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Scandal
From a stately country house in Hampshire to the dazzling drawing rooms of London society comes an exquisite tale of an elfin beauty, a vengeful lord, and a wild, sweet love that is sheer poetry.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.From the Paperback edition.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1991
768 people are currently reading
2830 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Quick
95 books5,512 followersPseudonym of Jayne Ann Krentz
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.
Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.
Pseudonym(s):
Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Castle
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.
Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.
Pseudonym(s):
Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Castle
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 430 reviews
April 28, 2017
This was a light and fun historical romance. It was typical Amanda Quick in style. We got a light tone, plenty of humour, and a quirky lead couple. The romance was between the main couple was a good one.
The premise was pretty fun. Emily Faringdon's reputation was ruined by a scandal when she foolishly ran off with a rouge at the age of 19. Now at 24 she lives in seclusion at her families country estate and her business acumen is crucial to keep her family (father and two brothers) of gambling wastrels afloat. Simon Augustus Traherne, the mysterious Earl of Blade, made him money and reputation in the Far East but has returned to England intent on vengeance on the men who ruined his father and left his family penniless. Lady Emily is his next tool. He plans to use her as a pawn in his plot to take down her father so strikes up a pen pal friendship with her based on her love of romantic poetry.
The whole story was a lot of fun. Both Emily and Simon were likeable characters. Simon was a typical Quick hero. Tough, stoic, and calculating but also mostly a good guy. Emily was even more quirky and insane than the typical Quick heroine and it was a lot of fun watching Simon and everyone else get caught up in her crazy ways!
I quite liked the romance. Both Simon and Emily were pretty capable and self sufficient but both benefited from having the other in their life. They were just a good match. It always helps when a couple seem to enjoy each other company outside of th bedchamber as well as in it!
All in all this was a light and enjoyable read. I liked the romance and enjoyed the light humorous tone.
Rating: 4 stars.
The premise was pretty fun. Emily Faringdon's reputation was ruined by a scandal when she foolishly ran off with a rouge at the age of 19. Now at 24 she lives in seclusion at her families country estate and her business acumen is crucial to keep her family (father and two brothers) of gambling wastrels afloat. Simon Augustus Traherne, the mysterious Earl of Blade, made him money and reputation in the Far East but has returned to England intent on vengeance on the men who ruined his father and left his family penniless. Lady Emily is his next tool. He plans to use her as a pawn in his plot to take down her father so strikes up a pen pal friendship with her based on her love of romantic poetry.
The whole story was a lot of fun. Both Emily and Simon were likeable characters. Simon was a typical Quick hero. Tough, stoic, and calculating but also mostly a good guy. Emily was even more quirky and insane than the typical Quick heroine and it was a lot of fun watching Simon and everyone else get caught up in her crazy ways!
I quite liked the romance. Both Simon and Emily were pretty capable and self sufficient but both benefited from having the other in their life. They were just a good match. It always helps when a couple seem to enjoy each other company outside of th bedchamber as well as in it!
All in all this was a light and enjoyable read. I liked the romance and enjoyed the light humorous tone.
Rating: 4 stars.
June 18, 2011
I do not think I like Amanda Quick's heroes either. They're all so cool. Marble. Ice men. Emotionless. They NEVER give anything away to their heroines. Can't crack a smile, much less a joke. This irks me. Badly.
And if I have to hear the words: Metaphysical, transcendental, or higher plane one more time....there will be explosive projectile vomiting.
The ending was the best part. It's over now.
3 stars is a high rating. But I suppose it is apt.
And if I have to hear the words: Metaphysical, transcendental, or higher plane one more time....there will be explosive projectile vomiting.
The ending was the best part. It's over now.
3 stars is a high rating. But I suppose it is apt.
January 4, 2017
I am laughing so hard as I think of this book and what to write. Look I used to devour Amanda Quick's older books with the one word description and usually a random object on the cover. There were some that were really good. And there were some that may be wonder about the intelligence of the hero/heroine involved. "Scandal" is definitely the latter. You have a sort of reformed rake trope taking place here (though the hero is not really a rake, he's just an out and out ass) with a naive heroine that believes that love transcends everything. Seriously, learn to love the phrases "higher plane" and "cast adrift on love's transcendent golden, shore". Also she calls or thinks of the hero as a "dragon" so learn to love that word as well as the word "elf" that the hero calls the heroine.
The heroine in "Scandal" is Emily Faringdon. Emily is an aspiring writer (her epic poem sounds awful by the way) and thinks she is going to forever lead a solitary life in the countryside due to a scandal (where the title comes from) in her past. When Emily was younger, she ran away to get married and then realized on the way what a bad idea it was. Emily was not found til the next day, so of course in Regency era times this means she is considered an indiscreet young woman which no man would offer for. This suits Emily's father since he just uses Emily in order to have her keep him and her two twin brothers (Charles and Devlin) afloat due to her investment schemes. Emily starts up a correspondence with a man claiming to have her love of literature and then one days he announces he will be staying at a neighbor's home and they can finally meet. Emily meets Simon Traherne, also known as the Earl of Blade. Simon has his own reasons for pursuing Emily, and it's all about revenge.
