The Scandalous Miss Delaney (Zebra Regency Romance) [Paperback]

Catherine Blair (Producer)

Book Description

Series: Zebra Regency Romance | Publication Date: August 1, 1999

Regency Romance

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Lady's Folly... Always mischievous, often daring, Madeline Delaney had danced a waltz with Lord Lambrook and the whispers began. She walked in the garden with him and the gossip became a din. She might be ruined unless he offered for her hand. The cad did not. So a desperate Madeline, donning a ludicrous disguise, tracked him down at his club. What folly! She was snubbed, left without a shilling for a cab, and finally rescued by a handsome stranger. Never would she forget such humiliation.

Gentleman's Dilemma... And neither would Devin Forth. He couldn't believe his eyes when the pretty girl he'd squired home in London showed up at the country estate where he was a tutor. She had been sent to her uncle's home to escape one scandal only to fall into another. This time, Devin's chivalry sparked an irresistible romance. But Lord Lambrook's reappearance and a surprise inheritance soon changed everything. Now the lady was forced to risk everything...for the right man to love.

About the Author

Catherine Blair grew up in Texas, were she spent her high school years writing romances with her friends. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Cornell University and currently studies opiate addiction. Catherine lives with her husband in San Diego, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821762923
• ISBN-13: 978-0821762929
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,790,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scintillating and as charming as Miss Delaney herself, September 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Scandalous Miss Delaney (Zebra Regency Romance) (Paperback)

Miss Delaney is delightfully unpredictable, naive and mischievous, stubborn and clever. She is a 'Wiley Coyote" in silk and lace. But Lambrook--I wanted to land him a facer myself. Miss Blair's imagery is brilliant and the story bounces along at a frolicking rate. Two thumbs up for her first novel--looking forward to the next.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ms. Delaney ought to keep her day job, December 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Scandalous Miss Delaney (Zebra Regency Romance) (Paperback)

The plot is well conceived and might have become a good regency in the hands of a competent author. Ms. Delaney's understanding of the social conventions of the era are so woefully inadequate that I winced every time a character opened his or her mouth. I set language aside, being quite willing to have regency characters employ contemporary grammar and word usage. What I cnnot abide is to have them discuss topics in a manner no one in this period would have found concievable. Imagine a gentleman happening upon an unknown lady at the piano and saying, "You play terribly." Come to think of it, such a thing would be inconcievable for a gentleman in any era. In the next conversation a lady asks her wealthy neice, who has just come from London where she has been enjoying the season, if she knows how to dance and proceeds, over the heroine's objections, to arrange dancing lessons with her son's tutor. The plot will turn on these lessons. Say what? All young ladies knew how to dance. It is like asking an American seventeen-year-old if she knows how to drive a car. Atop all of these absurdities, we are asked to endure Ms. Blair's style, which is as subtle as a bludgeon.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Heroine too young for my taste, April 24, 2005

By 

Camy Tang "Romance novels with a kick of wasabi" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scandalous Miss Delaney (Zebra Regency Romance) (Paperback)

The story opens with Madeline Delaney's father ranting over two social faux-pas his daughter committed that evening, which immediately piqued my attention. Regency fans know that waltzing before given permission by the Patronesses and being seen kissing a man at a ball are both horribly scandalous. I was hooked as to what would happen next.

What I didn't like about the story is subjective, because these elements might appeal to other Regency readers. I personally don't care for very young heroines, and Madeline is 18, just 4 months shy of 19 years old. Her actions and words are in keeping with her age, but they just didn't appeal to me. She's very naïve, rather silly, and a bit hoydenish. She's also kind and usually tries to speak the truth rather than being deceptive, but her wild schemes and silly behavior were off-putting at times.

The hero also didn't capture me. He vacillated between disapproving and sexy, which seemed a bit extreme for me. The physical attraction between them didn't really move me, but that again is very subjective, and another reader might find those scenes hotter than a cyprian's boudoir.

The characters' actions throughout the book remain satisfyingly consistent. Nothing out of synch with how the characters were written, no moments of "Now why did he do that when he said this before?" I was never jarred out of the story by strange choices or inconsistent behavior.

I especially liked the interaction between Madeline and her younger cousin Frederick. It is so refreshing and funny, because although they profess to dislike each other, it's obvious they enjoy each others' company very much. Their banter is cute and breezy. The interaction between Madeline and her duenna is similar, with tongue-in-cheek dialogue and gentle sarcasm. Mrs. Benjamin is a bit stereotypical of a life-long family retainer, but she is a very good foil to Madeline's volatile personality.

I thought that the plot events (I won't disclose them here) were well done. The humorous things that happened moved the story along at a good pace-not too fast, but not meandering either.

I guess I'm a bit oblivious since I didn't notice the contemporary flavor of the dialogue that the previous reviewer mentioned. I am also American and wouldn't know a fake British accent from a real one, so anything slightly formal seems authentic to me. Because this is most definitely a Regency romp or a farce, the dancing lessons and the more blatant plot devices didn't knock me out of the story world. A more exacting Regency reader might care, but I certainly didn't.

In all, this book was entertaining but I just didn't care for the heroine's character. It didn't turn me off of this author, at any rate, and I would read another title of hers.