{Bluestocking Booksellers Review} My Best Friend’s Earl by Bethany Bennett

My Best Friend's Earl by Bethany Bennett
Series: Bluestocking Booksellers #2
Published by Forever on August 12, 2025
Pages: 368
Source: Netgalley
Buy on Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Storygraph
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A bold bookseller tries to matchbreak her friend’s engagement to an earl . . . until she finds herself falling for him instead.

The one thing Constance Martin wants most to avoid is a boring life. She walks her cat with a leash in Hyde Park and even called off her wedding at the altar to stop what would have been a monotonous marriage. So when an aristocratic friend comes into the store asking for help throwing over her fiancé, Constance is both sympathetic and eager for the excitement to come. What could be more fun than plotting ways to get a stuffy—but very handsome—earl to break an engagement?

Oliver Vincent, Earl of Southwyn, likes his orderly life of duty and logic. Everything’s falling into place; all that’s left is marrying the girl next door. Except the girl next door is increasingly reluctant. But marriage is a business deal, after all, and Oliver is determined to keep moving forward with the plan. If only he wasn’t so distracted by her friend—a stunning woman best described as chaos incarnate. She thinks marriage should be an adventure, and he views it as a transaction. But Oliver can’t seem to remember the downsides of falling when Constance is near. . .

I received My Best Friend's Earl for free. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Also in this series: Good Duke Gone Wild

We are back in Bethany Bennett’s Bluestocking Booksellers universe with book 2, My Best Friend’s Earl. This time, it is the lovely, lively Constance Martin’s time to find love. The crazy twist? She is recruited to be the matchbreaker of her best friend’s engagement with the Earl of Southwyn, Oliver Vincent.

Constance’s best friend, Althea, wants nothing to do with the man her father wants her to marry. Originally, Oliver was contracted to marry Althea’s older sister, Dorcus. When Dorcus eloped, her fiancé was passed down to Aletha. Neither sister had anything bad to say about Oliver, but he was more of a brother figure than a husband. Oliver wants to go through with the marriage to get back a piece of land with a river that his father had sold to Aletha’s father. That piece of land was important to Oliver who wanted to develop a canal and create new revenue for his estate. Then Constance Martin comes into his life and turns everything in his life upside down.

While Constance’s first inclination is to make Oliver’s life so miserable as Aletha’s fiancé, she actually learns how easy it would be to love him. Step one is to pass off a street cat to him because Aletha wants a lot of cats once married. When Oliver ultimately asks Constance for help, it is her first step to falling in love.

Constance is an interesting character for the time period. She had left a groom at the alter and had a few other relationships, yet she never saw herself getting married. Her parents were contemplating moving away for their retirement, but don’t think Constance would be able to handle the responsibility of the store on her own or with her cousin, Hattie. While some might see Constance as flighty and forgetful, I believe she is a woman with her own human weaknesses. Technically, Constance’s strength as a matchbreaker brings her the greatest joy, the love of Oliver. While Oliver is stuck between marrying Aletha to ultimately help his tenants or following his heart to Constance, he is smart and incredibly endearing.

I loved every step that Oliver and Constance took to secure their future together. There were times I had grave concerns on how Bennett would give us a happy ending, but she pulled all the twists and turns together and got us there. I can’t wait for more stories from this universe!