Fearne Hill – To Tempt a Troubled Earl

Today, I have author Fearne Hill in the interview chair. We’re discussing her latest release To Tempt a Troubled Earl, book one in the Regency Rossingley series, a m/m historical romance. Be sure to read my review. And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

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1. Hi, Fearne. First off, readers have an idea of the writer you, but what about the everyday you? Can you share about your personal life?

Fearne: I live in deepest darkest Dorset in the UK, a rural county on the south coast of England although I spend 3 months of every year on a beautiful small island off the SW coast of France, called Ile de Ré – a few of my books are set there. In my spare time, I’m a doctor working as a senior anaesthesiologist at a hospital in the southwest of England!

2. I’ve been perusing your Goodreads page and see you are drawn to m/m romance. Why do you enjoy writing in this genre?

Fearne: Firstly, because I identify as a member of the LGBTQ community. Secondly, I find men easier and more interesting to write than women, especially in romance. Male romantic leads can be anyway I want them to be: tall, short, fat, thin, spiteful, clever, ambitious, wicked. Female leads have to tread far more carefully to be loved…

3. Your latest release is To Tempt a Troubled Earl. Can you tell me what inspired you to write this book.

Fearne: My successful contemporary series, Rossingley, features an earl named Lucien. I read a lot of historical romance, so I thought it would be fun to try my hand at it and write about Lucien’s Regency ancestors.

4. Let’s talk about the main characters. What do you love most about Kit Angel and what makes you want to shake him?

Fearne: Kit Angel is a devilish rogue desperate to avenge the lord who defiled his sister. To achieve this, he needs the help of the reclusive earl of Rossingley. He had not anticipated Rossingley to be so…. ugh… stunning. And annoying.

5. The same for Lando Duchamps-Avery. What do you love most about him and what makes you want to shake him?

Fearne: Aaah, the earl of Rossingley. Icy, untouchable, grieving. He doesn’t want to find Kit Angel devilishly attractive; he doesn’t want to notice his gold hoop earring, he is not attracted to his brooding lips…

6. Without giving away any spoilers, what was your favourite scene to write and why.

Fearne: Lando taking a bath wearing his pearls, for obvious reasons.

7. How is To Tempt a Troubled Earl different from other romances that star two characters from different social classes?

Fearne: Maybe because they work to solve a common goal as equals? Not only are they from different classes but they are also opposites attract. Lando is a difficult nut to crack; Kit has never encountered a person like him.

8. What can we expect from you in the future?

Fearne: Books 2,3, and 4 in the series. Book 4 is a heist, a Regency version of Ocean’s Eleven.

9. I enjoy doing random questions, so humour me:

What’s your favourite movie? Hot Fuzz
What book is currently in your e-reader? Fox of Fox Hall
Who’s your favourite musical group? Ezra Furman, an awesome transgender singer.
What song puts a smile on your face? Billy Idol, Dancing with Myself

10. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for having me!

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Title: To Tempt A Troubled Earl
Series: Regency Rossingley, book one
Author: Fearne Hill
Genres: MM Regency Romance
Tropes: Adventure, Enemies to lovers, hurt-comfort, slow burn, opposites attract
Themes: Humorous, aristocracy, scheming shenanigans on the side
Tense/POV: Third person/past tense/alternating POV
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 75 0000 words
Release Date: March 4, 2025
Publisher: NineStar Press

A devil’s bargain, an uneasy alliance.

Blurb: A chancer and a rogue, Kit Angel is down on his luck. Presenting himself at Rossingley Hall in the dead of night, he begs an audience with the eleventh earl, the most enigmatic nobleman in Regency England.

The visit has purpose. Kit, hungry to ruin the lord who ruined his sister, believes Rossingley is the only man who can help him.

Lando Duchamps-Avery, eleventh earl of Rossingley, doesn’t trust the sinfully handsome stranger one bit. He does not care for the tales he spins, his hot temper, or his thick, ebony curls. And, most definitely, he is not in thrall to the delicious golden hoop dangling from Kit Angel’s left ear. Lando has his own motivations to ruin the same lord, and the two men form an uneasy alliance.

As the dangerous plot they hatch unfurls, the suspicious earl and the shady scoundrel are increasingly thrown together. Whilst the wily earl gradually surrenders to his growing attraction, Kit can’t make up his mind if he wants to swive him, declare undying love for him, or throttle him.

Bit by bit, as mutual desire swells between them, Kit wins over the earl’s body, his passion, and his trust.

But in order to win the earl’s elusive heart? The scoundrel must risk losing everything

Note: It is book 1 in a new series. It does not end on a cliffhanger. The next book is out later this year.

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Available at:

Nine Star Press | Amazon US | Amazon UK

ROSSINGLEY ESTATE, SUMMER, 1821

“You have visitors, my lord.”

Inglis floated across the eleventh Earl of Rossingley’s sleepy eyeline, looking peevish. Lando swore the man had silken castors in place of feet. With white-gloved hands clasped together in front of his vexed frame, his head butler awaited his response.

“And you have chosen to disturb me about this because…” Lando tilted his balloon of brandy this way and that, playing the flickering candlelight against the delicately engraved crystal. That the evening was late was an irrelevance. He and his butler were of the same accord; visitors at any time of day were unusual, unwarranted, and unwelcome.

“A Mr Christopher Angel, my lord. And his sister, Miss Anne. The young man says it’s important.”