So Emily...is kind of tedious and aggravating. When Emily finally meets Simon she decides that they are soul mates (I refuse to go back and look to see if that phrase is used) and even when she is told why Simon is pursuing her and wants to marry her (to avenge himself on her father) she still marries the guy. It was beyond ridiculous. Who marries someone who tells you that your father was responsible for his father committing suicide and you are part of his master plan to get revenge on all people who wronged him.
It baffles me throughout this book how cruel Simon is again and again to Emily and she is all, but I know that he loves me, so this makes it okay. I kept half hoping Emily would brain him with something. And though I had a small smidgen of sympathy towards Simon because of what happened to him and his mother due to his father's suicide, him going after in some cases the children of the men who wronged him gets you over that real quick.
Simon sucks. Seriously. I don't know what in the world made Emily even want to be with the guy besides the fact she kept saying they had a metaphysical connection. Simon the day after their wedding forbids her to see her father or her twin brothers again. I know back in Regency days you couldn't divorce, but I hated the fact that Quick has Emily decide to not be physically with Simon again after his announcement, and then has her run off. Simon thinks eventually Emily will be too curious about sex with him to not want to do it again and he will end up winning his way. Due to Simon spending time in the East (and no that is the way it is referred to in the book) he has strange notions about revenge, sins of the father, and apparently knows karate. Or Judo. Or Kung-Fu. I honestly did not get his movements at all, though at one time Quick references Simon chopping someone in the neck with his hand and I died laughing for five minutes. Iron Fist this guy is not.
We have other characters in "Scandal" and Emily's father is terrible. How she ignores it also drives me up a wall. There's a resolution about that guy at the end which made me smile. But I would have been happy with sharks being in play at some point. Emily's brother get some more detail, but not much in this one, and it would have been nice to follow up with both of them in subsequent books.
The plot in this one is really thin though. Due to Emily's past, no one is to refer to her scandal, and Simon is so powerful he believes he can squelch any commentary about it with threats or favors. Frankly, I don't really get why this would matter in Regency days, marriage fixes everything, or so most of the romance books I read had me believe. And there's a secondary plot that involves Emily's secret being discovered that is only a couple dozen pages. Honestly, most of the book is just Emily and Simon having sex, Simon being nasty, Emily being obtuse about his terribleness, and Emily deciding that love will see them through.
The writing at times was super hilarious though. Maybe because I cannot believe anyone back then spoke like this. It felt like very bad stage directions were being given to actors a few times.
Simon gently refolded the letter and sat gazing into the fire. After a moment's contemplation, he reached out to pick up the beautifully enameled Chinese teapot that sat on a nearby table. He poured the Lap Seng into a gossamer thin cup decorated with a green and gold dragon. As he started to lift the cup, he paused, studying the figure of the mythical beast.
The remainder of the comment was lost as Simon pivoted swiftly in the graceful movements of the ancient fighting art he had learned in the East. He knew his unorthodox, potentially lethal method would have astounded the young bloods who practiced boxing at Gentleman Jackson's academy. They would have been even more perplexed by the elaborate techniques for establishing mental discipline and control that the monks had taught along with the physical skills.
I can't help it, this whole book just makes me shake my head. We hear about references to China, monks, the "East" and whatnot.
The flow was up and down throughout. Like I said, there was very little plot with this one unlike with other Quick books so you are just really waiting for the hero to stop being a jerk and just fall in love with the heroine already. Or at least I was.
I do love Regency era books though. I think I get a kick out of them just because I cannot imagine a society like that nowadays. Of course you realize this was what Polite Society in England did back then, but still, these books always give you a good peek at them.
This is a romance novel so of course realize there is a HEA.
I read this for Romance Bingo 2017, and this book fits the regency romance square.
The heroine in "Scandal" is Emily Faringdon. Emily is an aspiring writer (her epic poem sounds awful by the way) and thinks she is going to forever lead a solitary life in the countryside due to a scandal (where the title comes from) in her past. When Emily was younger, she ran away to get married and then realized on the way what a bad idea it was. Emily was not found til the next day, so of course in Regency era times this means she is considered an indiscreet young woman which no man would offer for. This suits Emily's father since he just uses Emily in order to have her keep him and her two twin brothers (Charles and Devlin) afloat due to her investment schemes. Emily starts up a correspondence with a man claiming to have her love of literature and then one days he announces he will be staying at a neighbor's home and they can finally meet. Emily meets Simon Traherne, also known as the Earl of Blade. Simon has his own reasons for pursuing Emily, and it's all about revenge.
