The Earl I Adore

Knightley’s delicious second Prelude to a Kiss Regency romance (after The Baron Next Door) returns to Somerset’s summer music festival, where love is always in the air. Sophie Wembley was enjoying the festival with her best friends right up until she heard about her sister’s elopement. Sophie now needs to get married before the news becomes public and her social standing plummets. She decides to throw propriety out the window and get John “Evan” Fairfax, the Earl of Evans­leigh, to fall in love with her. Evan is charmed by Sophie’s eternal optimism, no-regrets approach to life, and loyalty to her friends, but he’s vowed never to marry. The festival is the perfect backdrop as Sophie and Evan connect over their shared appreciation for opera and good music. Evan’s vow and his eventual liberation from it are sloppily handled, but the cast of supportive friends and family more than balance out the story’s flaws with humor, tenderness, and wisdom. (Jan.)