Not a bad novel overall just not engaging enough. I had a tough time relating to the characters and situations.

When not writing, poet Edward Astley, Viscount Featherfinch, spends his time fending off the young ladies of the ton—and some of its young men—and avoiding his cruel father. As heir to the earldom, Edward knows he must marry someday. Alas, he is already hopelessly in love with someone. Hopeless because not only is Miss Julianna Evans not a member of the aristocracy, she is employed. She is a magazine editor—the only one to publish his work. Also, in all their years of increasingly personal correspondence, they’ve never met.

Also, she thinks he’s a woman. Named Euphemia.

Julianna is baffled. How can her soul mate not want to meet? Could it be that Euphemia is not the simple country girl she claims to be? Perhaps she’s wealthy. After all, she’s never cashed any of the bank drafts Julianna has sent. Perhaps Euphemia simply doesn’t want rank to come between them. Well, no more. Having extracted the details of a trip Euphemia is planning, Julianna squanders her meager savings and surprises her at the scene

This book was super cute! The book was definitely well written. The characters had solid growth. The misunderstanding at the beginning was fun and it made me laugh. The story could be a bit slow at times but I found myself not wanting to stop reading. It think it was the solid conflict. I love a good Jenny Holiday novel and this was a fun read! I thought the narrator did an exceptionally good job at voicing both men and women. I received this book from Tantor audio and Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I’m very mixed with how I feel about this book. The plot was bland at times…. But I also couldn’t put it down in not a bad way??..

The pros: The friendship between the men/Earls is very sweet. They talk about real issues and are supportive of one another. I thought it was cute that Effie felt confident and unashamed to ask his friends how to get it on with Julianna. …It was equally as cute that they did not pass any judgment on him for asking either.

Julianna was a very calm character.. very confident in her ability and knows what she wants. Her character growth was nice. Effie was a “very agreeable” gentleman… he was always ready to jump head first and have a great attitude regardless of the outcome. He had his personal issues he was dealing with but was able to overcome them.

The con: the romance.. I feel like it would have been beneficial for us to see Effie’s and Julianna’s friendship blossom some. We come into this relationship already established but Effie is not upfront about his gender and claims to be in love without ever meeting her. It was kind of odd.

I listened to this book. The narrator did a fantastic job.

DNF @ 12% I love a good regency romance, and a romantic comedy at that, but I found this main character difficult to connect with. The writing was definitely good—reminded me of Oscar Wilde and “The Importance of Being Earnest”—but ultimately just didn’t grab my attention. I can see this being a great hit for someone else though!

As an additional note, I did listen to this audiobook and found no fault with the narrator. He read with the exact voice I can imagine the foppish main character having!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this ebook.
I enjoyed this book a lot. I really enjoyed the character growth from both characters, especially how they pushed each other to grow.

I requested Manic Pixie Dream Earl mainly off the title and cover, and I am so lucky I did!!
This book was the absolute best way to start my summer holiday! It is the second in Jenny Holiday's Earls Trip series. This book was kind of like if Jane Austen, Bromance Book Club, and Ted Lasso had a lovechild. It was silly, funny, slightly spicy, and I loved it all. The LGBTQ+ representation was wonderfully and organically written, and I loved how this book flipped a lot of the "traditional" romance tropes around.
The narration performance by Harry Frost was great! He managed to give everyone their own distinct voice and flavor without it being overt/distracting. I really appreciated the pace and flow of his reading, it was fast enough to keep me constantly engaged, but not so quick that I missed things.
This was my first Jenny Holiday book, and it will not be my last! I can't wait to go back and read the first book in the series, Earls Trip.

This is the first "Earl's Trip" novel I've read and I immediately went on to find the first book in the series. What. an. absolute. DELIGHT!!! This is boystrip meets found family shenanigans meets queer icons and I am absolutely living for all of it.
There are so many excellent discussions around politics, gender and sexuality and the way these character's dealt with all of that? *swoon*
Did someone say HEALTHY MASCULINITY? Yes, the earl's did! I kept giggling, I kept swooning, I absolutely fell in love with all of these characters and honestly? Our twentyfirst century society can only learn from them!
Gorgeous, gorgeous book. I cannot wait for Simon's story!

Okay, I *loved* this! The characters came together in such a satisfying, complementary way—like two puzzle pieces finally clicking 🧩💖. And can we talk about the *role reversal*? The MMC was a virgin (!!) discovering himself (usually the FMC’s gig), while the FMC was older, more experienced, and closed off to love. Meanwhile, the MMC was all soft and open-hearted?? Obsessed. 😍

Also, full credit to *Susan* for her iconic one-star review that sold me on this: “explicit sex scene, characters were bisexual, profanity.” Susan, you’re a marketing genius—I *needed* to read this immediately. 🔥📖

A fun, steamy, and refreshing take on romance—def recommend!

