Customer Reviews

Scandal (Berkley Sensation)

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

 

 

This is such a wonderful story, I felt compelled to weigh in...

I won't sum up the plot, which you can read in the synopsis and in the other reviews. What drew me in was the authors wonderful way with words, and her realistic characters! Both Sophie and Banalt were so memorable and TRUE.

Sophie is an eccentric bookworm and romantic. Against her very nature and instincts, constant betrayals by her first husband force her to raise a high wall around her heart. Her pain and strength are both palpable things in her life. Banalt is a rather typical, jaded, and yes - irredeemable - nobleman. However, his exposure to Sophie's innate strength, goodness, and "beautiful blue-green eyes", inspire a desire in him to become his better self. I felt that I knew them and was very invested in their lives and happiness. Ms. Jewel has done a marvelous job of showing and telling us about these two people. As readers, we understood their instincts, desires, and motivations. I was frequently moved to tears, on both their behalves, because I understood them.

The secondary characters were equally well and honestly portrayed. I will not soon forget Sophie's brother, John.

Bravo to wonderful characters and a wonderful story of second chances!

This is a story about a rake who falls in love with his best friend's wife. The problem is that she despises him. Over time, their friendship grows and he is overcome by his love for her. He is obsessed with her, and when she is widowed, he will do anything to win her love and respect. This is a good story with a heartfelt romance. The heroine's resistance did wear on me a little. It just seemed to go on and on and on, and consequently, made the heroine a bit annoying at times. However, it was nice to read about a hero who never gives up on the true love of his life. I agree that this story is very slow paced and I also agree that it was nice to finally read a HR without a murder plot driving it.

I have to say this was a very, very good book, and only had some minor problems with it. In Jewel's attempt to take a scandal and tell it in a different way, BRAVO and Thank you! I felt this was a new story. When the book begins, we know Banallt is a rake, but yet his love for Sophie, having her or not, has already reformed him. He's smitten, ruined (his words), and utterly enchanted by Sophie's mind, heart and body. They meet under uncomfortable circumstances, but yet become friends while he is a friend of her husband's. In Private Arrangements, it annoyed me bouncing back and forth between present and past, but in this book, it was so enjoyable. You feel the build up of their relationship, and regardless of it starting out a bit slower than I like, it still worked well.

[...]
Ms. Jewel, please tell me there will be a story with Tallboys winning the heartbroken Miss Fidelia.

This is one of the worst romance novels I have ever read. OMG!!! I have to agree with the person that called it dragged out. There is so much unnecessary wording in this book. OK..the story could have been good. However, there is no plot, the brother of the heroine dies. I mean the story was already going no where fast...So why would the author include such a sad clip. It just made it even harder for me to finish the book. Very, very boring. I don't understand why this book got such high reviews. Please don 't waste your time buying this...get it from the library. WHY IT IT TITLED SCANDAL? I WISH THERE WAS SOME SCANDAL IN THE BOOK....MAYBE I WOULD HAVE ENJOYED IT

I am an avid historical romance reader, and I love the reformed rake archetype as well as the sexy bluestocking. Carolyn Jewel lays down some very interesting groundwork. I was intrigued by the emotionally abused widow heroine and the rakish hero who is determined to prove that he has changed his ways. However, Sophie and Banallt's relationship felt like one long stall. There was very little forward movement until the end and, by that time, I was no longer interested. And I'm not sure that having TWO other suitors increases Sophie's attraction. In fact, I found those two other storylines distracting because she neither used these men to make Banallt jealous nor showed any interest in them, so I'm not sure how the two men helped with the plotting, except slow it down. Sophie might have experienced a lot of pain and hurt, but I would have appreciated if she demonstrated a little more spirit rather than being so overly tortured. I hope with future books, the author exploits her great ideas more fully and picks up the pacing.

The concept of this novel was that Sophie was married to a terrible rake whole cheated and spend all their money. Her husband friend the Earl of Banallt tempted her through out her marriage. They are both widowed now and the Earl wants to marry Sophie. The plot was there but the style of writing was strange. I found myself confused with the last 1/4 - a crucial decision was made with out any set-up ( I went back to see if some pages were stuck together). I am glad I picked it up at the Library...

