A Deal with the Earl

Necessary Arrangements, Book 1

By: Sadie Bosque

Narrated by: Sienna Frances, Timothy Campbell

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Theirs is a marriage of convenience.

She loves another...

Lady Julie has dreamed of marrying her childhood sweetheart since she was four years old. Unfortunately, her father has other plans. He has his sights set on her marrying an earl. When she is forced into an unwanted betrothal, Julie needs to make a choice: wait for her true love and destroy her honor, or make a deal with the forbidding earl.

He vowed to never love again...

Robert, the Earl of Clydesdale, has sworn off love. A marriage of convenience is more to his liking. So he wasn’t about to turn away a beautiful young lady’s plea for help in exchange for her hand in marriage. But once he spends more time with his betrothed, his icy heart begins to melt. Only his betrothed is in love with another. Now Robert has a choice, either lock his heart away and live in misery, or take a risk and fight for the woman he loves.

A Deal with the Earl contains adult content, strong language, violence, unseen death, bullying, nightmares, pregnancy and miscarriage. Listener discretion is advised.

©2021 Sadie Bosque (P)2022 Podium Audio

Gorgeous book!

I loved this book so much! Sadie Bosque is a gorgeous writer and her books are always unconventional, surprising, even distressing at times. She isn't afraid to deal with difficult topics and her characters are flawed, sometimes not very likeable, but always vivid and so very human. I loved Robert and his broken heart and Julie as well, even if I didn't like her very much at the beginning. And her sister Mary is adorable! She’s a wonderful addition to the book and her disability is addressed with tact, respect and realism. The narrators are gorgeous and the dual narration improves the experience quite a lot. And there's also a surprise deleted scene! I can't wait for the next books!

Great Main Characters

A new author for me to enjoy. What a journey. Mary's depiction as the special needs sister of the FMC is particularly noteworthy. Well done. The love story of Robert and Julie comes to us sweetly. Not as solidly as I thought it deserved.
Performances were quite good, particularly the male read by Timothy Campbell. Will be following him.

Hinted abuse

Julie’s father ships off her one true love, John, and forces her into choosing between two titled men to marry. Robert is young, rich, and brooding, the other choice (sorry, don’t remember his name) is suggested to be older, rich, and boring. Julie chooses Robert, which is a good thing since their fathers have already drawn up and signed the marriage contracts. Julie still pines away for John but believes she has no choice but to enter into this marriage of convenience with Robert. Needing an heir and having been burned by love (he vows never to fall in love again), Robert, is more accepting of the marriage of convenience. Both Julie and Robert make stipulations that must be followed after they wed. Robert’s primary rule is no cheating (his ex fiancé caught cheating with smarmy cousin night before wedding). Julie’s rule, and why she agreed to the marriage, is that Robert must help her free her developmentally challenged sister, Mary, from the horrendously cruel asylum that her father put her in. Both Robert and Julie agree to each other’s stipulations and wed. Mary is freed and comes to live with the newly married couple. From here on the story becomes predictable e.g. the marriage isn’t consummated for sometime, lack of direct and honest communication, repetitive internal monologues identifying conflicts without resolutions etc. Julie initially is fearful of sex, seemingly irrationally, not wanting to be touched and experiencing unexplained nightmares. The scene descriptions suggested, at least to me, that Julie was sexually abused. However, Julie’s fear of sex suddenly goes away with only a perfunctory explanation “ Julie didn’t know what to expect.” At the end her nightmares are explained, (no spoiler here),and didn’t have anything to do with abuse. Apparently I misunderstood the initial sex scene. At any rate, I recommend the book - the story was a bit different and narrators were excellent.

Very good

I really enjoyed this book. Liked the two narrators from Julie’s and Robert’s perspective. Worth the credit.

What a deal

What an enjoyable listen
The narration was beautiful especially Timothy’s lovely deep sexy voice as the lord .I do enjoy listening to males in a story rather than a woman putting a bad voice on .
The story is an emotional one for sure .
The cruelty of a hateful father and the loss of a loved ones and innocence, this roller coaster of a journey will hold your interest throughout , this story has it all with Excellently written love scenes that make you smile and swoon .
Certainly one to listen to as well as read .

Ok but

The writing was a bit too trite for my taste and I did not enjoy the cadence of the female narrator. The male narrator was good. Story was interesting.