Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly beautiful mature and memorable romance, February 8, 2009
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!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read!, February 4, 2009
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.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovin' Me Some Reformed Rakes!, February 11, 2009
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.
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