4.5/5. Releases 8/22/2023.

For when you're vibing with... the 80s bonkers classic Overboard!, amnesia with a dash of the hero almost drowning, very hilarious confused rich man antics, and some.... really active sex for a man who just had a severe head injury.

Georgianna Heyford has heard tell of the Earl of Stannis's rakish behavior; but she can't afford give up the chance to cater his expensive yacht party. Unfortunately, a run-in with the earl (otherwise known as Daniel) goes horribly awry, and she's quickly fired... only for the earl to end up overboard, washed ashore, and with amnesia shortly afterward. The only person he recognizes is Georgianna; he just doesn't know how he knows her. In order to avoid a scandal (and perhaps get some sweet revenge) Georgianna claims the mysterious man is her husband... But the more time she spends with Daniel, the more she begins to wish it wasn't all a lie.

Stacy Reid knows how to write a fun, kinda bonkers, super sexy book--she throws caution to the wind and writes what she wants. I can feel the joy in the pages.

Quick Takes:

--I love Overboard!, a movie that is somewhat controversial today due to the premise being "Kurt Russell tells rich bitch amnesiac Goldie Hawn that she's actually his wife and makes her act as a servant to him and his horrible redneck children". I hate the Overboard! gender-flipped remake for many reasons, in part because it doesn't go far enough. This book is a nice middle ground. The gender flip is right here, and Reid wrings it out for all the humor it's worth, because it's honestly fun to see a fancy fuckboy look aghast at this woman's hovel and go "there is no.... way... I live.... here". (Daniel, I'm a huge fan of your work.) The power divide is also a lot stronger in this setting, because, while Georgianna is a gentleman's daughter, she's not doing super well financially and is basically a single woman acting as a guardian to these younger girls in the 1800s, a time in which she has little power and little way to make a living. Which in turn makes Daniel's comeuppance more deserving. It all makes sense, even if the premise is objectively wacky.

--I also really liked how this man had to like? Learn how to do basic household chores? Learn how to DAD in a sense? If there's one thing I enjoy in a historical romance, it's a rake who knows how to fuck but doesn't super know how to do much else. Daniel is not a competent hero to begin with (though he's not, like, a total buffoon either). He has to learn competence, and though I'm not typically one to get all hot and bothered by a man doing basic housework, in this book............ it does a number on you.

--I think that Stacy Reid is also right to basically put most of the fault on Daniel in this iteration. In the original Overboard!, both parties are at fault. Goldie doesn't pawn Kurt for some labor. Kurt gaslights her into being an unpaid housekeeper/nanny (as a prank! It's meant to be temporary but then he falls in love! It's fine!). Mistakes were made. Here, I think that Georgianna's options being much more limited make the heartache more... intense? Because like, yeah, this man's family is looking for him and he deserves to know the truth and so on. But really, she does not have a lot of solid choices here. So her guilt feels more impactful because while she's fucking up, she's a good person who doesn't want to hurt him, and you can feel her falling in love with him, and you know he's falling in love with her but he just! Doesn't! Know! And that takes you to a good angst city, despite the book being in many ways super fluffy and hilarious.

--I love an emotional fallout moment, and ooh, the emotional fallout in this one is delicious. There's pain. There's vengeance. There's trickery. There's some "I was half a virgin when I met you" feeling to it, which I love immensely. Like, dude, if you're gonna be all "she's not my wife", you probably need to, I don't know, stop calling her your wife. Except don't, because I'm living for it.

The Sex Stuff:

Stacy Reid writes a hot sex scene, especially when it comes to her heroes going down, because. The enthusiasm with which a Stacy Reid hero goes to town is truly something to behold. There's also really good dirty talk in this one, a nice mixture of tenderness and hardcore fucking, and like, the best sense ever that this dude is absolutely obsessed with her. Also, there's an excellent scene where he details exactly how he's going to fuck her, and proceeds to do just that. Gotta appreciate follow through. That's what happens when a man has to do work for the first time ever in his life.

I loved An Earl to Remember. It's fun, it's like candy, it's hot, it's a little crazy. It's what I want a Stacy Reid novel to be.

Thanks to Entangled: Amara and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.