Historical Romance Lover: The Game and the Governess by Kate Noble

The Game and the Governess by Kate Noble.
This is book 1 in the Winner Takes All series.
Ned Ashby, the Earl of Ashby, has always had luck with the ladies. When his friend and secretary, John Turner, bets him that he won't have the same success without his title he jumps to prove him wrong. Off to see about one of the Earl's properties, Ned and John switch identities.
Forced into the life of servitude because of the Earl of Ashby, Phoebe Baker can't believe that he is staying with the family that she is the governess to their children. She does her best to stay away from the man, but seems to keep running into his secretary. Phoebe soon finds herself fighting the attraction she feels for the man.
What will Phoebe do when the man she has come to love is not who he seems to be?
I thought the beginning of the novel was very confusing. All of the ladies at the house party were being "introduced" and I had a hard time keeping them all straight. I had no idea what was going on and what the relationship was between all the women. It got easier to understand as the story progresses, but since their were so many people in the story it was a bit confusing at times.
The set up of the story took about 1/3 of the book to get through, but it was needed to set up the circumstances of the bet and to tell the backstory. I'm hoping that the author doesn't do the same for the remainder of the books in the series.
I really didn't like Ned at the beginning of the story. He was pretty much a Jack@$$, but that was probably the author's point. She wanted us to see how the character grew from beginning to end. I did like Phoebe. She made the best of her situation and really did love the children that were in her care. Noble did an excellent job showing us the changes that Ned went through as he navigated the life of not being a lord. With each new experience, we see how Ned's attitude toward certain things change.
I'm not certain how I feel about John Turner. There were things that he did that I didn't like. I'm very interested in seeing how Noble writes his story and how his change (I'm assuming there will be one) comes about.