13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Was this rushed to publication?, April 1, 2010
This review is from: In Scandal They Wed (Mass Market Paperback)
Well, if you want a summary of the plot, it's probably best to read some of the other reviews. And, if you don't want a critique of this book, don't read this review because, honestly, as I was reading it, I felt I was reading its first draft, not the final version. The plot has not been fully developed and the characters need fleshing out. This so needs a good polishing and I don't mean with our hero's you-know-what. I have read other Sophie Jordan books and vaguely remember being entertained by ONCE UPON A WEDDING NIGHT, but this particular book didn't do it for me. It has many things going on that I suppose could be interesting: 1) marriage of convenience, 2) heroine's almost-rape in Barbados (that's right, Barbados, and I didn't catch why exactly she was there to begin with) and her subsequent fear of the dark but not, seemingly, a fear of sexual intimacy, 3) mistaken identity because the hero believes the heroine to be his deceased cousin Ian's lover Linnie, although the heroine is actually Evie, Linnie's half sister who is raising Linnie and Ian's bastard son as her own. There is also an over-the-top widowed sister-in-law of the hero, who makes soap opera villainesses look good, and a bunch of other characters haphazardly thrown in, especially towards the end, such as someone named Fallon, whom, I assume, we are supposed to remember from previous books. Maybe this book had promise, but it needed a lot more rewrites to get it publication-worthy. (BTW, I am puzzled by the implication in the book that the marriage of hero to heroine would legitimize the birth of illegitimate child Nicholas. He was born out of wedlock and no subsequent marriage of even his biological parents would change that fact in 1855.)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great romance from Sophie Jordan!!, March 30, 2010
This review is from: In Scandal They Wed (Mass Market Paperback)
When Evelyn Cross saves her sister's illegitimate baby from being dumped in an orphanage, she gives up her own future to raise the innocent child. But without the support of her parents, she struggles to survive. The arrival of a handsome stranger, duty bound to help his cousin's offspring, both excites and terrifies her. If he finds out she's not the child's mother, will he take the boy from her?
Spencer Lockhart promised his dying cousin he'd look after the woman and child he abandoned to go off to war. Instead of the gentle, sweet maiden his cousin spoke of, Spencer finds a feisty woman determined to thwart his attempts to help her in spite of her dire circumstances. His father's third son, he'd never expected to become the Viscount and now that he has, he needs a wife. Marrying Evelyn will solve both his problem and hers, and get her into his bed in the bargain.
Both Evelyn and Spencer have baggage and secrets which result in lies of omission that threaten to destroy their budding love. While Spencer is bent on seduction, Evelyn must resist or reveal the truth that will prove she's not her son's real mother.
The stakes for Evelyn in this story are high--custody of her son--and she's convinced she'll lose him if Spencer learns of her deceit. Spencer is torn between guilt for wanting his cousin's woman and jealousy of what he believes is Evelyn's enduring love for the dead man.
Once again Sophie Jordan has created a hero and heroine with real world problems, painful pasts and deep feelings that elevate her books far beyond a stock marriage-of-convenience story. Evelyn's willingness to give her sister's unwanted baby a future at the cost of her own is both touching and heart-breaking. And Spencer's sacrifice to set a wrong right, makes him a hero worthy of the title. A cast of richly drawn characters and their fully realized world captured me on page one and kept me enthralled to the Happily-Ever-After. In fact, I started the book on a Saturday evening and didn't put it down until I reached the end. IN SCANDAL THEY WED is yet another wonderful historical romance from an author who never fails to deliver!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing end... and a few plotholes ***Spoilers***, June 1, 2010
This review is from: In Scandal They Wed (Mass Market Paperback)
I liked Sins of Wicked Duke (Fallon's story), so I thought I'd like this one. I did. Until the second half. There were several things that I failed to accept/get over/understand:
1. We have no real detail about Ian/Linnie's relationship. Though they were not the hero/heroine (this is only partly true, since Spencer does think that Evie is Linnie), we still needed more information about their background. How old was Linnie? Why did he not marry her to begin with? He claimed to have been madly in love with her the whole time he was away at war, so why not marry her before he went? It wasn't like he was called away to go, from what I understood he chose to go, but why?