So Emily...is kind of tedious and aggravating. When Emily finally meets Simon she decides that they are soul mates (I refuse to go back and look to see if that phrase is used) and even when she is told why Simon is pursuing her and wants to marry her (to avenge himself on her father) she still marries the guy. It was beyond ridiculous. Who marries someone who tells you that your father was responsible for his father committing suicide and you are part of his master plan to get revenge on all people who wronged him.
It baffles me throughout this book how cruel Simon is again and again to Emily and she is all, but I know that he loves me, so this makes it okay. I kept half hoping Emily would brain him with something. And though I had a small smidgen of sympathy towards Simon because of what happened to him and his mother due to his father's suicide, him going after in some cases the children of the men who wronged him gets you over that real quick.
Simon sucks. Seriously. I don't know what in the world made Emily even want to be with the guy besides the fact she kept saying they had a metaphysical connection. Simon the day after their wedding forbids her to see her father or her twin brothers again. I know back in Regency days you couldn't divorce, but I hated the fact that Quick has Emily decide to not be physically with Simon again after his announcement, and then has her run off. Simon thinks eventually Emily will be too curious about sex with him to not want to do it again and he will end up winning his way. Due to Simon spending time in the East (and no that is the way it is referred to in the book) he has strange notions about revenge, sins of the father, and apparently knows karate. Or Judo. Or Kung-Fu. I honestly did not get his movements at all, though at one time Quick references Simon chopping someone in the neck with his hand and I died laughing for five minutes. Iron Fist this guy is not.
We have other characters in "Scandal" and Emily's father is terrible. How she ignores it also drives me up a wall. There's a resolution about that guy at the end which made me smile. But I would have been happy with sharks being in play at some point. Emily's brother get some more detail, but not much in this one, and it would have been nice to follow up with both of them in subsequent books.
The plot in this one is really thin though. Due to Emily's past, no one is to refer to her scandal, and Simon is so powerful he believes he can squelch any commentary about it with threats or favors. Frankly, I don't really get why this would matter in Regency days, marriage fixes everything, or so most of the romance books I read had me believe. And there's a secondary plot that involves Emily's secret being discovered that is only a couple dozen pages. Honestly, most of the book is just Emily and Simon having sex, Simon being nasty, Emily being obtuse about his terribleness, and Emily deciding that love will see them through.
The writing at times was super hilarious though. Maybe because I cannot believe anyone back then spoke like this. It felt like very bad stage directions were being given to actors a few times.
Simon gently refolded the letter and sat gazing into the fire. After a moment's contemplation, he reached out to pick up the beautifully enameled Chinese teapot that sat on a nearby table. He poured the Lap Seng into a gossamer thin cup decorated with a green and gold dragon. As he started to lift the cup, he paused, studying the figure of the mythical beast.
The remainder of the comment was lost as Simon pivoted swiftly in the graceful movements of the ancient fighting art he had learned in the East. He knew his unorthodox, potentially lethal method would have astounded the young bloods who practiced boxing at Gentleman Jackson's academy. They would have been even more perplexed by the elaborate techniques for establishing mental discipline and control that the monks had taught along with the physical skills.
I can't help it, this whole book just makes me shake my head. We hear about references to China, monks, the "East" and whatnot.
The flow was up and down throughout. Like I said, there was very little plot with this one unlike with other Quick books so you are just really waiting for the hero to stop being a jerk and just fall in love with the heroine already. Or at least I was.
I do love Regency era books though. I think I get a kick out of them just because I cannot imagine a society like that nowadays. Of course you realize this was what Polite Society in England did back then, but still, these books always give you a good peek at them.
This is a romance novel so of course realize there is a HEA.
I read this for Romance Bingo 2017, and this book fits the regency romance square.
November 20, 2017
This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance
Scandal is a tale of a fiery dragon and the woman that out of love and devotion would become his own fire-breathing dragoness....
“My God, Emily.” For a moment the world seemed to halt. She could barely breathe, let alone respond. “Emily, open your eyes and look at me.”
Dreamily, Emily lifted her lashes and looked up into Simon’s harshly carved face. He was so close that she could see him without the aid of her spectacles. She was fascinated by the glittering heat that had washed away the coldness in his eyes. Fire lit the beautiful golden gaze now, a wild flame of masculine desire held under rigid control. “Dragon,” she whispered softly, touching his hard cheek with gentle fingers. “My very own golden-eyed dragon.”
He narrowed his eyes as he stared down at her. “Dragons have a dangerous reputation around fair maidens.”
She smiled softly up at him. “’Tis no use breathing fire and smoke in an attempt to frighten me, my lord. I know I am quite safe with you.”