One of a pair, the balloon glass had been a gift from dear Charles. “I know of no one named Angel. Begging the question ‘important for whom’?”

“He didn’t make that distinction, my lord,” admitted Inglis. “But he gave the impression the matter is somewhat urgent.”

Lando took a warming sip of brandy. The drink of the damned. He didn’t especially care for it, but he fancied it lent him a louche, philosophic air. “What is urgent is seldom important, Inglis,” he deemed, pleased with his wisdom. Rousseau himself might make a similar pronouncement. “If it’s alms he’s after, toss him a half-crown, some cold meats, and send him on his way.”

The gloved hands wrung together. “I did try that, my lord. But he’s…ah…more insistent than our usual callers, and neither is he a pauper. And…” Inglis paused. Never let it be said the butler couldn’t milk a drama. “He…he mentioned one of his close relations. His uncle. One…ah…a former cavalry officer sadly no longer with us, God rest his soul.”

As Inglis made the sign of the cross, Lando took another, more contemplative sip. So many good men had fallen during the wars in France, and a chap struggled to keep up. “Oh, yes?”

Inglis cleared his throat. “Yes. A…ah…Captain Charles Prosser, my lord.”

Like rancid vinegar, the fine liquor soured on the earl’s tongue. He fought to swallow it down. Perhaps he should have stuck to port after dinner. Maybe it would have better softened the dull ache now swelling behind his rib cage. Captain Prosser. His dearest Charles, his lover. His heart.

Lando didn’t make his older lover’s acquaintance until after the wars, from which Charles returned hale and hearty. But where French bayonets and the battlefields of Trafalgar had failed, the insidious wasting disease prevailed. An annoying tickle became a cough, a cough tinged with blood. Slowly, inexorably, his lover faded away, their time together, in all of its perfection, too brief. A life only half lived; a conversation forever unfinished. Lando, not daring to be at Charles’s bedside at the end, heard the news of his passing from a mutual friend some two weeks after his lover had been buried beneath Kentish loamy earth.

Three long years ago. Yet even now, at unprepared moments such as this—and was there ever such a thing as a prepared one?—that name still had a powerful hold upon the eleventh earl. If Inglis hadn’t broken the crushing silence, it might have persisted well into the night.

“I have taken the liberty of passing the young man’s sister over to Mrs Sugden, my lord. The girl is in a state of great distress. And I have shown her brother to the small parlour. He’s…ah…not fit for the library.”

Inglis’s waspish voice sounded as if coming from an awfully long way away. “My lord might wish to be more suitably attired before receiving him?”

Tipping back his fair head, Lando forced another swallow of fiery amber liquid. For a second or two, it threatened to reappear, then he pulled himself together. Ridiculous. Three years gone and one mention of Charles turned him into a limp dishrag. Well, it was high time it didn’t. Time to make a clean breast of things. Time to stop bloody moping. Charles would have hated him squandering his salad days drinking alone and brooding in front of a dying fire.

He cast his gaze down his spare frame. Fussy Inglis might wish him more suitably attired, but Lando gave not a fig. As purportedly one of the richest men in England, Lando could host a ball clad in only his underclothes, and the ton would declare it the latest fashion in Paris. He pinned Inglis to the spot with his pale eyes.

“I’m decent. Uninvited callers find me as I am, or not at all. As you damned well know.”

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Historical romance is my favourite genre to read. Add in m/m and it becomes my super-favourite. So when the opportunity came to review this novel for a book blog tour, I said gimme the book.

As already stated, Lando Duchamps-Avery, the Eleventh Earl of Rossingley, is in deep grief over the loss of his lover, so when the deceased lover’s nephew shows up, he isn’t pleased. He wants to remain a hermit; not help someone he believes is trying to scam him.

Kit Angel is out for vengeance after a ton member (Lando’s neighbour) dared to ruin his sister’s good name. He won’t take no for an answer and demands that Lando help him.

I must say, after much mulling, Lando agreeing to help says a lot about his character. A woman’s reputation is in tatters because of a scoundrel, and she’s the niece of his late lover. As much as he longs to hide away, he knows he must do the right thing and set matters straight.

What happens next really gets the plot rolling. And it’s a plot that I adored. Together, Lando and Kit will take down the member of the nobility who not only ruined the sister’s reputation but is responsible for ruining many other young ladies.

I won’t say what they cook up, but I enjoyed the scheme the author orchestrated because it involved some of Lando’s acquaintances, three of his employees, and a family member.

The attraction between Lando and Kit jumps off the page. While they scheme and wonder if they can trust each other, they cannot help the sizzling chemistry. And maybe this is just what the earl needs to finally put his grief behind him.

There is also a great cast of characters who add another layer of dimension to the novel, characters I adored such as Tommy Squire and Jasper. The one member of the nobility who had a sweet stutter (can’t remember his name) was adorable. Since this is a series, I hope he will get a book with the cheeky Tommy.

The dialogue also sucked me in. It was very believable, so believable that I felt as if I was in Regency England. Same for the various settings. I didn’t feel overwhelmed by too much description either, but was given enough to immerse myself in the novel.

The author also keeps to the societal norm of the times. Kit feels he isn’t good enough for an earl, which I thought was bang on, while Lando wonders if he is being suckered.

The author did a great job bringing these elements together for an excellent read. Since this is only the start of the series, I can hardly wait to see what the next book will be. Do yourself a favour and get a copy. The author is an excellent writer.