2. How could Ian had told Spencer so much about Linnie during their time in the military together that would cause Spencer to fall in love with her by these stories, but not have a clue of what she looked like, or what her real name was?
3. Ian asked Spencer to to look out and care for Linnie and his child (without knowledge of Linnie's death, Evie raising him, and Nicholas not being branded a bastard because of Evie's scheme), not to marry her and legitimize his son. To me it seemed that all Spencer really wanted was what his cousin had--Linnie between his sheets. That seemed to fuel his feelings for her, they did not seem genuine. It was more like he was jealous because his cousin slept with her and he had to prove to himself that he could get her in bed too.
4. Evie's scheme of creating a dead husband just didn't seem to wash with me. She had been back from Barbados for six months, and even if she had been living in the country for that time, it just seems strange that all the sudden after being back for six months she has a dead husband and a child. How was this not questioned or proved wrong long before nearly five years? Even being hidden away it doesn't seem possible that nothing had slipped or suspected upon.
5. Their first sexual encounter taking place in a rat infested wine cellar. I personally didn't like that. Maybe if there had been no mention of hearing the rats, or knowing they were down there with them, it would have been okay, but as a reader I have always picture in my mind what is going on and I just couldn't help but picturing rats running around while they were laying on the floor...
6. To keep up with her act that she was experienced she wiped herself up after their wine cellar experience, but what about his shirt that she was laying on, how did he not see the blood on it? And when he finally realized that she was Linnie's sister why did he not ask her about her sexual knowledge? During their time spent with the rats in the cellar she did some things to him that only a woman of experience (or a lot of sexual knowledge) would know to do. So why did he not question that? And if he was ready to believe the worst about her why did he so easily accept that she really was a virgin.
7. The end itself was a disappointment for several reasons. First, it seemed rushed, especially considering what he had done that he needed to correct. In reference to actual time that had passed, it had been several weeks, but in pages of the book, it wasn't enough. Second, what she did was wrong, and she really should have told him sooner, much sooner. Once they were married would have been a good time. At that point he really couldn't have done much except fumed. He couldn't really have taken Nicholas from her then, but in order to cause a major conflict and almost break the characters up he finds out by someone else and acts poorly. Third, how he reacts when he finds out is ridiculous. I honestly do not understand what happened in the forrest. She asks what she can do for him to forgive her, and he tells her to take off her clothes (in a snowy forrest no less) and pushes her against a tree and has sex with her. Excuse me but what does that fix? Nothing apparently, except humiliate her, and then he still stalks off mad? I don't understand (if anyone does, please inform me). Fourth, her father tries to intervene, but really what does he do? He punches Spencer, but really doesn't fix anything, nor do his words alter Spencer's opinion or actions. He still waits several days before going to go see her. As for her father, he really needed to do more. He needed to have a scene where he tries to fix things between him and his daughter, or tells the stepmom off. Fifth, when Spencer does go see her, she's surrounded by her friends (which I thought was a sign of promise, and it was at first), her friends take up for her but after only a few minutes she's crying and tells them to stop being defensive of her, then instantly he tells her he loves her and she forgives him! I'm sorry but I don't think he adequately corrected what he had done. Yes, she'd lied, but his actions were by far worse. That scene only lasted like 2-3 pages and it needed to be longer, with perhaps more groveling and the reader actually believing that he's truly sorry.
Maybe I give books too much thought! I know they are just entertainment and not reality, but sometimes I get so hung up on things and this one had several conflicts I couldn't dismiss easily.
I'll say this for Sophie Jordan's writing she seems to have two extremes her good books are great, and her not good books, are awful! There's really not a lot in between. The reason I gave this two stars instead of one is there were several scenes that were well developed and vastly entertaining. I can suffer through a bad scene but I hate a rushed/under developed ending.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