Scandal is the first book that I have read from Amanda Quick, although I have read some of her titles under her other name "Jayne Anne Krentz" this was my first time picking up one of her historical titles that she has written. I will admit that I had high hopes for this book and to be quite frank I really didn't know what to fully expect from this book. And I can honestly say that this book was spectacular and I didn't want to put this amusing historical down and if you looking for an honest in depth well written dynamic read....grab up Scandal or any of her other titles. Now I will admit that Scandal has the feel of an older style romance but not in ways you imagine. I will be honest and admit I miss this style of writing in historical romance especially. I really enjoyed the dynamics and what a well-written book this is. I mean honestly, its been a while since I have picked up a book so well written and detailed.
Scandal begins with our hero seeking revenge against the families that wronged him and his family. The reasons behind his father's suicide and his mother being forced to live in the north and soon dying herself and where Simon soon learns that not everything goes according to plan. Emily has been corresponding with "the love of her life" in letters and exchanging love of literature and romantic poetry. Emily knows that Simon is her future but she never really imagined that she would meet him in real life. Or that he would share certain delights and passion or agree to marry her. But Emily soon learns that her father wronged Simon's, she understand more than anyone realizes and soon Simon and Emily both find that love heals wounds in ways you least expect.
Now I honestly became quickly immersed in Scandal and it had a sense of quirkiness to the story that I found simply delightful. Now first we have our two main characters. Our hero, Simon, is used to be feared. He spent many years in India and deals with problems the way they do. He has power and wealth and everyone tends to fear him. But there is one person that doesn't fear him at all....Emily. Emily, at first, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about her. But she is not what she seems to be on the surface. We see her, in the beginning, being so immersed in poetry and romance and she seems to be a bit dim-witted at times. But she is way more clever than all that. Ever since she was seventeen she has managed to save her reckless father and brothers and handling their gambling debts again and again. She is left alone on the estate unless they need funds. But she knows everything good about making smart investments. She also has a character that you rarely see in romance and I found her to be so refreshing and crafty. She is one of those unique characters that keep you on your toes because I NEVER knew what to expect from her. Some of the plans she hatches, I kept thinking "poor Simon" he has no idea what he is in for here but he does handle it with patience and grace so I have to applaud him for that.
I also really liked the ways that these two falls in love and the little ways that they build upon the desire they feel that slowly develops into a strong love where they protect each other no matter what. Their intricate dealings with society, the precise details that are written that make this era just come alive for the reader. And of course seeing how love does change you in some positive ways. The changes we most especially see in Simon was quite frankly speaks of the talent to Amanda Quick. He has such a complex character and seeing how his affection and love that he develops for Emily, changes how he deals with his enemies even.
“I am trying to tell you that I probably do not deserve you, elf, but I will kill anyone who tries to take you away from me.” His golden eyes flashed in the candlelight. “In that way, I believe we must be two of a kind.”
Scandal is a quick witter and a story full of clever plot runs, delightful characters whose story ends up give you all the feels and offers an in depth look at the regency era in the ways it was meant to be written!! SUPERB!
Scandal is a tale of a fiery dragon and the woman that out of love and devotion would become his own fire-breathing dragoness....
“My God, Emily.” For a moment the world seemed to halt. She could barely breathe, let alone respond. “Emily, open your eyes and look at me.”
Dreamily, Emily lifted her lashes and looked up into Simon’s harshly carved face. He was so close that she could see him without the aid of her spectacles. She was fascinated by the glittering heat that had washed away the coldness in his eyes. Fire lit the beautiful golden gaze now, a wild flame of masculine desire held under rigid control. “Dragon,” she whispered softly, touching his hard cheek with gentle fingers. “My very own golden-eyed dragon.”
He narrowed his eyes as he stared down at her. “Dragons have a dangerous reputation around fair maidens.”
She smiled softly up at him. “’Tis no use breathing fire and smoke in an attempt to frighten me, my lord. I know I am quite safe with you.”
Scandal is the first book that I have read from Amanda Quick, although I have read some of her titles under her other name "Jayne Anne Krentz" this was my first time picking up one of her historical titles that she has written. I will admit that I had high hopes for this book and to be quite frank I really didn't know what to fully expect from this book. And I can honestly say that this book was spectacular and I didn't want to put this amusing historical down and if you looking for an honest in depth well written dynamic read....grab up Scandal or any of her other titles. Now I will admit that Scandal has the feel of an older style romance but not in ways you imagine. I will be honest and admit I miss this style of writing in historical romance especially. I really enjoyed the dynamics and what a well-written book this is. I mean honestly, its been a while since I have picked up a book so well written and detailed.
