What do you think?
Rate this book


344 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2015

Have you ever driven by an accident and was unable to tear your eyes away? even though you knew there was a possibility of you seeing something truly horrific that you would never be able to forget???
Duke of Scandal by Gaelen Foley. If I could I would give this book a negative 10. but I can't, so I guess I'll just stick with a one star. This book was the epitome of everything I hate in a historical romance novel and historical romance is one of my favorite genres. Here is my formula for a PERFECT HM!!:
- Not too much angst. only a sprinkling, too much will ruin the flavor AND detract from the plot.
- Humor. I hate it when everything is all dour and depressing. a little is ok but not too much.
- An engaging Plot. it doesn't really matter what its about as long as it keeps me guessing and I don't get bored.
- A heroine that knows her mind. basically she doesn't let the hero (at the very least) treat her like crap, when she makes a decision she sticks to it, she's relatable, and rational. A strong heroine doesn't have to be outwardly strong, she can be mentally strong and I love that too.
- Lastly, NO CHEATING HERO. I run across this one quite often, I don't care how much of a manly mans man he is. I don't care if he's thinking about the heroine the entire time ( that's kinda creepy). If he has sex with anyone after meeting the heroine I can't deal with it, call me irrational if you like. Oh and I know what you're thinking so yes, oral does count.
So here was my problem with this particular historical romance novel:
1. Heroine - here you have a heroine whom from all accounts is smart and funny and kind and all that good stuff. yet makes so. many. bad. decisions. and repeatedly in the dialogue she knows she's making bad decisions, and says. repeatedly. she's making bad decisions yet stays on her course forward. case in point:" I'm only setting myself up to be hurt, she thought. But she couldn't seem to help herself"
last I checked she wasn't crazy or disabled so she has full control of her faculties. "Deep down, she had always wondered if Jason had any idea at all what love even was"
and you want to marry him? if you think he can't comprehend love then he's probably a psychopath and you should be running. Hard. In the opposite direction. "You've done this with nearly every other women in Town, so why not me?
"Because you're the one that matters," he replied.
I'm not gonna have sex with you, because you're the one I most want to have sex with. Right. Makes perfect sense. In theory I get what he's saying but seriously? its a total cop out. "Ah, why of all the men on the earth, did I have to lose my heart to that beast?"
um, No Comment. "Please be here. Please don't let me down. Please don't break my heart, not again, or I swear I'm done with you."
I haven't heard that one before. " And, worst of all, after all the women he'd bedded, did last night with her really even mean anything to him?"
You have to ask yourself that question? and you still plan on marrying him? "I knew it. She sniffled as she managed to get ahold of herself again. I knew he'd come. He may not love me yet, but someday, he will. He has to."
What was that? oh yeah I just puked a little in my mouth.
But seriously. I have a ton more quotes, these are just the few I found particularly disturbing. The heroine was just too prone to martyrdom to me, and I mean that to say she was always sacrificing for love. This was the type of book where the author introduces the Hero and Introduces the Heroine and you think to yourself "I really hope that they don't end up together because he/she is horrific." but then the more you read the more you think to yourself "huh well maybe they do deserve each other."
I mean even during the scenes where she was supposedly standing up for herself, and showing she could take a stand, even that came across as weak to me on her part. Also I wanted to rip out my hair because it was like nothing was really a real human reaction from her, it was just too perfect but not in a good way. I wanted to shake her at one point and scream "ITS OK TO BE ANGRY. IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HATE HIM OR THE THING HE'S TOLD YOU ABOUT. IT JUST MEANS YOUR FRICKIN' HUMAN so...yeah. there was that. there was also little to no character development, ( I am all about that character development) and the plot...there was no plot, it was just...yeah. I have no words.
2. The Hero - basically I had one major issue with him. he was a hoe. he was the hoe of all hoes. I have read a TON of historical romance and he has to be the sluttiest I've encountered. My big question though is How did he not get frickin' STD's????Just because it's the Regency era does not mean it did not happen and seriously this guy went at it. with EVERYONE. so I honestly would like to know how this didn't happen because for him to have slept around with this many woman(and a lot of them were whores, like that was their occupation) and he NEVER got ANYTHING??!!??!! well that seems very fishy to me. I actually really desperately wanted it to happen while I was reading it, and I was really sad when it didn't.
Overall this book was just not my cup of tea. It was not what I was looking for and I really honestly love Gaelen Foley. I've read a lot of her books and I really enjoyed them but this was definitely not one of them. This book was very frustrating for me but I kept going because I kept hoping that at the end something would happen, something that I would be happy with would happen. It didn't. So it was just a huge disappointment to me. When I closed the book I just immediately wanted to erase the past couple of hours from my brain. I was stunned that Gaelen Foley could write something like this because...wow... it was really bad, and so with all of that said that's why I'm giving this book a negative 10, which really hurts me to do.