DNFed this one early, which would ordinarily mean I don’t review. But it’s getting 2 stars for unbearably stilted dialogue.

It took me four days to get to 10% because it’s an unpleasant reading experience. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the plot or characters, but the prose really needs some work. ( )

To read more reviews, check out my blog keikii eats books!

77 points, 4 stars!

Quote:

"But why am I afflicted thus? What have I to do with the other world?"
"I don't know, my lord," I replied quietly. "But I think you may be more than you seem."

Review:
With The Absinthe Earl, what you see is what you get. If you read the blurb, and you look at the cover, you probably have a fair idea of what the story is going to be like. You're not going to be wrong. There are no surprises here. Just good, clean, historically sexy fun.

Ada Quicksilver is a lady of some means, but not many. She was orphaned as a child and grew up without parents. She is studying at London's Lovelace Academy for Promising Young Women, and instead of it being about sewing or homemaking or whatever it is they learned about back then, Ada is studying the Irish fae. Of all the things in the world she could be studying in the 1880s, she is looking into why absinthe might be causing an increase in the sighting of the fae. Ada, or Miss Q, is a headstrong and opinionated young woman. She isn't about to just let others take care of her. And Ada is really, really excited about learning anything, but most especially about the fae.

Lord Edward Donoghue, Earl of Meath is the cousin to the Queen of Ireland. He is in the navy, and quite happy to stay there. And Edward is very typical of what you would expect an Earl to be in a paranormal romance: proper, chivalrous, and willing to put himself at risk in order to keep womenfolk safe. And boy does Edward want Ada. My favourite moment was when the Earl was getting all worked up about Ada showing her wrists. Historically sexy, indeed.

Edward can also see the fae, so he drinks absinthe to stop it. He thinks he is going crazy, like the rest of his family has done. So he is trying to forestall it. By drinking absinthe. And becoming a functional alcoholic. Yeah, how's that supposed to work out for you again? This just amuses me.

The relationship between Ada and Edward is lopsided. as you would expect from an orphan and an Earl. Edward is constantly trying to get her to do things she doesn't want to do. Things like leave him so she can be safe. Which leads to some spectacular fights. Fights in which I root for Ada, because boooy is Edward not handling things right. Their relationship is also very fast. Too fast. They don't really know anything about each other, yet they're in love! Not quite love at first sight, but not not love at first sight either. It is a source of some angst to them.

The first half of their book focuses on Ada and Edward, mostly. They get to know each other, while Edward is trying to protect Ada after he hears a bean sidhe wail for her. He wants to keep her close, so he can protect her against death. So he dangles an ancient fae landmark in front of her to keep her with him. And she goes, because she is obsessed with the fae.

Boy were they surprised when they found an actual fae at that landmark.

The first half of the book was also about making excuses to get Ada undressed, and them thrown together. Personally, I think it works.

The second half of the book sort of lost me. This is the part where all the action happened. There is war and fighting, and a whole bunch of faery. We find out that this is an alternative history, where certain things that were "supposed" to happen didn't happen, because reasons. There were a lot of things happening, and I just sort of..didn't care? That sounds bad, but I didn't. I was in it for the romance, with a side helping of faeries. I got both, and then I got a whole lot more. I love paranormal romance, but the story just kind of seemed..thrown on at the end. The romance just worked so much better.

The Absinthe Earl was the first book in a new series, the Faery Rehistory series. I have no idea what is in store for me in the next book, but I'm looking forward to it, whatever it is going to be. I have some ideas, though. My ideas sound like fun.

I received this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Sharon Lynn Fisher, Blackstone Publishing, and Edelweiss for providing the opportunity to review this copy!
( )

This is the first book in the Faery Rehistory series and it was okay. I liked the historical Victorian setting in Ireland and enjoyed some of the Irish fae mythology. However, the writing was a bit disjointed and I had trouble following some of the story.

Ada is a student doing research on Irish fairies and, while visiting an absinthe bar, she runs into the Earl of Meath who has a keen interest in the history of faeries as well. They end up journeying together to an archeological fairie site when things start to get strange. They are drawn to each other in more than an academic way, but the Earl of Meath has periods where he doesn’t seem to be himself.

The writing didn't flow very well throughout the book, and I thought the actions and settings of the characters were very hard to picture and imagine. I really struggled with some parts of this and found myself rereading parts a lot.

Additionally, there are so many Irish mythology names thrown around it was hard to keep track of who is who. A lot of the characters are two people (current day and mythological one) and it got confusing who was talking when and what reality we were in.

Overall I was very excited to read this, it ended up being okay but was not as good as I had been hoping. It's a very neat idea and the first half of the book was well done. As the story continued it got confusing and hard to follow. I don't plan on reading any more of this series. ( )