Holly‘s review of The Seduction of Scandal
It’s never wise to blackmail a highwayman. Lady Corinne, rebellious daughter of the duke of Banfield, refuses to marry Lord Freddie Sherwin. Yes, he’s the catch of the season and the man her father chose for her. He’s also the most despicable male of her acquaintance. With her wedding only weeks away, she runs away and finds herself a prisoner of the notorious Thorn! The rich and powerful tremble at the highwayman’s name, while England’s villagers rejoice in his bold exploits. His identity is a secret; his life a mystery–until Lady Corinne tumbles into his arms.
If the Thorn wants her silence, he must hide her until her wedding day passes. It’s a devil’s bargain and one that can only lead to a hangman’s noose. Corinne believes it the perfect plan–until her highwayman reveals a passionate lover’s heart, and she realizes that in the seduction of scandal, she may have found the hero she’s been waiting for her whole life.
Though I have them all in my TBR pile, this is the first book in the Scandals and Seduction series I’ve read. I’m not sure what made me decide to pick this one up first. I don’t feel like I missed anything by skipping the earlier novels. Maxwell can be hit or miss for me. Some of her novels rank right up there with my all time favorites, but others miss the mark. This one fell in between.
I think my problem with this novel stemmed from the heroine. I’m not sure what exactly the issue is, however. I didn’t connect with her right off the bat and I think that translated to the rest of the novel. I’m going to endevour to review this with as few spoilers as possible. I apologize in advance if that makes this review hard to understand.
In the first chapter Corinne is valiantly fighting her parents for her freedom. She doesn’t want to marry the man they’ve picked out for her and she thinks she’s found the perfect excuse not to – she just caught him in her bed doing her maid. Where Maxwell could have made this into a rather dramatic situation, she chose to make it light and funny. I’m afraid that didn’t work for me. Corinne came off as silly instead of passionate, which means I didn’t take her seriously.
The identity of Thorn isn’t a secret. It’s revealed in the first chapter to us, the reader, and to the heroine.We shortly come to find out that the entire town knows the identity. I’m not entirely sure how it remained a secret as long as it did. In any case, his actions as Thorn isn’t the main source of conflict in the novel. It’s that his station is beneath hers. She doesn’t think this is a problem, but he does.
As the novel wore on it becomes obvious that there’s something else going on. I think that plot element worked the least for me. It seemed a little too contrived. Although I appreciated what Maxwell was trying to do, it didn’t come together for me in the end.
3 out of 5.
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here
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