Scandal begins with our hero seeking revenge against the families that wronged him and his family. The reasons behind his father's suicide and his mother being forced to live in the north and soon dying herself and where Simon soon learns that not everything goes according to plan. Emily has been corresponding with "the love of her life" in letters and exchanging love of literature and romantic poetry. Emily knows that Simon is her future but she never really imagined that she would meet him in real life. Or that he would share certain delights and passion or agree to marry her. But Emily soon learns that her father wronged Simon's, she understand more than anyone realizes and soon Simon and Emily both find that love heals wounds in ways you least expect.
Now I honestly became quickly immersed in Scandal and it had a sense of quirkiness to the story that I found simply delightful. Now first we have our two main characters. Our hero, Simon, is used to be feared. He spent many years in India and deals with problems the way they do. He has power and wealth and everyone tends to fear him. But there is one person that doesn't fear him at all....Emily. Emily, at first, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about her. But she is not what she seems to be on the surface. We see her, in the beginning, being so immersed in poetry and romance and she seems to be a bit dim-witted at times. But she is way more clever than all that. Ever since she was seventeen she has managed to save her reckless father and brothers and handling their gambling debts again and again. She is left alone on the estate unless they need funds. But she knows everything good about making smart investments. She also has a character that you rarely see in romance and I found her to be so refreshing and crafty. She is one of those unique characters that keep you on your toes because I NEVER knew what to expect from her. Some of the plans she hatches, I kept thinking "poor Simon" he has no idea what he is in for here but he does handle it with patience and grace so I have to applaud him for that.
I also really liked the ways that these two falls in love and the little ways that they build upon the desire they feel that slowly develops into a strong love where they protect each other no matter what. Their intricate dealings with society, the precise details that are written that make this era just come alive for the reader. And of course seeing how love does change you in some positive ways. The changes we most especially see in Simon was quite frankly speaks of the talent to Amanda Quick. He has such a complex character and seeing how his affection and love that he develops for Emily, changes how he deals with his enemies even.
“I am trying to tell you that I probably do not deserve you, elf, but I will kill anyone who tries to take you away from me.” His golden eyes flashed in the candlelight. “In that way, I believe we must be two of a kind.”
Scandal is a quick witter and a story full of clever plot runs, delightful characters whose story ends up give you all the feels and offers an in depth look at the regency era in the ways it was meant to be written!! SUPERB!
March 31, 2022
A wonderful and witty romance story. Love both characters in all of their nuances. Narration by Anne Flosnik was exceptional.
June 3, 2016
OMG how may times do I have to hear words, Metaphysical, transcendental, or higher plane? Ugh It was getting on my nerves.
I couldn't finish the book it was so boring the characters were boring. First you have Simon an emotionless, cold-hearted man that only thinks about getting revenge that he doesn't care who he ruins to achieve it. Then you have Emily who is quite fankly boring, All she talks about is having a love connection that is on a higher plane. She goes as far as to ruin not only herself but her family for a man that doesn't even love her.
I couldn't finish the book it was so boring the characters were boring. First you have Simon an emotionless, cold-hearted man that only thinks about getting revenge that he doesn't care who he ruins to achieve it. Then you have Emily who is quite fankly boring, All she talks about is having a love connection that is on a higher plane. She goes as far as to ruin not only herself but her family for a man that doesn't even love her.
May 12, 2018
Más bien 3,5/5
La historia de una venganza cocinada a fuego lento, en la que nada sale como estaba planeado.
Me he divertido mucho, sobre todo con Emily, aunque algunas veces me pareciera un poco exagerada en su ingenuidad.
Con respecto a Simón el típico protagonista de la Quick, orgulloso,frío,calculador...Que al final cae rendido a la dama.
Entretenido
La historia de una venganza cocinada a fuego lento, en la que nada sale como estaba planeado.
Me he divertido mucho, sobre todo con Emily, aunque algunas veces me pareciera un poco exagerada en su ingenuidad.
Con respecto a Simón el típico protagonista de la Quick, orgulloso,frío,calculador...Que al final cae rendido a la dama.
Entretenido
April 20, 2012
This book was a cracking good read. I really enjoyed the push-pull between the hero and heroine. It was fun and engaging and I was completely immersed -the very best kind of romance!
The tension created by the two different perspectives of Emily and Blade was well done and very entertaining. She is naive and he is cynical and bent on revenge. But Quick inserts enough ambiguity into this dynamic that the heroine never is at the hero's mercy. She never does anything she does not want to do. She has a romantic nature (as in Romanticism, the literary philosophy of the time concerned with passion, transcendence and the Sublime) and insists that their relationship is transcendent in nature. He initially indulges this sillyness because it suits his dastardly plans -but Quick deftly makes it clear that, naive and silly it may be, but it might also be true. And while he thinks it is claptrap, he could be the blind, naive one, not her.
And this makes the book great. The initial power-imbalance in a plot with a manipulative hero and naive heroine never really materialises. Instead, it is a constant give-and-take. So very well done.