This book was much better than Jewel's Lord Ruin, but still did not manage to become the good read it had the potential to be.

The writer seemed undecided in what kind of book she wanted to write - literary fiction in the Jane Austen mold or straight romance. She succeeded at neither.

Additionally, I found the heorine unlikable. Choosing to wallow in grief from the past involving someone who did not give two figs about her instead of taking a chance and control of her destiny by being open to someone who did.

The writer also took a cheap shot in killing off a very likable lead character for no apparent reason other than to dump grief on the characters.

Essentially a reformed rake story,'Scandal' is formatted with bits of the past interspersed throughout the present showcasing the tenable friendship that Sophie and Banallt shared, plus his irreproachable attempts to seduce her.

Once an infamous rake, libertine, and fellow ne'er do with Sohpie's husband, Tommy Evans, and whose name is synonymous with scandal, the Earl of Banallt is now a changed man; the catalyst - his love for Sohpie. Despite the fact that their final moment together didn't end well, Banallt, compelled by his love, asks Sohpie's hand in marriage. Her answer though must be no. Finally free of heartache and regret, Sohpie is not about to allow herself to once again be shackled to a man who has no intention of ever being faithful. While his claim to care for her may seem sincere, a rake like Banallt, who is constantly proceeded by rumor and scandal, couldn't possibly ever come to love plain Sohpie Evans.

Sohpie is a survivor. As a young and naive girl of seventeen, she ran off and eloped with a man she believed was as much in love with her as she with him. Turns out that what Mr. Evans loved was that which followed Sohpie's name - heiress. Unfortunately once the wedding was consummated, Tommy Evans took Sohpie's sizable dowry and ran off to London. Heartbroken and alone, Sophie makes friends with the characters in her head and spends most of her days writing fanciful stories.

Enter the man of her fantasies.

As a child, Sophie spun wondrous tales about the Earl of Banallt and his magical castle in her home town of Duke's Head. But one night, far away from home and her childish dreams, Sophie comes face to face with Banallt but he is far from being the prince she imagined. Drunk from a night out carousing with her husband, Sophie meets Banallt for the first time when he arrives at her home with Tommy and draped upon his arm is a woman of a questionable reputation. Struck by that first encounter, Banallt embarks on his immediate seduction of Sophie only to be slapped in the face. Having never been told no, Banallt's interest in Sophie takes a firm hold. Yet from this initial interest stems intrigue than fascination and eventually respect. Banallt and Sophie, although fragile, establish trust and Sophie begins to see Banallt as a friend. But that trust is soon tested and broken by a means that isn't immediately disclosed to the reader, and whereby Banallt leaves for Paris. After which, Sophie's world falls apart with the sudden death of her husband and the loss of her home to pay back the huge debt incurred by him. In Duke's Head once again, Sophie vows to herself to never be beholden to a man who has no intention of ever loving her.

Although Sophie turned down Banallt's initial marriage offer, she once again extends her hand in friendship. And as trust is reaffirmed, Sophie finds herself falling once again under Banallt's friendly, yet intense, attention. When fate leaves her destitute once again, Sophie's only recourse is to marry the Earl of Banallt.

While 'Scandal' by no means was perfect, I still loved every word of it. Jewel takes some immense risk in the novel by bringing her heroine down to the lowest of the low but I feel that this worked well for Sohpie and her inherent nature. Having been burned to atrociously by love, the walls around her heart are thick and well fortified. The only true way that she would ever accept Banallt would be if those walls crashed into heaps of rubble and that would take quite a force.

Meanwhile, Banallt made me pant and my heart flutter. His charisma and magnitisim was painted so realistically that I thought he might walk right off the pages. The love scenes, while not overly graphic were still hot and I loved the intense emotion associated with each experience. Banallt was definitely a drool worthy hero.

