Customer Reviews

Last Night's Scandal

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a 4.5-5 star book which I , unfairly, cannot round up to a 5. Why unfairly? Because everything Chase writes get compared in my mind to her LORD OF SCOUNDRELS, which is still in my short list of top historical romances. But LAST NIGHT'S SCANDAL is excellent. Beautifully written, with witty dialogue, wonderful characters (like the two delightful old ladies chaperoning Olivia), an interesting plot and a romantic romance, it fulfills all my requirements for that warm and glowing romantic fix a really good HR provides. It's a 5-star paperback romance which I have perversely given 4 stars. (Well, Ms Chase, you really shouldn't have written LORD OF SCOUNDRELS or maybe I should not have read it.)

As to the H and h of this book, if you are a long-time Chase reader, you've met them before. In LORD PERFECT they are the two adolescents who embark on a treasure hunt and whose rescue thus brings together the H and h of that story. Our hero Peregrine Dalmay, Earl of Lisle, is the nephew of Benedict Carsington, Lord Rathbourne, and our heroine Olivia Wingate-Carsington is the daughter of Bathsheba Wingate, now Lady Rathbourne. After their adolescent adventure, the two are separated when Peregrine, aka Lisle, is sent to Egypt in the care of Rupert and Daphne Carsington (H and h of MR. IMPOSSIBLE). You do not need to have read either MR. IMPOSSIBLE or LORD PERFECT to fully enjoy this new book, but it's fun background info.

Now it's almost 10 years later. All this time (1822-1831) they have kept in touch through letters and the occasional token from Egypt sent to Olivia by Lisle. Lisle is back in England for a family celebration and sees Olivia for the first time in 5 years. One look at her and he realizes it's not a brotherly affection he feels for her, but Egypt is still calling to him and he tries to suppress his new-found attraction to her. His return to Egypt, however, is delayed by his parents, who threaten to cut off his funds if he doesn't go to Scotland to restore Gorewood Castle, an old, neglected and apparently haunted family possession.

Olivia is high-spirited, always looking for adventure and never finding any in her life in the ton. (Last real one was with Lisle when they were adolescents.) She envies Lisle his life in Egypt and sees this restoration in Scotland as her opportunity for another adventure and gets herself involved, much, of course, to Lisle's dismay. Once in Scotland, they find there's even a possible old treasure hidden in the castle, in addition to apparent ghosts to reveal.

But more than the mysteries to be resolved and the treasures to find and the ghosts to discover, it's the love to be revealed that's the story here. Chase's marvelous writing has you enjoying tremendously the process of the young couple's realization that their childhood affection has developed into true love. And both Lisle and the reader learn so much about Olivia in the process. We start out thinking she's just a Girl Who Wants to Have Fun and Adventure and find out she is so much more. And, of course, in addition, Lisle has to learn that maybe Egypt is not really his first love.

I have no real strong feelings either way on this book. It started off super funny then sort of fizzled when the sexual tension was cut short and replaced by a non-committal self-imposed internal conflict.

The book opens strongly with a few letters back and forth between the younger Olivia Carsington in England and Peregrine Dalmay, Earl of Lisle, who is in Egypt. Olivia's letter are true to the personality of the child we met back in Lord Perfect, full of exaggerations, Ideas and words underlined, bolded and italicized for GREATER emphasis. Lisle's more sedate letters also suit the deliberate voice of reason that had managed the wilder Olivia on their Noble Quest for pirate treasure in Bristol. I was chuckling at their interplay at the Dowager Countess of Hargate's birthday ball where Lisle was trapped between a sudden desire for the adult Olivia and his comfortable rapport with his old friend.

When Lisle's dramatic and overemotional parents demand he go to a family estate in Scotland to restore it, withholding his entire allowance unless he acquiesces, he's in a bind. He wants to return to Egypt to work alongside his scholar aunt, not freeze his rump off in Scotland. Luckily, and unluckily, for him, Olivia has an Idea. Before he knows what hit him, he's on his way to Scotland, and so is Olivia and two elderly and inappropriate chaperones.

And here's where the book started to lose me. I thought their desire was openly acknowledged far too early, deflating the sexual tension. They share passionate kisses before they even reach the castle and shag early and often. This left a rather flimsy reason as the impediment to their HEA so the ghost story could conclude first. Olivia couldn't accept Lisle's proposal because he's happiest in Egypt and she would only tie him to England. 1. That's sort of a false dilemma. Surely she could have gone to Egypt with him. 2. If that's the case, STOP HAVING SEX ALL THE TIME. Talk about being a tease. The conflict is basically self-inflicted until Olivia basically says, "Ghost story's resolved, I changed my mind, let's get married." Weak.

