Joan Bennet has endured four Seasons without a single suitor or serious flirtation, let alone a marriage proposal. She’s had just about enough of being a respectable wallflower and is giving serious thought to embarking on a life of sin, or at least a lascivious adventure like the ones described in a popular scandalous book. When she meets her brother’s favorite drinking mate, Viscount Burke, it seems her hopes of adventure might be answered . . .
Tristan Burke doesn’t want a wife, and one can’t trifle with a friend’s sister without risking marriage. Even more, Joan’s the last sort of woman he would ever choose: Droll, sharp-witted, and always unfashionably dressed. If only he could stop thinking about her mouth. Or what she might look like without those horrid clothes. Or the way he can only win an argument with her by kissing her senseless . . . even though that just makes him want her more. But more could lead to a betrothal, which he fears – or does he?
Rating: B+ narration and A- for content
Love and Other Scandals was one of my favourite books of last year. It’s a splendidly written story, full of humour, snappy dialogue and delicious sexual tension, and I’m pleased to say that I found the audio version just as enjoyable.
One of my favourite things about the story is that, other than two people falling in love, not very much happens. There are no spies, pirates, evil relatives, swapped babies, swindled inheritances or other form of drama, and I take my hat off to Ms Linden for being able to sustain the novel solely on the back of the charm and wit of her principal characters and on the searing chemistry between them.
Joan Bennet and Tristan, Viscount Burke, have known each other vaguely since childhood. Tristan is her brother’s best friend and carousing mate, and is widely known for his wild, rakish behaviour, poor manners and his disregard for the social niceties. He’s also gorgeous, ridiculously charming and immensely wealthy, the latter fact accounting particularly for the fact that he is tolerated in those circles where the sticklers are prepared to turn a blind eye.
Joan is twenty-four and practically on the shelf. She tries hard to be a dutiful daughter, which consists of doing pretty much everything her mother tells her to, even down to wearing clothes and hairstyles which are completely unflattering. Joan is tall and curvaceous, while the current taste runs to the petite and svelte; and the ruffles, flounces and ringlets dictated by the fashions her mother is so keen to keep up with do not flatter Joan at all.
I suppose this could be described as a combination of the ‘rake-meets-spinster’ and ‘Ugly Duckling’ stories. The sparks fly between Tristan and Joan from the minute they set eyes on each other, and despite the inner voice telling Tristan that Joan is absolutely not the sort of young woman he should become involved with, and the disapproval of Joan’s mother, the pair can’t ignore the irresistible pull between them.
You can read the rest of this review at AudioGals.
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