But mostly, this works because it's a great story. I couldn't and wouldn't put it down and closed the book feeling happy. The hallmark of an excellent romance.
The tension created by the two different perspectives of Emily and Blade was well done and very entertaining. She is naive and he is cynical and bent on revenge. But Quick inserts enough ambiguity into this dynamic that the heroine never is at the hero's mercy. She never does anything she does not want to do. She has a romantic nature (as in Romanticism, the literary philosophy of the time concerned with passion, transcendence and the Sublime) and insists that their relationship is transcendent in nature. He initially indulges this sillyness because it suits his dastardly plans -but Quick deftly makes it clear that, naive and silly it may be, but it might also be true. And while he thinks it is claptrap, he could be the blind, naive one, not her.
And this makes the book great. The initial power-imbalance in a plot with a manipulative hero and naive heroine never really materialises. Instead, it is a constant give-and-take. So very well done.
But mostly, this works because it's a great story. I couldn't and wouldn't put it down and closed the book feeling happy. The hallmark of an excellent romance.
March 27, 2013
A few campy, chuckling moments due to naive heroine, but plot was weak. My mind kept wandering.
This author has written many books under the names Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, and Jayne Castle. She has a wonderful writing style and can make almost anything entertaining. But I feel like she ran out of ideas - as if she pulled the words charming eccentric naive romantic female out of a hat and tried to do something with it, again. Then she added brilliant business financial mind. The positive was that I chuckled several times. But the plot took away from enjoyment. It consisted of two main ideas. Simon takes action to cover up Emily’s scandal from the past, and Simon plans vengeance on some men. The vengeance idea petered out. It was not intriguing.
Examples of things that made me chuckle. Frequently Emily says that she and Simon communicate on a metaphysical or transcendental plane/level/realm. She says sex will be a wondrous transcendental experience for people like them. She believed that. Simon did not. He just said what he thought she wanted to hear.
Another: Emily tells the footman to find a person from the criminal class to kidnap someone for her. When she meets with that person, she says “are you a professional villain for hire?”
The relationship between Simon and Emily happened too quickly - not enough story about that. He pretends to be interested in the same poetry and literature as she. That is why she thinks they communicate on a higher plane. But they meet and quickly marry. There is no interesting push-pull between them.
One odd thing about Emily. She was a financial genius in the stock and commodities markets, making money for others - think Warren Buffett. To do that she needed knowledge about the competence of managers in companies and projects. A little hard to believe she could have that knowledge, when she lived in the country and her only social interaction was a lady’s discussion group about romantic literature. I don’t mind suspending disbelief for a good story. But this didn’t work. A better story would be seeing how Emily learned things in the markets and how she outsmarted other investors. But that was not here.
The narrator Anne Flosnik was pretty good, but her voices for men sounded weird. I prefer Susan Duerden who is good with male voices.
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook length: 12 hrs and 5 mins. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 7. Setting: early 1800s England. Book copyright: 1991. Genre: regency romance.
This author has written many books under the names Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, and Jayne Castle. She has a wonderful writing style and can make almost anything entertaining. But I feel like she ran out of ideas - as if she pulled the words charming eccentric naive romantic female out of a hat and tried to do something with it, again. Then she added brilliant business financial mind. The positive was that I chuckled several times. But the plot took away from enjoyment. It consisted of two main ideas. Simon takes action to cover up Emily’s scandal from the past, and Simon plans vengeance on some men. The vengeance idea petered out. It was not intriguing.
Examples of things that made me chuckle. Frequently Emily says that she and Simon communicate on a metaphysical or transcendental plane/level/realm. She says sex will be a wondrous transcendental experience for people like them. She believed that. Simon did not. He just said what he thought she wanted to hear.
Another: Emily tells the footman to find a person from the criminal class to kidnap someone for her. When she meets with that person, she says “are you a professional villain for hire?”
The relationship between Simon and Emily happened too quickly - not enough story about that. He pretends to be interested in the same poetry and literature as she. That is why she thinks they communicate on a higher plane. But they meet and quickly marry. There is no interesting push-pull between them.
One odd thing about Emily. She was a financial genius in the stock and commodities markets, making money for others - think Warren Buffett. To do that she needed knowledge about the competence of managers in companies and projects. A little hard to believe she could have that knowledge, when she lived in the country and her only social interaction was a lady’s discussion group about romantic literature. I don’t mind suspending disbelief for a good story. But this didn’t work. A better story would be seeing how Emily learned things in the markets and how she outsmarted other investors. But that was not here.
The narrator Anne Flosnik was pretty good, but her voices for men sounded weird. I prefer Susan Duerden who is good with male voices.
DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Unabridged audiobook length: 12 hrs and 5 mins. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 7. Setting: early 1800s England. Book copyright: 1991. Genre: regency romance.