The rest of the book is comical in spots. The ribald old ladies were good for a chuckle or two and the recurring bagpipe gag did make me laugh a few times against my better judgement. I couldn't say I disliked the book in the least. It was a fun adventure with a cast of entertaining characters. I just felt that it could have been so much more of a book had she paced the sexual tension and romantic conflict differently.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Loretta Chase. Earlier this year another writer whose work I enjoy wrote a book featuring characters who had been children in a much earlier book. I was severely disappointed by that book and the change, for the worse, in those characters as adults. When I read that Loretta Chase's newest book would feature Peregrine and Olivia (orignally appearing to great comic effect in LORD PERFECT), I was worried. As Olivia might have written, in one of her letters to Peregrine, it would be an INTOLERABLE DIsASTER if Chase recked Havoc on the characters of Noble Peregrine and Cunning Olivia. I should not have Worried. Not only does Chase succeed in bringing those two Appealing Characters into the adult world. She goes further and makes them even more Delightful and Amusing!!

The plot includes a gloomy castle in Scotland, tart tongued old ladies reminiscening about their misspent youths, skullduggery, treasure and more. Yet, that is all merely a stage for the sparkling dialgue and steamy encounters between Peregrine and Olivia as they discover that the chemistry they had as precocious children has become downright COMBUSTIBLE. If you are a Chase fan, You know what to expect and will not be disappointed. If you are just discovering Chase, you will find you have stumbled upon treasure even more wonderful than the treasure Peregrine and Olivia find. I read the book straight through, and now must go read it again. Thanks, Loretta, for yet another delicious book!

Writing about the grown-up versions of children featured in an earlier work can't be easy. There can be no revelations about family background, and character traits are pretty much settled. All-in-all, such a book could be dreadful, but in Loretta Chase's capable hands it is not. Instead, it is just not as good as most of her other work.

The hero sees the heroine for the first time in years and experiences love at first grown-up sight. She has been in love with him since childhood. Then they must face self-created difficulties until they rather arbitrarily decide that everything is fine now. Along the way they must go to improbable places with inappropriate chaperons to face non-existent ghosts. While searching a run-down Scottish castle, they discover a heavy, perhaps valuable, strongbox to take to town. The two of them, illogically, lug it onto a cart and go alone. Whenever anything sinister happens or someone hides, the setting is always the same ruins of a church.

Since she couldn't tinker with the characters' personalities or backgrounds, Chase seems to have compensated by finding ways to shove the hero and heroine into dark passageways together frequently, making bagpipe jokes (which were quite amusing), and looking for buried treasure as substitutes. Chase can't write badly, but she has written better.

Loretta Chase is a victim of her own success. As long as she creates a good strong ending with a feel-good factor there are lots of staunch fans who will immediately leap to the computer to give it 5 stars. I am going to try to be honest and objective.

"Lord Perfect", "Mr Impossible" and "Lord of Scoundrels" were 5 star books. This one just isn't. Maybe Ms Chase has become complacent with so many people raving over every word she writes. A well written ending will give you good feedback but it doesn't make it a great book.

I hate to critique Loretta Chase. I got IMMENSE pleasure from reading "Lord Perfect", "Mr Impossible" and "Lord of Scoundrels". Some of her books are just masterpieces. However,for the most part, I found "Last Night's Scandal" a bit tedious. I've read many of her other books in one go because I couldn't bear to stop. I read this one over 3 or 4 days and was never really drawn into it.

To start with it seemed a bit slow, the narrative didn't whoosh me along like her other books. [The rest may contain SPOILERS] Then there were the repetetive sexual encounters - sex scene 1, sex scene 2, sex scene 3 etc. There was no build up or anticipation, no "great obstacle" standing in their way except their own resistance which was basically non-existant.

In any great book there is a tragic consequence if things don't work out. (eg. They will have to part forever even though they share a "great love" or she will have to marry someone else etc. - you know the sort of thing) For most of this book the tragic consequence was "Lisle will never go back to Egypt" and frankly I didn't really care. Sure, it's a shame if he never goes back but hey-ho! Their great love story seemed to be a few gropes followed by some sex with no emotional bonding. (Shall we get married? Erm no..Not sure..What do you think?...But the sex is great! kind of thing.) I never really connected to Lisle or Olivia, never felt their "emotional jouney" and it all seemed to plod along to the inevitable ending.

The "castle treasure" storyline seemed cliched and frankly kept making me think of Scooby Doo. Finally, I really missed Loretta Chase's genius for wit and humour. For me it was totally absent except for the letters right at the beginning. I realize that the Old Ladies and their smutty comments/behaviour was meant to be humourous but it didn't really work for me. Their character's were so lightly sketched that I couldn't tell one from the other. Maybe if I'd known them a bit better I would have found it funny? Not sure.

