem, ou melhor, não é so uma historia romantica de um casal que se conhece e se apaixona.
nuances reais, num contexto realista.
foi de facto uma surpresa esta historia e que recomendo a quem gosta do genero.
de uma forma subtil, a historia contem elementos que nos fazem "ver" a sociedade real da epoca.
a realidade não é bem, ou melhor, não é so uma historia romantica de um casal que se conhece e se apaixona.
nuances reais, num contexto realista.
foi de facto uma surpresa esta historia e que recomendo a quem gosta do genero.
November 29, 2024
Started off promising but failed on multiple levels. First the writing is dull and flat. I don't expect War and Peace, but the writing had no liveliness and felt plodding, almost like Chat GTP wrote it. I had to set this aside a few times during reading. The main character of Anna was very interesting and I stuck with it to follow her story (she owns a magazine, writes a popular column, and runs a women's school--which really strains credulity with her being 23 and a woman in Scotland in the 1800s), but I wish I didn't. Unfortunately about 3/4 way thorough the book it's revealed she's experienced SA, and it was just really poorly handled. Also David also committed SA as well! As well as being a liar. I strongly dislike when SA pasts are introduced in romance novels are introduced because they are RARELY handled well. They are revealed as some sort of "twist" later in the book, do nothing to inform the character development or motivations, and the heroine's responses are not realistic to random sexual advances from the hero. "Wild Wolf" and "Nightshade" also did this and it just is not the right context. Plus the SA is always shown as being "cured" by true love, which is poorly handled. The plot just meandered. There were TOO many secrets/lies, coverups and not enough breathing space to handle this. I had a hard time keeping track of side characters because they were so bland. Overall, I was just rolling my eyes at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2021
Quello che mi ha spinto a leggere questo romanzo, non avendo mai letto nulla di quest'autrice, è che adoro le trame con segreti ed equivoci. Lo stile è scorrevole, i personaggi sono simpatici (ma nessuno che mi sia rimasto nel cuore) e un livello di sensualità basso (tutto si riduce a qualche bacio infuocato e la scena finale che chiude il romanzo con il suo consueto lieto fine). E' vero che è una lettura rilassante ma mi aspettavo decisamente qualcosa di più coinvolgente. La trama in sé, anche se simpatica, ha dei cliché già letti come per esempio il nascondere la propria identità e fingersi qualcuno di rango inferiore. Lettura rilassante ma niente che mi abbia colpito particolarmente.
September 14, 2019
The Earls secret
A really awesome book !
A must read series, if you enjoy mysteries and secrets you will definitely like this book !
A really awesome book !
A must read series, if you enjoy mysteries and secrets you will definitely like this book !
June 14, 2020
MacLerie connection is minor.
March 27, 2015
The Earl’s Secret
What? Where did this one come from? How does it fit into The MacLerie Clan series? This one came out of left field and I couldn’t figure out why it was included in the series. It was a good book and I really enjoyed it once I got over the shock of how different it was from the previous three books but I still don’t know if it should have been included in the series.
Everything was different about it, the tone, the setting and even the century it was set in. At first, I thought I had downloaded the wrong book. I did this several times, checking the title, series and author just to make sure that I was reading the 4th book of The MacLerie Clan series. I actually did this several times. It just felt so different from the rest of the series. Instead of the rough Highlander feel, it had a snobbish English feel to it. It was set in Edinburg and London in the 1800s instead of the Highlands in the 1300s like the previous books.
A MacLerie wasn’t even mentioned until I was about a quarter of the way through it and then it was just a friend’s husband who was the MacLerie.
Despite the strangeness of this book being part of the series, I enjoyed it. I just had to get used to it.
Anna Fairchild is what people called a ‘bluestocking’, an intellectual or literary woman. That and the fact that she advocates for social reform puts her on the edge of acceptable behavior for a lady in society. If people learned that she was the owner of the Scottish Monthly Gazette instead of her friend, Nathaniel who pretends to be its owner, she would be ruined. It just was not acceptable for a woman to own or run a business. Acceptable behavior is for women to organize parties and balls and to look for a suitable marriage. Anna has no intention on marrying. She likes to be her own woman and a husband would take that freedom away from her.
Her magazine has been doing well and is picking up subscriptions and advertisers due to a certain essay against the Torie party written by A.J. Goodfellow who advocates for social reform. It’s a sort of debate written and published in two separate magazines or newspapers. The Torie party’s essay being written by David Lansdale, the Earl of Treybourne in a London magazine while the reformer’s essays and replies are written anonymously with the writer going by the name of A.J. Goodfellow. Anna is really A.J. Goodfellow and the only person who knows this is her friend Nathaniel.
David Lansdale is hard-pressed to find a solution to the escalation of the war on words going on between A.J. Goodfellow and himself when his father, the Marquees of Dursby who thinks A.J. Goodfellow is making him and the party look bad, threatens to cut off his salary unless he does something about it. He depends on the money from his father for personal reasons and has only agreed to write the essays even though he does not really believe in what the Tories stands for and he only has to get through this year before he gets his inheritance from his grandfather when he turns thirty. He knows the owner of the Scotland Monthly Gazette, Nathaniel Hobbs-Smith, from his university years and decides to go to Edinburg under the assumed name David Archer to try to find out who A.J. Goodfellow is.
Of course, Nathaniel knows his true identity but keeps it a secret from everyone else including Anna because he knows if David’s father becomes involved, he wouldn’t think twice to crush the magazine and the people who work for it.
Anna and David get to know each other and start to fall in love but there are too many secrets between them and if and when they are discovered, neither of them will be able to forgive the other…so they believe. Plus, David is an earl so Anna would not be a suitable wife for him according to the rules of society.
