I’d never marry Simon Augustus Traherne but I couldn’t put his story down. I picked up Scandal right after finishing Dangerous, which is also an excellent read. Dangerous, however, kicks off with a very enticing build up about a dark hero who quickly softens, whereas, in Scandal, the character building of the hero is slower and more subtle but once things get going the excitement never stops.
Simon is seeking revenge against the man responsible for his father’s suicide, and he believes his daughter is the key – we get this from the first line of the book. I began reading thinking ok, revenge story, typical premise for a romance novel. But as we begin to see just how seriously jaded our hero is, we realize this story is anything but typical.
Emily Faringdon is a romantic through and through. An aspiring poet, she truly believes in happily ever afters even under the most cynical of circumstances. When she begins receiving letters from a mysterious suitor she is intrigued and falls madly in love, so much so that when she learns the truth about Simon’s sinister plot (which happens very quickly) it does not discourage her in the least, and she winds up proposing to Simon herself.
I found myself imagining that our hero and heroine must have done some pretty deep connecting through their letter writing as I truly could not understand what Emily sees in Simon as the two get to know one another. He’s cold, all-controlling, and makes no secret whatsoever of his manipulative intentions. Bear in mind this is a historical romance, true to the time period and published in the mid 1990s. Even so, I’ve read hundreds of romance novels and I can count on less than one hand the number of heroes I couldn’t forgive at all in the end. While I strongly believed I’d add Simon to the list, Amanda Quick paints a very colorful picture illustrating precisely why this dark hero is so messed up in the head. While I doubt I would have stuck it out with him as our heroine does, and doubt even she would have were this not a romance novel, I saw in that moment that there was a deeply disturbed human being beneath that hardened exterior, emphasis on human being.
One of the things I loved most about Scandal is that it really took me by surprise. The first third of the book seems to follows the typical plot of a romance novel but from there things take a really unexpected turn. While our heroine’s motivation may not be so easy to understand, you go with it because it’s fun and it really sucks you in. I wanted to see just what would break this seemingly impenetrable son of a bitch. We do get there but it takes a good long while.
Other fans of Ms. Quick noted how different Scandal is from some of her other stories about murder mysteries and heroines who aspire to being at the center of dangerous situations at midnight. That it certainly is, but in its own way, I found Scandal to be even more enjoyable. At least, I read it a lot faster. There’s definitely something to be said for a book you can’t put down.