I also thought it was a pity that Benedict and Bathsheba were merely shadowy background figures. Having created such wonderful characters that we know so well it seems a shame not use them.

All in all, nothing special.

..if her name had not been on the cover.

This book feels totally phoned-in and formulaic. Thin to non-existent plot. Annoying characters. Boring repetitive sex. No real emotion. Idiotic dialogue. One thing I really couldn't fathom was that I noticed I had reached halfway through the book and NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. This is from the author who wrote Mr. Impossible??? What happened? Kidnapped by aliens? Taken over by pod people?? Lately I'm feeling like all my favorite romance authors are using the same playbook and churning out terrible books because they have a contract to fulfill. Note to authors and publishers: Eventually we catch on and will stop buying crap. This is my last Chase book, following my last Kleypas and Wiggs books. I think I'm done with romance novels until someone gets that we want to read GOOD books that someone took some time and effort to write, not junk like this.

Don't waste your money, folks. There must be better romance novels out there somewhere.

One of the things I dislike about most romance novels is the lack of build-up; too often I read about men and women falling in love after a few days of being thrown into one another's company. In general, it strains the bounds of believability. The author won me from the beginning by laying out a deep and amusing history between our hero, Peregrine Dalmay (more commonly referred to by his title, Lisle), and our heroine, Olivia Carsington.

Olivia & Lisle first come together at about age 12, when Olivia draws Lisle into a scheme to travel to Bristol to seek lost treasure. As punishment, Lisle expected to be sent away to another school - but instead, he is allowed to travel to Egypt with Olivia's aunt and uncle. He assists her aunt and uncle with archaeological work, and Egypt becomes his passion; he rarely returns home to visit England.

Olivia writes to Lisle unfailingly over the next decade or so, and while Lisle does not write nearly so often, he clearly thinks of Olivia often and sends her items he thinks would interest her (such as a scarab). It's clear from the few pages of letters at the beginning of the novel that Olivia & Lisle are dear, dear friends - which is a wonderful way for a romance to start.

Lisle returns home for the birthday party of an elderly relative, whereupon he discovers that Olivia has grown a bosom. Everything goes downhill from there.

Forced by his parents to deal with a derelict and allegedly haunted property in Scotland - with the threat of being cut off financially, and unable to return to Egypt - Lisle reluctantly heads north after being taunted by Olivia to follow him there. Over the next few weeks, much bickering ensues as Lisle & Olivia try to restore the property, hire staff, and solve the mystery of the "ghosts."

It was clear from the beginning that our hero and heroine loved one another; it was fun to watch their love grow into something more adult. The rest of the story was simple but entertaining, enhanced by a few well-drawn side characters.

This was a fun read - I highly recommend it!

Olivia & Lisle's story is just so fun! I hoped Loretta Chase would write their story since Lord Perfect.

Almost a decade after their original Quest, the pair are thrown together again. I do love it when a plan comes together for a fun romp!

Olivia is more than a pretty face. In an era when women are first treated as daughters, then wives, then mothers, she wants more. She longs for adventure.

She also knows that the attraction she feels for her dear friend Lisle is not going to do either of them any good.

Lisle hates overemotional dramatics. His parents emotional ups and downs drive him mad. And Olivia stirs up all sorts of emotions for him. None of them brotherly.

The book is just a delicious read. With two friends struggling with attraction while trying to do the best for each other, ghosts, treasure, and the best pair of little old ladies, a great time was to be had by all.

As a long time fan of Loretta Chase, I had high expectations for this book. Instead I found a boring book that had me eager to get it over with. With two very interesting leads, this could have been so much more, but there was no plot, no buildup, no sexual tension, no good villian, no good conflict. Any problem was solved in about five minutes by either the heroine or the hero and then we just waited for the next episode. I felt the author was bored with the whole thing and just wanted to get it over with, and that is the way I felt reading it.

I have to respectfully disagree with the negative reviews - "Last Night's Scandal" is definitely worthy of Chase's writing (especially compared to the books published in recent years). It fits beautifully within the Carsington Family series; I was immediately swept up in the madcap adventure-romance that only Olivia and Lisle could share. Sure, the story had many silly parts and the ending was a bit abrupt, but this was such a fun and hilarious (re: the "chaperones"!) story to read! And, wow, how Olivia and Lisle grew up!!

Do yourself a favor, and give this story a whirl. Or better yet, read Mr. Impossible and Lord Perfect (those entries are most connected to this current story) and *then* Last Night's Scandal. Perfect romance reading at its finest!