Manic Pixie Dream Earl is a fun, moderately anachronistic (in terms of the prose and phrases used in dialogue) story. Effie is in love with the editor of the magazine he writes for, and he and Julianna write to each other regularly—they have a friendship outside of their work. But they've never met. And they can't ever meet, because Julianna definitely thinks he's a woman. But when Julianna decides to take an impulsive trip and the two of them meet, they get along well. Very well.

I LOVED this book. The queer rep is fantastic (they don't use specific labels but Effie and Julianna are both into men and women, and Effie is also demisexual). The cast of characters is great. I just overall really liked it. And I thought the narration was great!

Thanks to NetGalley and (BLALALALAKA) for the audiobook copy :)

Harry Frost did an impeccable performance of this story! He brought so much character to life with his attention to detail as he conveyed each emotion from the characters. It really paints a lovely picture of such a tender story.

I love Effie SO freaking much. Earl’s Holiday was an enjoyable read and I was so excited to see that Effie’s story was next. His flair for the dramatics and openness with emotive behavior just make my heart sing!! He’s so tender and sweet and the perfect match for no nonsense badass Jules.

This story was so fun and engaging. I appreciated the ways it was parallel to the book prior but so distinctly unique!!

It’s release week and I’m putting up a review already? Who is this!

This week Manic Pixie Dream Earl by Jenny Holiday was released and it’s the second book in her Earls Trip series.

This historical romance series features group of male friends who are more like family to each other who partake in a yearly trip to escape their lady and family problems.

This year the boys are hitting Brighton when they have a surprise addition to the ensemble and Viscount Featherfinch’s - Effie to his friends- literary correspondent and editor, Miss Julianna Evans. This should be a fun addition, except Effie has hidden his male identity to Julianna in order to be part of her female magazine!

But lucky for Effie she takes in stride and they have just as much in common on paper as they do in person… well, except for their great class differences and her unwillingness to ever marry.

But that’s what romance is for and these two are so adorable together! Effie and Juliana, along with the friend group are all fun and vibrant characters that really bounce off the page with their dynamic dialogue.

The audiobook for this story is narrated by Harry Frost, who provides a good voice for the male characters. I did find myself wishing that we had a dual narration and a female voice for Juliana. I think this book could’ve done well with the dual narration. Other than that, his pacing was well and as the story went on, I really got into his voice work and found his male voices to be spot on.

I enjoyed this second book of the series even more than the first! I’m excited to see what the “Earls” get up to next year on their next adventure!

After reading Earls Trip, I was looking forward to Effie's story. Effie was such a unique, quirky character, I couldn't wait to learn more about him and his mysterious love.

Manic Pixie Dream Earl didn't disappoint. Effie and Jules were such a charming pair. Julianna was the perfect addition to the Earls and girls.

*Thank you Netgalley and Tantor for the ALC.

ALC Review: Manic Pixie Dream Earl by Jenny Holiday
Pub Date: May 27th

Thank you to Tantor Audio for the ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This series is fun and doesn't take itself too seriously - and when I'm in the mood for that, I really enjoy this! I thought this book had a lot of interesting things to say about class difference and sexuality. And we all know I love a queer historical!

The narration by Harry Frost was good - he definitely matched the tone of the book well. It's not often that I listen to an entire audio with only a male narrator so that was interesting for me!

Definitely one worth checking out if you like humor in your historical romances!

This was a fun read. The friends are great and the romance was cute. I loved the narrator. He did such a great job. I need to read the first book in the series and Jenny Holiday is an auto-buy author for me.

I received an arc from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A fun historical romp of a romance - it's definitely on the "cheekily modern" side of historical romcoms, but manages to do so in a way that's more of a nod to modern puns and tropes and making the situations relatable than anything truly anachronistic or that would throw a reader out.

Effie is truly the sweetest and I loved seeing him come to terms with his past and his earldom and his place in his relationship with Juliana. I also really loved the resolution to the "manic pixie dream earl" part (I'd been wondering how it would be brought in, if at all, as anything other than the title) of their evolving relationship.

Juliana was fascinating in that she truly seemed to be stuck between a number of places and unsure of how to really grab what she wanted within the constrains of society (this also may have been authorial lack of knowledge of expectations of different classes and how to resolve that while keeping the time period). I loved that she was the older and wiser of the two and got to lead Effie through setting his expectations for the future.

I loved that they were both bi and discussed that with each other in such a way that didn't invalidate any previous experiences, which really wove into the whole theme of "while past experiences may have scarred you, it leads to who you are now and you get to choose what you want moving forward", which on the whole was really lovely.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I thought Harry Frost's narration was excellent (his voice for Leander had me laughing out loud in places) in bringing all of the characters to life.

I really enjoyed this!! I hope we see even more historical romance published once the new season of Bridgerton comes out. Not that many people are reading historical romance anymore book but this book is so fresh and fun.

Edward Astley, Viscount Featherfinch, known as Effie to his friends, is madly in love with Julianna Evans. Unfortunately, there are a few issues: she's 38 to his 28 (a big deal in the 19th century), she's a commoner and he's an aristocrat, they've never met and only corresponded by letter, and Julianna thinks Effie is a woman.