I also loved how Banallt didn't beg and plead for Sohpie to acknowledge his reformation. In all honesty she really couldn't for even right up till the end his name was still glued to scandal but he never once argues his case in this matter. Instead he shows his changes through his actions. And as other high ranking members of the peerage whisper his loss of wickedness, the impact is so much more real and intense. Yet even with these examples Sophie still guards her heart from Banallt. In some respects this was frustrating for I trusted Banallt and I wanted the heroine to do so sooner as well but you had to admire her tenacity. She didn't make anything easy on Banallt but than again he didn't deserve easy.

Yes, there are a lot of insipid historical romances out there today, but if your looking for something that packs an intense emotional punch, give 'Scandal' a read. Carolyn Jewel is definitely an author to watch.

My thanks to my GR friends who recommended this book and kept reminding me to read it! Such a fabulous book. Perfect for fans of reformed rakes / persistent men and sad widows / self-contained wallflowers. I got it from the library, but will definitely be buying my own copy so I can easily reread in the future. So much better than my other Carolyn Jewel experience, Indiscreet.

LOVED:
* Main characters together - Both Sophie and Banallt have made it onto my favorite heroines and heroes lists, respectively. They are absolutely perfect together, such a wonderful pairing! Love the sense of ease and camaraderie between them.

* Sophie (26) - She is one of those heroines I love: intelligent, somewhat socially awkward, not pretty, quiet, but also opinionated, strong, and (at times) passionate. She has such an inner strength from what she had to do in order to survive her first marriage and not let herself be completely broken down. She definitely guards herself, but it's very understandable why and I thought her wariness combined with Banallt's persistence - and how it slowly breaks her down - was very well-done.

* Banallt (33) - He was utterly fabulous. His "before" and "after" both feel very authentic, yet the transformation between the two is believable. In the present-day of the story, he's become the reformed rake and ::sigh:: he's just dreamy - so passionately in love with Sophie and a very, very decent man. I love it when he's deliciously, quietly jealous - and totally does not want to be! I also love his persistence, determination, and possessiveness / feelings of self-sacrifice. We get a great deal of internal monologue from him and in some ways I felt like I knew him better than Sophie. Minor, but I *loved* Banallt's necktie problem - his necktie was always askew and Sophie was always fixing it right. Too cute!

* Chemistry - Definitely felt it between Sophie and Banallt, and in some places positively sizzles. For the most part, the love scenes are wonderful, though occasionally too many descriptors and metaphors are used, to the point where I wasn't sure who was doing what where.

* Authenticity - In many ways, Jewel's book is quite "realistic" (mind you, everything's relative). Our main characters have suffered a lot. Bad things happen. Sophie used her talent and ingenuity to make ends meet when she was married to her crapola of a husband. Pre-reformation Banallt is quite unlikable - charming, yes, but still not hero-material - and a blatant and unrepentant adulterer and scoundrel. Other things.

* The back and forth - The book mainly takes place in the "present," but is interspersed throughout with flashbacks to the different meetings between Sophie and Banallt during her marriage to Mr. A-hole. Those chapters are very well-integrated and I'm so glad they were included; I was afraid we wouldn't get to enjoy how they came to know one another. I also like how we draw closer and closer to that last meeting (in the past), when we see why they parted so badly.

* Supporting characters - They were great additions, while also not - as I feared at one point - being used for any plot-lengthening or obstacle-placing ploys.

DISLIKED:
* Names, names, names - This is a minor pet peeve of mine, but I don't like it when a whole book goes by and not once does the heroine call the hero by his first name. It bothers me. Drives me crazy. You're more than a drinking buddy - the man has been inside you, for god's sakes - maybe your address can be a little more familiar and you don't have to always call him by his title. Just a thought. On the subject of names, what was up with all the weird first and last ones here? Sophie and her brother are the only "normal" ones all-around.

* Unbalanced feelings - Banallt was so passionately in love with Sophie, and even though he is often quiet about it on the outside, as a reader we know it because we're hearing his thoughts and told his feelings. While Sophie did also have strong feelings for him, I don't know that they always measured up and because of that, I thought her declarations needed to be a little stronger and more emphatic (prime ex: the ending; see second-to-last bullet). We know very clearly that it is far more than her looks and body that appeals to him (though those do as well), while with Sophie we hear a little too much about Banallt's looks and not enough about his other attributes.