November 22, 2022
Това сладко старо regency не е остаряло зле.
На пръв поглед героинята е вятърничава романтичка с розови очила, отказваща да види грозната действителност. Но само на пръв поглед, както тя детайлно обяснява в един момент.
Героят е симпатяга, решил да си върне с лихвите на няколко лондонски финансови акули, изиграли и разрушили семейството му преди 23 години, а бащата на момичето е един от този кръг.
Като цяло доста прилична драма, с розови очила, използвани като начин да запазиш вярата си, че в този свят има и красиви неща. Но когато стане опасно, сваляш ги - и действаш.
3,5⭐️
На пръв поглед героинята е вятърничава романтичка с розови очила, отказваща да види грозната действителност. Но само на пръв поглед, както тя детайлно обяснява в един момент.
Героят е симпатяга, решил да си върне с лихвите на няколко лондонски финансови акули, изиграли и разрушили семейството му преди 23 години, а бащата на момичето е един от този кръг.
Като цяло доста прилична драма, с розови очила, използвани като начин да запазиш вярата си, че в този свят има и красиви неща. Но когато стане опасно, сваляш ги - и действаш.
3,5⭐️
January 17, 2013
Could there have been a more ridiculous book ever written? If I hadn't read so many other books by Amanda Quick, I'd have to assume this was a joke. No one writes this horribly or includes such absurd dialogue.
Quick tried to develop a completely stupid set of metaphors throughout the book by comparing Simon to a dragon and Emily to an elf. They called each other by pet names - he called her elf and she called him dragon. Yup. Dumb. Emily even went so far as to have dragons embroidered on her clothes ... and shoes ... and fans ... and I swear if she could have she would have tattooed a big golden-eyed (because Simon has golden eyes, which we heard about 2,783 times) dragon on her ass. Simon, on the other hand, just called her "elf" incessantly due to her apparent "elfish" appearance (being short, having red curls, and no boobs means you look like an elf, I guess) and her utter lack of people skills (apparently, being so naive that you border on mentally handicapped is "charming" and "unique" and also "elf-like). So yeah. The attempt at being metaphorical and shit did not work.
And oh the dialogue ... and all the other writing in the book. Whether the characters were thinking or talking or the 3rd person narrator was ... narrating, every word choice and rhetorical decision made in relation to this novel was utterly awful. Example: It was absolutely intolerable that the great love of her life should have snuck up on her and caught her so woefully unprepared for such a momentous occasion.
Yeah.
Let that gem sink in. That was Emily's reaction to meeting Simon for the first time. Here's another super awesome example: Simon was her companion of the metaphysical realm. Quick used metaphysical to describe their connection 40 times in the novel and the word "plane" 48 times to discuss their connection in a higher, more intellectual realm (I ran the numbers on my Kindle). That may not seem like a lot but it certainly felt like it.
However, my favorite line was this: The third inescapable conclusion was that she was still in love with the mysterious, golden-eyed dragon of the East. I literally laughed out loud when I read this. I only wish that this was not the most absurd line in the whole book. I also wish this was a joke. Unfortunately it's not.
Oh! And I can't forget the fact that Emily likes to curse when she gets mad. Do you know what she says? Bloody hell. That's her awful curse ... apparently the only one she knows. I would have liked to see a "damn" or even an "arse." But nope! "Bloody hell" was all she knew. I feel like Quick chose that particular phrase because it sounded British.
There was nothing even remotely redeeming about this book. I would almost say that the fact that Simon kind of chewed Emily out for being such a stupid nitwit was good, but then the book ended with him coming to some sort of "Thank god I have such a uniquely charming elf in my life" realization that it totally cancelled out his previous, rational frustration with her. We were supposed to feel bad that he made Emily cry when he "broke her heart" by being, oh, I don't know, normal but instead I found myself cheering on his supposed callous behavior and wishing she'd cry just a little harder. Maybe she'd drown in her tears and Simon could find a more worthy companion and the reader wouldn't have to listen to her babble about romantic poetry and deep connections and blah blah blah.
This book sucked hard core.
If I could go back and time and chose whether or not to erase my unfortunate Sally Jesse Raphael glasses from my 7th grade school picture or erase the memory of this book, I'd erase this book. Bring on the red glasses, baby, because nothing is more heinous than Scandal by Amanda Quick.
Quick tried to develop a completely stupid set of metaphors throughout the book by comparing Simon to a dragon and Emily to an elf. They called each other by pet names - he called her elf and she called him dragon. Yup. Dumb. Emily even went so far as to have dragons embroidered on her clothes ... and shoes ... and fans ... and I swear if she could have she would have tattooed a big golden-eyed (because Simon has golden eyes, which we heard about 2,783 times) dragon on her ass. Simon, on the other hand, just called her "elf" incessantly due to her apparent "elfish" appearance (being short, having red curls, and no boobs means you look like an elf, I guess) and her utter lack of people skills (apparently, being so naive that you border on mentally handicapped is "charming" and "unique" and also "elf-like). So yeah. The attempt at being metaphorical and shit did not work.
