Beyond Scandal [Mass Market Paperback]

Brenda Joyce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2006

Brenda Joyce is a dreamweaver who spins spells that entice and enchant, a masterful creator of unforgettable characters and incomparable romance-from the spellbinding medieval passion of promise of the rose to the breathtaking sensual intrigue of the game. Now, with beyond scandall, she takes us one step further... beyond duty.

Adoring and innocent, Anne Stewart was seduced by Dominick Saint Georges, Viscount Lyons, then brazenly abandoned on their wedding night. Now four years have passed, and England's most mysterious lord has returned to Waverly Hall.

Beyond passion. Anne can never forgive Dominick for the shame he caused her. She is determined to resist his advances and ignore the gossip and speculation surrounding them. But shocking revelations and deadly intrigues are drawing her ever closer to her enigmatic husband, to whom she dares not surrender againthis secretive stranger who holds the key to her survival... and her heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anne St. Georges may be Marchioness of Waverly, Countess of Campton and Highglow, Baroness of Feldstone, Viscountess of Lyons and one day Duchess of Rutherford?but she is not happy. Four years earlier, Dominick St. Georges compromised her in a garden, married her and then left his unconsummated marriage to travel, raise horses and entertain assorted mistresses. Anne, derided as an American adventuress and shunned by society, has lived a quiet life managing her husband's estate and making friends with his grandfather, the powerful Duke of Rutherford, who actually engineered the match. When Dom returns home for his father's funeral, he sees how well Anne has developed and naturally decides to stay. Will she have him? With interminable heaving of her (small) breasts, Joyce's heroine vacillates passionately and unendingly. Someone is understandably trying to kill her. Could it be Dom? Or perhaps the beautiful, buxom Felicity, whom Dom jilted? Or Felicity's brother Patrick, who supposedly loves Anne but is in the throes of an emotional crisis? And who is trying to frame Dom for the murder of his father's male lover? This heavy-handed, sexual melodrama set in Victorian England is weighted down by a supposedly sensible heroine who is in fact perpetually overwrought and denser than a hedge.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Compromised, married, and abruptly abandoned, Anne St. Georges spends the next four years hating her errant husband, Dominick, and trying to get on with her life. But when Dom returns to Waverly Hall for his father's untimely funeral, old passions resurface, and Anne and Dom are forced to face a past that holds secrets they had never imagined. Gothically dark and filled with hot, ungentle sex, this page-turner is typical of much of Joyce's (The Game, Avon, 1994) work. While readers may like the intriguing premise and plot twists, they may also be put off by the hero's near-rape of the heroine and the leaden dialog and uneven writing. [Joyce lives in New York City.]
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Avon (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061235245
• ISBN-13: 978-0061235245
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,696 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( J ) > Joyce, Brenda

More About the Author

Brenda Joyce is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fourty-nine novels and five novellas. There are over fourteen million copies of her novels in print and she is published in over a dozen foreign countries. A native New Yorker, she now lives in southern Arizona with her son, dogs and numerous Arabian and Half-Arabian reining horses. Brenda divides her time between her twin passions' writing powerful love stories and her quest to become a nationally ranked Top Ten equestrian. For more information about Brenda and her upcoming novels, please visit her websites: www.brendajoyce.com, www.francescacahillseries.com www.thedewarennedynasty.com and www.mastersoftimebooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unappealing characters, excessive plot, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Scandal (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read other books that were intense and involving by Brenda Joyce, but this one was really disappointing! The main characters were just unlikeable and not sympathetic at all. The "hero" Dom is arrogant, selfish, and completely cavalier in his treatment of his wife Anne and his family. We're to believe that he ignored Anne for four years because he was tormented and feared loving her, but what about his mistress with whom he has two children?! Frankly, I wanted to know more about this woman - she must be more interesting than Anne if Dom had a five-year relationship with her and still sees her on a regular basis! As for Anne, she quickly lost any sympathy I felt for her as she disintegrated into a fearful, emotionally-unstable stereotypically "gothic" heroine. Throughout the book, she succumbs to Dom, then regrets it, angry at him and herself. She's been running the estate by herself for 4 years, so I expected her to have more gumption. I never felt that Dom valued or understood Anne as a person while Anne inexplicably loves the guy.

Additionally, there are a lot of minor characters and they're all involved in the story, which further detracted from the Anne-Dom storyline, especially since nothing really changes in their relationship. The author also reveals who the culprit is early on, so the "mysterious" attacks on Anne don't generate any suspense. This whole plot point seemed unnecessary. The story could have been tighter if the author had concentrated on the relationships between Anne and Dom and within his family.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good premise but not entirely convincing plot, January 11, 2001

By 

Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Scandal (Mass Market Paperback)

I'll admit that I'm partial to romances where the couple is married and then has to figure out that they love each other. It doesn't have much to do with real life but it sure makes for good sexual tension in a novel. It that sense, this book succeeds completely.

What is less successful is the developement of the love aspect. I agree with other reviewers that the declaration of love on Dom's part seems to happen out of thin air.

As for the auxillary plot(s), this one is ok. I generally am annoyed by the seeming trend to require some sort of "evil" as a catalyst to bring the couple together. At least this one seems modestly relevant. It would have been nicer if Dom and Anne simply could have found each other's arms for good reasons -- not out of fear.

Bottom line: An ok read, pretty sexy love scenes but not a book that touched me deeply.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An ok read, October 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Scandal (Mass Market Paperback)

I'd agree with the reviewers who said this book was a page-turner -- at least in the first half. The second half, though, fell apart. (It didn't seem as well edited.) A number of less-interesting scenes detracted from the plot. No spark, other than lusty sex, developed between the two characters, and I didn't feel that estrangement issue was resolved. So, why was Dom away for 4 years, and what are they going to do about it? What about the mistress and the other two children? Three stars because it had potential to be a really good book.