Kiss The Earl (Geek Girls), by Gina Lamm from Sourcebook Casablanca, is a blend of time travel and self discovery filled with adventure, magic mirrors, and meddling friends. When Ella Briley asks her friends for help finding a date for a work event, they are excited and ready to help. Instead of taking a modern day approach to matchmaking, they feel she needs a little push and take drastic measures.
However, it’s more of a shove as they send her back two hundred years into the past to meet her date. With nothing more than the clothes on her back she’s lost, confused and clearly out of place. The dashing Patrick Medowfair, Earl of Fairhaven, sweeps her off her feet as she comes to terms with her new reality.
A terrible case of mistaken identity will bring these together and their introduction is anything but graceful. Ella must figure out what happened as she’s desperate to find her way back to modern day society. When she injures herself, her pride prevents her from asking Patrick for help. Realizing he’s the only one she can turn to, will Ella have a change of heart? Will she find the courage to divulge everything before she loses it all? What will he do when she tells him her crazy story? Assumptions are made as these two worlds collide as Patrick must decide if he should put his heart before family obligation?
I received this ARC for a fair and honest review and absolutely loved it! In fact, I’m adding all of Gina’s Geek Girl series to my wish list, ASAP. A fabulous series from a must read author! Take a look and discover for yourself how fabulous this book is…
An Excerpt
Ella moaned. What an awful headache. She must have drunk way too much—that was the only explanation for the pounding in her temples and the roiling nausea in her guts. Tequila? No, she’d sworn never to touch the stuff again after Comic-Con last year. She’d thrown up on Stan Lee’s shoes. Not good.
She tried to blink, but her eyelids were too heavy. Her face was pressed against something warm, and she turned her nose into it and breathed deep. Mmmm. Sandalwood and musk. Smelled like a man. That was impossible, though, wasn’t it?
“Are you awake, Amelia? Thank the good Lord. You’ve been unconscious for hours, but I’ve been unable to stop. Your father would murder us both were he to catch us. And why did you pretend to be frightened? There was no need for that to further our story. I did not even see your maid. Where was she hidden?”
Ella’s eyes flew open and she jerked backward. That male voice was totally unfamiliar and completely British. Pain wrenched through her wrists. She was tied up? What the hell?
She looked around wildly. The moonlit countryside passed her slowly, until she looked down and saw the flashing hooves beneath her. Then it seemed like she was hurtling through space, heading straight for the sun in a spaceship stuck on light speed.
She was tied to a strange man on top of a running horse. Ho. Ly. Crap. It was several seconds before she could even speak; shock had her frozen. But when she could finally form words, she didn’t hesitate to use them.
“Who are you? Let me go!”
Ella tried desperately to free her arms. Why had the psycho tied her wrists around his waist? What was happening?
Her kidnapper turned halfway, alarm in his voice. “You’re not Amelia? Oh God, what have I done? My most sincere apologies, madam.” Pulling back on the reins, he continued as the horse began to slow, “Who are you?”
“I’m pissed as hell, that’s who I am! Now let”—she yanked her wrists backward—“me”—she leaned back and thrust her heels out—“GO!”
It was the kick that did it. The shiny black bus beneath them had had enough, apparently. Screeching to a halt, the horse shrieked angrily. After a hearty buck from the beast, Ella and her abductor were flying through the air, only to land with a thud in the cushioning softness of a muddy ditch.
Ella hissed in a breath as her abductor’s weight descended on her arm. Fortunately, the angle of the ditch kept most of the weight from crushing her, and the way he rolled forward was certainly helpful. Clomping hooves disappeared into the distance.
“Why did you do that? Are you quite mad?” The man’s voice was angry, but no less polished for the emotion.
“Angry? Yes. Insane, no, but I’m pretty sure you must be,” she countered, with another yank at her bindings. His grunt of discomfort pleased her in a bloodthirsty kind of way. “You’ve snatched a total stranger off the street, concussed her, and tied her to you like some kind of woman-cape. You’re not going to Buffalo Bill me or anything, are you?”
“The question has been answered. You are, indeed, a madwoman. I had been slowing my mount to untie you, but your manic contortions have left us without transport.”
She bit back her retort as he began untying her wrists. Once her bonds were free, she yanked her arm from beneath him and struggled to her feet, nearly overbalancing on her high heels as they sank into the damp grass. There was no time to regret her choice of footgear, though. She swallowed the bile at the back of her throat and glared down at him.
“Where am I? And who are you?”
Ella waited for his answer, rubbing her wrists as the man stood, his back to her. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and she watched as he straightened his coat before turning to face her. His brilliant-green eyes glittered dangerously as he replied.
“I am Patrick Meadowfair, Earl of Fairhaven. And you, my dear woman, are not who I expected you to be.”
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BIO:
Gina Lamm, a bellydancing, wisecracking, marshmallow-addicted geek, loves nothing more than penning funny, emotional tales of love, lust, and entertaining mishaps. Married to a superhero, she lives with her beloved family in North Carolina, surrounded by tobacco farms, possums, and the occasional hurricane. She also writes erotic romance for Ellora’s Cave under the pen name Regina Cole. Visit www.ginalamm.net