I absolutely loved Manic Pixie Dream Earl. It's even better than the first book in the series. The romance is really lovely, and Effie and Julianna are both wonderful characters. They both grow a lot over the course of the story, and how they get to their happy ending is really well done. Although it's hard to put labels on characters that wouldn't have used those labels in their time, both Julianna and Effie are bi and Effie is demisexual (he only feels attraction to people he knows well and cares about (hence his love for Julianna, with who he's had a soul-baring correspondence). They're both people who don't fit into the boxes society puts them in. Julianna works for a living, running a women's magazine, and Effie is a gentle soul who loves beauty and is not at all his father's idea of a proper heir to an earldom.

Something I really enjoyed about this book is Effie's close bond with his two friends, Archie and Simon. Their bond and their understanding are really lovely, and they help Simon navigate through his burgeoning romance with Julianna and his long suppressed childhood memories. Every year, they take a trip together, and even when Julianna inadvertently crashes their trip to Brighton, they welcome her because they see how important she is to Effie.

I listened to the audiobook, and Harry Frost is a terrific narrator. He does an excellent job with Julianna's voice, which I really appreciated as I often feel that male narrators make female characters' voices too high. Frost's voice has the perfect cadence and it's really nice to listen to.

For those of you who didn't know (or had forgotten) Ann Landers was the name of an advice columnist back in the day, and apparently her real name was "Eppie" which I suspect is not a coincidence. When "Mrs. Landers" was first mentioned I laughed.

This title is so very accurate, and everything was handled so well, I was amazed. The characters deserve good things but still have to make growth to get those good things, and I'm so interested in the cast that not only am I looking forward to the next book, but I am getting around to reading book one (which I have been meaning to read since it came out.) If you like tropes turned on their heads, you will adore this book.

I was so happy to receive an ARC of Manic Pixie Dream Earl in audiobook form. The narrator, Harry Frost, did a fantastic job, and this book was delightful. I am a huge Jenny Holiday fan, have read all of her recent works, and have been waiting months to read (or listen to) this book. Effie, Simon, and Archie are back on the road for their latest earl’s trip, and this year they are headed to Brighton to view the Crystal Palace. Like last year, their trip is interrupted most pleasantly by a female visitor who is also Effie’s longtime correspondent and love interest. I greatly enjoyed getting an update on the lives of all three male main characters as well as Effie’s love story.

I have truly loved this series so far. Earl’s Trip, the first book in the series, is charming and full of quirky and charming characters. The books in the series are some of the best Historical Romances I’ve read this year. This year’s trip is full of adventures such as sea bathing, visiting the interior of the Crystal Palace under disguise, getting to know Effie’s love, fishing, and horseback riding. Their time in Brighton was just as magical as their trip to Cumbria the year prior.

The author, Jenny Holiday, builds up tension as the characters all head to Brighton early in the novel, including Effie’s correspondent and love interest Juliana, who is determined to try to meet Effie. Juliana and Effie have been corresponding for years. They meet by happenstance in Brighton and recognize each other without saying a word, which is remarkable since Juliana was under the impression that Effie is a woman. The group proceeds to spend a lovely week together, and they invite Juliana to stay with them under the guise of being Effie’s sister. The other earls enjoy getting to know Juliana, and both Juliana and Effie are smitten. I loved how kind and respectful the earls all were to Juliana, and how protective they were of Effie. Their relationship grows deeper and more intimate, even while both Effie and Juliana know they have no future together when they return to their real lives in London.

As in Earl’s Trip, I found the friendship between the earls to be wonderful. They have heartfelt, serious conversations about personal issues they’re grappling with. Everyone would be lucky to have a supportive group of friends like these who choose to spend two weeks together each year on a getaway from real life. This book is also full of humor, from the chapter titles, to the banter between the characters, to the comical situations they end up in. Ms. Holiday writes the chemistry and yearning between the main characters so well. The reader is captivated by the connection between Effie and Juliana and desperately hopes they will find their happy ending.

After they return to London, Effie commits to soul searching and making a concrete plan for his future. Through dreams, and discussions with others, the path ahead becomes clear, and he and Juliana both realize what their true priorities in life are. It takes them a while to get there, but all ends well as the book concludes. The personal growth both Effie and Juliana experience in this novel is just as interesting and fulfilling as their love story. I can’t wait to read Simon’s book! I’m hoping that Miss Brown plays an important role too in the next Earl’s Trip novel.

Thank you to Jenny Holiday, Kensington Books, Tantor Media, Harry Frost and NetGalley for an advance copy of this audio book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am sorry to say I did not like Harry Frost as a narrator. To me he sounded almost comical, like he was doing a parody of English aristocrats instead of portraying the complex characters they are. The narration made it hard to take the characters seriously and unfortunately easy to tune out. Thank you for the opportunity!