Scandal | Amanda Quick | Great book!!

Scandal | Amanda Quick | I liked it, but I didn't love it.

books:

Scandal

	Scandal Amanda Quick Bantam, 1991 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

From a stately country house in Hampshire to the dazzling drawing rooms of London Society, comes an exquisite tale of an elfin beauty, a vengeful lord, and a sweet love that is sheer poetry.

With her reputation forever tarnished by a youthful indiscretion, lovely Emily Faringdon is resigned to a life of spinsterhood, until she embarks on an unusual correspondence and finds herself falling head over heals in love. Sensitive, intelligent, and high-minded, her noble pen-pal seems to embody everything Emily has ever dreamed of in a man. But the mysterious Earl of Blade is not at all what he seems.

Driven by dark, smoldering passions and a tragic secret buried deep within his soul, Blade has all of London cowering at his feet, but not Emily... never Emily. For even as she surrenders to his seductive charms, she knows the real reason for his amorous wit. And she knows that she must reach the heart of his golden-eyed dragon before the avenging demons of their entwined pasts destroy the only love she has ever known...

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Great book!!

I love these 1-title books from Amanda Quick. I know they are not a series, but each book has some similarities, but she always keeps it fresh!

I liked it, but I didn't love it.

This book would really rate between a 3 and a 4 star read for me but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt because I feel its overall good qualities came out on top. It is not the best Amanda Quick I've read.

Emily Faringdon had an Incident in her life five years ago. The author used the capital I in each instance to indicate that the Incident had great importance in the life of this character. The Scandalous Incident happened because Emily lived her life inside a rosy haze of poetry and romantic literature. When she began to correspond with S. A. Treherne she allowed her imagination free reign to romanticize the heck out of this situation. After all, she knew she would never meet her literary soulmate. But, meet him she did. Because of the Incident Emily never had a London season, she never even traveled outside the small village of Little Dippington where she lived. It is my idea that her father used the excuse of the Incident to keep Emily at home so she could concentrate on her investment strategies which kept him supplied with money to gamble and buy horses. Her brothers also benefited from her gifts in the analytical lines. Now here is where I have some niggling feelings of uneasiness about this heroine. Would a woman with such outstanding analytical reasoning faculties really be so totally naive about men? Not just once, remember the Incident, but twice?

Simon Augustus Traherne, Earl of Blade, had nursed his need for revenge for twenty-three years. He purposely sought out Emily and began a correspondence with her in order to have revenge on her father for the loss of his family home and fortune in a card game. Traherne also blamed Broderick Faringdon for the suicide death of his father. Simon was willing to use Emily in whatever way he could to get his revenge. He actually did not originally plan an engagement to Emily. Oh, no, he planned something much more ungentlemanly than that. When she literally begged him to marry her, well, what was a fellow to do? By separating Emily from her father and brothers he was putting an end to her financial help for them. They would certainly collapse under their debts within a very short time. She had handed him a revenge sweeter than any he had ever planned himself.

Simon seemed cold and heartless and yet he began to immediately come under Emily's optimistic influence. He did things for people just because it would make her happy or it would keep her from being hurt. His character grew and matured throughout the entire book. He tried to remain a villan but it just didn't work. My problems with this book came in the constant conversations in which Emily used "romantic and poetic speak". I got exceedingly tired of hearing her refer to every interaction between herself and Simon as "...an intellectual connection. It is a noble thing of the mind, a relationship that takes place in the metaphysical realm." She thought they had "a noble passion". They were "...cast adrift on love's transcendent golden shore". Gosh!! I felt at times that I needed hip boots to wade through the treacle. She also became totally fixated on the "dragon" motif. Simon was her "dragon" she had dragon jewelry for her hair and to wear with dresses which had been embroidered with dragons. She even had dragons painted on her fans. Please, Ms Quick, couldn't you have given it a rest after just several mentions?

All in all, recommended for the Amanda Quick fan who has already read books by this author and who has enjoyed reading them. For the first time Amanda Quick reader, choose something else first. She has lots and lots to choose from.

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Typical Quick, but that's not necessarily a good thing

Emily Faringdon was a simple country miss when she made the mistake of running away with a man she thought she would marry. By the time she realizes she doesn't want to be with him, she's already been gone overnight and the word has spread that she's spent the same night in a room with a gentleman who is not--and never will be--her husband. Shamed and embarrassed, Emily devotes herself to her family, a group of men who have a reputation for risking it all on the gambling tables, and losing. With a keen eye for investments, Emily rebuilds her family's dwindling fortune and spends her free time working on her poetry. It's a simple life, but Emily is content with it... until she starts receiving correspondence from a mystery man named S.A. Traherne who shares her interest in romantic poetry and metaphysical planes.

Simon Augustus Traherne, the earl of Blade, strikes up a relationship with Miss Faringdon in order to gain revenge on her father, who bankrupted Simon's family and caused his father's suicide. Having spent a number of years in the East, Simon believes that the sins of the father should fall upon the entire family, and he is determined to make all the Faringdons pay. What he doesn't expect is that he will actually fall for Emily and want to make her his countess. Soon Simon and Emily find themselves married, while Simon tries to determine if revenge is more important than love.

Scandal is the story of a young girl who has an Unfortunate Incident in her past, and the dashing earl determined to make sure that it stays in the past. It is also a story of revenge and scandal. This story is typical Amanda Quick--full of wit, charm, and suspense. But it lacks the depth of some of her other stories, and the hero and heroine are utterly forgettable. While I enjoyed reading this story at the time, I have no doubt that a week from now I won't be able to recall a single thing about this book, and that isn't a good thing. If you're in the mood for a funny story that you will enjoy at the time and forget about shortly after, you should read Scandal. If you want something that will have a bit more impact, and that you'll enjoy more, try another Quick novel like Lie By Moonlight or Mistress.

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