Review: Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress by Elizabeth Boyle.

Rowena’s review of Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress (The Bachelor Chronicles Series, Book 3) by Elizabeth Boyle.

Hero: Captain Thomas “Dash” Dashwell
Heroine: Lady Phillippa “Pippin” Knolles
Grade: 3.5 out of 5

Man I wanted to love this book so much more than I actually did but I just couldn’t. The couple that I met in Tally’s book, Confessions of a Black Gown were not the couple from this book. This book was already working with a big strike against it and that strike was the book starts about 23 years after we left them in Confessions. They are two completely different people now and when I first started the story and found all of this out, I could not for the life of me figure out how Ms. Boyle was going to make it work in a way that I would totally buy. She made it work that’s for sure but I can’t help that I wanted a different story for them.

In Confessions, Pippin was this bright eyed young girl who was in love with this dashing bad boy. She was filled with lots of hopes and dreams of being with this man forever and when those hopes and dreams come crashing down all around her, she finds herself pregnant and left all alone so she marries a good man who was totally good to her and gave her a good life. My issue with this was that I liked her husband in the Confessions and even though I thought it was extremely nice and sweet of him to want to sweep in and take care of Pippin, I didn’t want him to be cheated out of true happiness with someone else because Pippin was already in love with the man of her dreams and yet still they got married.

*sigh*

I will say this, Elizabeth Boyle did a fantastic job of pulling me deep into this story. It’s been hard for me to write this story because I’m kind of torn on my feelings for this book. I enjoyed this story, don’t get me wrong but I couldn’t help but miss the old Dash from the other books. I think my favorite part of this book were the flashbacks from the past because I didn’t read all of the books from this series, only Confessions of a Black Gown so it was good to see Pippin and Dash’s story unfold through their memories. I really enjoyed this book and this is probably what saved the story for me.

You see, when I first met Dash in Confessions, I loved him. I was intrigued by him and I wanted to know more, in this book, the Dash that I had come to know and love just wasn’t there. In his place was this surly old man who kept drowning his sorrows and though I understood why he was the way that he was, I didn’t care for this Dash. I hated to see him so pissed off at Pippin and the way that he treated her made me mad but all’s well that ends well because man did they have a whopper of a reunion and man could Dash charm the socks off of anyone when he wasn’t being a surly drunk.

Pippin grew up to be a great woman, I didn’t have much to be annoyed with Pippin aside from the obvious but I thought that she was just…good. There was a bit of the spark that I glimpsed in Confessions and though she was much younger in that story, I still would have liked to see more of the Pippin I remember.

Aside from my obvious prejudices from this book, I thought it was a good story but not the full out great story I was expecting. I think that Elizabeth Boyle fans will want to read this book because it’s part of a great series, though I didn’t see fireworks when I read the book, I still enjoyed it so I think ya’ll should read it and form your own opinions.

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here.