Scandalby Amanda Quickreviewed by Cheryl SneedDecember 2009, 336 pages, Publisher: Bantam, ISBN: 0553592831 Back Cover Blurb: With her reputation forever tarnished by a youthful indiscretion, lovely Emily Faringdon is resigned to a life of spinsterhood–until she embarks on an unusual correspondence and finds herself falling head over heels in love. Sensitive, intelligent, and high-minded, her noble pen pal seems to embody everything Emily has ever dreamed of in a man. But Simon Augustus Traherne, the mysterious Earl of Blade, is not at all what he seems.
Driven by dark, smoldering passions and a tragic secret buried deep within his soul, Blade has all of London cowering at his feet, but not Emily . . . never Emily. For even as she surrenders to his seductive charms, she knows the real reason for his amorous suit. And she knows that she must reach the heart of this golden-eyed dragon before the avenging demons of their entwined pasts destroy the only love she has ever known.
The second classic Amanda Quick to be reissued this month is Scandal. It is your standard Quick fare - brainy, though a bit flighty, glasses-wearing heroine confounds straight-laced, revenge seeking nobleman - but done with joy and verve. It is one of Quick's best.
Our revenge-seeking lord is Simon, the Earl of Blade, who is out to repay those who ruined his father and turned their backs on his family when he was a child, starting with Broderick Farringdon. Faringdon and his sons are reckless, feckless - but charming - gamesters who rely on Emily and her wizardry with investments to keep the family afloat. Simon knows that she is the key to ruining Faringdon. He has been corresponding with Emily for months, and she has fallen in love with Simon through his letters, believing they share a connection on a higher, metaphysical plane. Simon encourages this assumption and marries her, cutting her off from her family and they from her financial acumen.
For all her brains, Emily is a romantic who is eager to be "cast adrift on love's transcendent, golden shore" with Simon. When he reveals his grand plan, she still refuses to see him as less than a noble hero, who married her despite the Unfortunate Incident, a thwarted elopement in Emily's past which she believes puts her beyond the pale of anyone as wonderful as Simon.
Poor Simon doesn't know what hit him as Emily goes through their marriage believing him to be pure of heart and trying to shield him from her "scandal" while all unknowingly thwarting his big revenge schemes. She mends fences, builds bridges and so charms the ton that Simon's forbidding reputation is softened and relationships are reconciled.
Scandal contains some of Quick's steamiest love scenes and is one of her sweetest romances. If you missed it the first time around, don't let is slip past you again. This is Quick at her best.
Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed, December 29, 2009
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