Anna said it best, “Oh what a tangled web we weave!” and I would have to agree. It was quite the mess and I got caught up in it, rooting for the couple who I truly believed would not make it. I know it is a romance novel but I thought maybe this one would end on a sad note. Since it was so different from the others in the series, I thought maybe this was some kind of lesson or something. I just didn’t know.
Maybe this is the start of some sort of spin-off series. I could get into it that is what it is. I’m still baffled as to where this book fits into the series. I’ve looked at the next book and it is back in the 1300s so I’m at a loss.
www.paranormalromanceslut.com
What? Where did this one come from? How does it fit into The MacLerie Clan series? This one came out of left field and I couldn’t figure out why it was included in the series. It was a good book and I really enjoyed it once I got over the shock of how different it was from the previous three books but I still don’t know if it should have been included in the series.
Everything was different about it, the tone, the setting and even the century it was set in. At first, I thought I had downloaded the wrong book. I did this several times, checking the title, series and author just to make sure that I was reading the 4th book of The MacLerie Clan series. I actually did this several times. It just felt so different from the rest of the series. Instead of the rough Highlander feel, it had a snobbish English feel to it. It was set in Edinburg and London in the 1800s instead of the Highlands in the 1300s like the previous books.
A MacLerie wasn’t even mentioned until I was about a quarter of the way through it and then it was just a friend’s husband who was the MacLerie.
Despite the strangeness of this book being part of the series, I enjoyed it. I just had to get used to it.
Anna Fairchild is what people called a ‘bluestocking’, an intellectual or literary woman. That and the fact that she advocates for social reform puts her on the edge of acceptable behavior for a lady in society. If people learned that she was the owner of the Scottish Monthly Gazette instead of her friend, Nathaniel who pretends to be its owner, she would be ruined. It just was not acceptable for a woman to own or run a business. Acceptable behavior is for women to organize parties and balls and to look for a suitable marriage. Anna has no intention on marrying. She likes to be her own woman and a husband would take that freedom away from her.
Her magazine has been doing well and is picking up subscriptions and advertisers due to a certain essay against the Torie party written by A.J. Goodfellow who advocates for social reform. It’s a sort of debate written and published in two separate magazines or newspapers. The Torie party’s essay being written by David Lansdale, the Earl of Treybourne in a London magazine while the reformer’s essays and replies are written anonymously with the writer going by the name of A.J. Goodfellow. Anna is really A.J. Goodfellow and the only person who knows this is her friend Nathaniel.
David Lansdale is hard-pressed to find a solution to the escalation of the war on words going on between A.J. Goodfellow and himself when his father, the Marquees of Dursby who thinks A.J. Goodfellow is making him and the party look bad, threatens to cut off his salary unless he does something about it. He depends on the money from his father for personal reasons and has only agreed to write the essays even though he does not really believe in what the Tories stands for and he only has to get through this year before he gets his inheritance from his grandfather when he turns thirty. He knows the owner of the Scotland Monthly Gazette, Nathaniel Hobbs-Smith, from his university years and decides to go to Edinburg under the assumed name David Archer to try to find out who A.J. Goodfellow is.
Of course, Nathaniel knows his true identity but keeps it a secret from everyone else including Anna because he knows if David’s father becomes involved, he wouldn’t think twice to crush the magazine and the people who work for it.
Anna and David get to know each other and start to fall in love but there are too many secrets between them and if and when they are discovered, neither of them will be able to forgive the other…so they believe. Plus, David is an earl so Anna would not be a suitable wife for him according to the rules of society.
Anna said it best, “Oh what a tangled web we weave!” and I would have to agree. It was quite the mess and I got caught up in it, rooting for the couple who I truly believed would not make it. I know it is a romance novel but I thought maybe this one would end on a sad note. Since it was so different from the others in the series, I thought maybe this was some kind of lesson or something. I just didn’t know.
Maybe this is the start of some sort of spin-off series. I could get into it that is what it is. I’m still baffled as to where this book fits into the series. I’ve looked at the next book and it is back in the 1300s so I’m at a loss.
www.paranormalromanceslut.com
May 2, 2021
I liked it! It was a good wattpad type of book and it wasn’t heavy at all so it was a perfect quick read! And I kinda got addicted to their love story..
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March 22, 2012"David guardò la moglie, consapevole che gli aveva insegnato e offerto più di quanto potesse fare lui, ma giurò che ogni giorno, per tutto il resto della vita, avrebbe tentato di ricambiarla."
Carino, anche se abbastanza classico come trama e personaggio, l'ho preso in scambio e lo rimetto in circolazione però perché ho scoperto che fa parte di una saga di cui non possiedo gli altri volumi.
Carino, anche se abbastanza classico come trama e personaggio, l'ho preso in scambio e lo rimetto in circolazione però perché ho scoperto che fa parte di una saga di cui non possiedo gli altri volumi.
February 4, 2014
Who doesn't like a story where two essayists are at eachother's throats on paper, unknowingly falling in love while they're at it? Terri Brisbin's novels are always a highlight for me and this one is as well. Compared to some of her other novels the characters are less interesting, but the story and the writing are amazing. Especially the essay we get towards the end 'blood will tell'.
October 20, 2014
Aivot narikkaan ja ruusunpunaiset silmälasit esiin- sarjaa. En minä varmaan muista tästä mitään huomenna, mutta ei tarvitsekaan. Sopivan viihdyttävä lukaisu näin kylmänä syyspäivänä.
November 4, 2015
Just love discovering a new author. Can't imagine my life without books. Well written and entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews