THE EARL TAKES ALL is second book in the The Hellions of Havisham series by the lovely Lorraine Heath. I adore this book. It's got great angst and not one, but two, Happily Ever Afters.

Edward Alcott and his older-by-2 minutes twin brother Albert Earl of Greyling leave Albert's wife, the Lady Julia, behind and jaunt off together to travel through the wildness of Africa. Albert dies in Africa, killed by a freak attack from a gorilla. Albert wrings a deathbed promise from Edward to look after Julia. Albert asks that Edward make sure that she doesn't lose the babe she is carrying... by pretending to be Julia's husband. So dutiful Edward returns to the ancestral estate in Yorkshire and pretends to be his twin so that Julie will not suffer the shock of losing her husband, which could bring on premature labor. Edward thinks he just needs to pull this off for around 6 weeks until Julia has given birth, then he can make a clean breast of it. What a crazy notion, right?!

Known as a wastrel and a scoundrel, as a second son, Edward has not needed to do much with himself. He flits through life, adventuring in exotic lands and consorting with married women who are free to dally safely with him. He's actually a quite lovely man that I adore throughout most of the book, but he and his friends don't see his goodness shining through the persona that he shows the world. He fell in love with his brother Albert's fiancé, but bowed out when he realized that her love for Albert. He pretended that he didn't like her so that he didn't have to see her as much when she married his brother. But now that enforced separation is being reversed, and reversed strongly! For Edward must pretend to be her husband in all ways. The concept that my husband's twin (if he actually had one) would be able to fool me into thinking he is my spouse seems ridiculous in real life. But I'm good with a willing suspension of disbelief if the story is good enough, and boy howdy, Edward and Julia's story is good enough!

While I am not as quite enamored of Lady Julia as I am Edward, simply because she does not feel like as engaging a character, I love Edward enough to throw myself fully into their romance. Their chemistry is absolutely scintillating. I cherish how Edward frees up Julia to behave more as she truly is, rather than how she felt constrained to be by Albert, who was rather a stick in the mud of a husband. Around 70% of the way into the tale, it seems like the conflicts are resolved, and I wondered why there was so much of the book left. But the soap opera of Edward and Julia's lives morphs into another challenge, and there is yet another test that must be met and overcome. Heath's THE EARL TAKES ALL deserves three cheers for an utterly diverting tale of disguises and obstacles, with true love satisfyingly overcoming all barriers.