I'd had a rather rubbish weekend so I was looking for some pure escapism to cheer me up. I had a rummage through my 'to be read' pile (all 5 crates of it) and came up with Scandal by Amanda Quick. I had bought this from a charity shop a few months ago, along with four others by the same author as I'd heard good things about her. These turned out to be to true, because I absolutely loved this book!
Emily Faringdon is firmly on the shelf at twenty-four, due to an Unfortunate Incident five years previously (the 'scandal' of the title). But she is happy enough, organising the finances of her gambling-mad family to keep them from ruin, and slowly falling in love with her mysterious penpal, 'S. A. Traherne'. She is completely unaware that he is really the Earl of Blade: a ruthless, cold-hearted man, who would quite happily see her family ruined in revenge for the death of his father.
Scandal is a slightly tongue-in-cheek historical romance. The plot mainly concerns the various scrapes the heroine manages to get herself into (and inventively out of), and the style reminded me of Georgette Heyer's novels, particularly The Convenient Marriage (although there are several sex scenes, so watch out if that's not your thing). Considering the book was written in 1993, the story isn't dated and actually seems ahead of its time with the heroine's attitude to the would-be alpha male hero (ie: not taking him remotely seriously).
The story is a bit silly in places, and the heroine is sometimes a bit of a twit, but she's completely lovable with it. If you prefer your historical romances slightly more serious, this probably isn't for you. But I absolutely adored it and have already started on the next one in the pile. Fans of authors such as Julia Quinn will love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment