Undercover with the Earl by Robyn DeHart

Evelyn Marington is a simple country girl that just wants to write, she doesn't want to get married.  All of the men that are interested are as old as her father or are sixteen years older than her and have eleven children.  She is at a dance when her cousin, Ellis arrives with Bennett Haile, Earl of Somersby.  Both are members of the Brotherhood of the Sword and sworn to guard the Queen.  They are on a mission to find a stand-in for the Queen while she recuperates from a sprained ankle.  Evie looks enough like the Queen to be her fill in.  Once they recruit her, she has to spend time with Bennett.   When Bennett sees Evie, he thinks she is captivating and the comeliest of all of the ladies present at the ball.  However, because of his rather large size and lack of social skills, he fights his attraction to her.  When her life is threatened, Bennett realizes that he does love her.

Robyn DeHart started her "Brotherhood of the Sword" series off with a great novel.  The characters were wonderful.  Evie was the kind of character that you would want to be friends with.   She absolutely made this novel.  She was a strong and determined heroine that feels that she isn't as beautiful as her sisters.  (I love at the end where her sisters tell her that they are envious of her hair and figure.)  Poor Bennett has self esteem issues because he is "very large".  He found his former fiancee in HIS bed with another man.  Bennett is such a brooding sexy hero.  And, for minor characters, Evie's mother was a hoot.

As much as I loved this novel, I was rather disappointed with the rather abrupt ending.  It ends with Bennett proposing.  No epilogue, just proposal, her accepting and them kissing.  Bam, just done and fancy swishie clipart thing to end the book.  I know this is the first in a series, so I am hoping that the next book takes up where this abruptly ended because the whole thing with Lord Morton and the plot against the Queen wasn't resolved.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!