Educating Elizabeth by Kate Pearce

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


The characters made this book a mess.

Gervase (the male MC) is working with the Foreign Office to save the Prince Regent from an assassination plan. He ‘wins’ Elizabeth (the female MC) at a game of cards with her stepfather whom is more than happy to give her services away.

Elizabeth at first thinks that Gervase only wants her to offer him her managerial and letter-writing skills. I rolled my eyes at that.

Girl, you’re accompanying the Duke at night in his carriage towards his home. Are you stupid? How the heck is he employing you to write letters?? I’m sure he’s had a better education that you could ever have.

But anyways, when of course Gervase starts manhandling her and getting all touchy-touchy, she gets scared and angry and throws a heavy clock at him before running away.

That could have been the end of the book. And I really wish it had been. Too bad it was only the start.


Her stepfather promptly takes her back to Gervase first thing in the morning – a debt has still to be repaid. After some random talking and, really, some weird reasoning on her part, she randomly asks the Duke to teach her to become a courtesan.

I was flummoxed. I was confused. I didn’t know where that came from, because no proper explanation was given of why she wanted to become a courtesan. Or at least, we were given a reason (she needed money to take care of her brother) but I felt like there were many other better opportunities available for her. Herself, later in the book, she mentions that she could have become a governess or a companion instead.

Yes, Elizabeth, why didn’t you?

But then, of course, the book wouldn’t have been made now, would it?


Anyways… some boring tripe happens after that. They don’t actually start fornicating after weeks because Gervase finds a long-lost sense of honour inside himself (audible eye roll). When they FINALLY have sex, the scene was utterly disappointing. The first happenstance was of the closed-doors sort wich I positively loathe. Others, when they showed promising details, ended up in barely a paragraph. All, were lukewarm at best.


In between all that, Elizabeth ends up helping Gervase to crack down coded messages that they intercept from the enemy French. Curiously, no-one ever mentions about Gervase Delamere being positively the most frenchy french of the lot, and all the gag-enducing ‘ma chere’ s that he throws around. But of course, he’s not the enemy.


Elizabeth is soooooo clever. She knows Latin and ancient Greek and Spanish. She cracks complicated codes in a matter of hours when experts back at the Foreign Office had been labouring to solve them for months. But of course Elizabeth can do it (even though she has no experience or training for it) because, by her own words, she’s “got a knack for languages”.

Excuse me a few moments whilst I take deep breaths.


After that, more stuff happens. Gervase comes to believe that Elizabeth was a French spy, even when it was SO FUCKING OBVIOUS WHO THE REAL SPY WAS.

*more deep calming breaths*

Some action happens. They successfully ruin the attempt assassination. Randomly, Elizabeth ends up living with some grandparents that we never knew existed and seem to be pretty high up in the social ladder. Where were those grandparents at the beginning when she needed money??

They grovel and apologise to each other and decide to marry after spewing ‘I-love-you’s.


This was utterly bland. Horrible sex scenes. Stupid actions performed by characters that are supposed to be clever. Plothole galore. Convenient ending. Wasted afternoon.

*sigh*



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