* Sophie's lack of faith/trust - Personally, I think this went on a little too long. Granted, we know what Banallt is really thinking and feeling, so we know he's being honest and will be faithful, but she should have at least been more conflicted about whether or not to believe him. And when faced with rumors, I wish she had just straight out asked him, instead of thinking maybe they were true, maybe they weren't.

* Sophie's love for her husband - I'm actually torn on this one. I think that it was probably more realistic that it took awhile for her love for her husband to die, even after she realized he wasn't the man she thought he was. Such strong feelings don't just die in one day, and sometimes it seemed like it was the idea of him, of what she had thought he was, that she continued to love. Other times though, even though she hated what he did and how he treated her, she seemed to still care for him, and I found it hard to understand.

* Banallt's wife - I would have liked more details on her and their marriage. I also still have no idea what happened to her and how she died; think Jewel forgot to wrap that part of the story up completely.

* Rushed ending and no epilogue - Everything went at a nice, steady pace, until that very last scene. It was an important part of the story and of their relationship and definitely warranted more page-time. Especially given the rushed feeling of the ending (and that the book ends when Napoleon has just escaped Elba), an epilogue should have been included.

FAVORITE QUOTES:
There are more, but here are a few. Typing these up is going to make me fall in love with Banallt over again! ...

"Anxiety pressed in on Banallt, which annoyed him to no end. What he wanted from this moment was proof she hadn't taken possession of his heart. That his memories of her, of the two of them, were distorted by past circumstance. They had met during a turbulent time in his life during which he had perhaps not always behaved as a gentleman ought. They had parted on a day that had forever scarred him. He wanted to see her as plain and uninteresting. He wanted to think that, after all, he'd been mistaken about her eyes. He wanted his fascination with her to have vanished. None of that had happened." (p. 2)

"Met they had, and Christ, he'd fallen hard. Precisely, he thought, because she was so unexpectedly the opposite of everything. The opposite of his expectations, the opposite of his desires, the opposite of any woman ever to flit into his imagination." (p. 6)

"Just that one look from her and all his pent-up and repressed feelings for her returned in force: his anticipation of her company; his delight in her intellect, her wit, her eyes; the way his body clenched when he was near her. No, nothing at all had changed." (p. 11)

"'I would not marry a man I did not love. And therefore, if I were married to you, it would be because I was in love. And to a woman in love, faithfulness is the air she breathes, not a meal she chooses. One day this, another that. Changing menus all the time because one grows bored.'" (p. 84)

"Before Sophie, his interaction with women had been, in essence, about him. [...] With Sophie, the compulsion to stare came from someplace deep inside him, and he could no more stop himself from looking at her than he could stop breathing." (p. 154)

"She wasn't his. Not legally. He could as yet lay no claim to her heart. He wanted the ceremony that would make her indisputably his. He wanted Sophie to be the mother of his children. He wanted Sophie. He wouldn't ever be whole without her." (p. 180)

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Based on plot or character similarities:
To Seduce A Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt (5+ stars)
Heiress in Love by Christina Brooke (5 stars)
The Perfect Rake by Anne Gracie (5 stars)
Wed Him Before You Bed Him by Sabrina Jeffries (5 stars)
Simply Perfect by Mary Balogh (4.5 stars)
Midnight's Wild Passion by Anna Campbell (4 stars)
Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase (4 stars)
Unlocked (novella) by Courtney Milan (3.5 stars)

This book has some serious flaws. But the most important thing to consider when weighing flaws against the strengths is how wonderful the tone is of this book. It delivers with a soft, true sense of being lost and love-struck and in that unique emotional place when you demand security and fidelity to protect your fragile spirit, but still are willing to risk for the fabulous passion of love. That makes it such a pleasure to read and get lost in the story. Some of the annoying weaknesses include a drifting timeline which caused me more than once, to go back and check where the heck we were in time during the story. Although I can sympathize with the heroines desire for security, at some point, when you have such a delightful male professing love--I mean---for heaven's sake--believe him already! I am carefully watching this author for future books and am seriously hoping she moves over to auto-buy.