And oh the dialogue ... and all the other writing in the book. Whether the characters were thinking or talking or the 3rd person narrator was ... narrating, every word choice and rhetorical decision made in relation to this novel was utterly awful. Example: It was absolutely intolerable that the great love of her life should have snuck up on her and caught her so woefully unprepared for such a momentous occasion.
Yeah.
Let that gem sink in. That was Emily's reaction to meeting Simon for the first time. Here's another super awesome example: Simon was her companion of the metaphysical realm. Quick used metaphysical to describe their connection 40 times in the novel and the word "plane" 48 times to discuss their connection in a higher, more intellectual realm (I ran the numbers on my Kindle). That may not seem like a lot but it certainly felt like it.
However, my favorite line was this: The third inescapable conclusion was that she was still in love with the mysterious, golden-eyed dragon of the East. I literally laughed out loud when I read this. I only wish that this was not the most absurd line in the whole book. I also wish this was a joke. Unfortunately it's not.
Oh! And I can't forget the fact that Emily likes to curse when she gets mad. Do you know what she says? Bloody hell. That's her awful curse ... apparently the only one she knows. I would have liked to see a "damn" or even an "arse." But nope! "Bloody hell" was all she knew. I feel like Quick chose that particular phrase because it sounded British.
There was nothing even remotely redeeming about this book. I would almost say that the fact that Simon kind of chewed Emily out for being such a stupid nitwit was good, but then the book ended with him coming to some sort of "Thank god I have such a uniquely charming elf in my life" realization that it totally cancelled out his previous, rational frustration with her. We were supposed to feel bad that he made Emily cry when he "broke her heart" by being, oh, I don't know, normal but instead I found myself cheering on his supposed callous behavior and wishing she'd cry just a little harder. Maybe she'd drown in her tears and Simon could find a more worthy companion and the reader wouldn't have to listen to her babble about romantic poetry and deep connections and blah blah blah.
This book sucked hard core.
If I could go back and time and chose whether or not to erase my unfortunate Sally Jesse Raphael glasses from my 7th grade school picture or erase the memory of this book, I'd erase this book. Bring on the red glasses, baby, because nothing is more heinous than Scandal by Amanda Quick.
July 19, 2020
"Scandal" is the story of Emily and Simon.
Our heroine is the youngest in the Faringdon clan, and the smartest. Taking care of the financial investments of her family and friends, she spends her days lost in literary pursuits and is happy being a spinster. The society shunned her after a minor youthful indiscretion, but the ladies of her poetry club took her in. She starts corresponding with a mysterious pen pal, who then turns out to be the hero. He enters her life, instantly charming her and proposing marriage. But the reason behind his haste is not love, but vengeance. Years ago, the hero's family had been responsible for him being fatherless and destitute- and now the mysterious Earl of Blade is out for revenge..
Ok. So I really like the smart heroine- strong hero- mystery tropes in Amanda Quick books. However, this was one of the disappointing ones. I think there was a dichotomy in the heroine's behavior and her thoughts. On one hand, she was this independent woman who was as intelligent as she was caring- on the other hand she was impulsive and oblivious. Her accepting the hero's proposal, marrying him despite being aware of his intentions, easily giving in, coming up with utter hair brained schemes, believing the man who tried to ruin her and her father.. are just a few examples of her simple mindedness. I think her character seemed very disjointed. The hero was a brooding ass who falls for the heroine, has wild sex with her but keeps assuring himself that he's evil and heartless.
Now that I have whined about the negatives, here are the things I DID like/ were tolerable
-her whole obsession with hero and him being a dragon
-her loyalty towards those she loved- which includes the hero- and how protective she was about them
-the smoking hot lovemaking scenes
The whole metaphysical thing was absurd though.
This was an average read.
Safe
2.5/5
Our heroine is the youngest in the Faringdon clan, and the smartest. Taking care of the financial investments of her family and friends, she spends her days lost in literary pursuits and is happy being a spinster. The society shunned her after a minor youthful indiscretion, but the ladies of her poetry club took her in. She starts corresponding with a mysterious pen pal, who then turns out to be the hero. He enters her life, instantly charming her and proposing marriage. But the reason behind his haste is not love, but vengeance. Years ago, the hero's family had been responsible for him being fatherless and destitute- and now the mysterious Earl of Blade is out for revenge..
Ok. So I really like the smart heroine- strong hero- mystery tropes in Amanda Quick books. However, this was one of the disappointing ones. I think there was a dichotomy in the heroine's behavior and her thoughts. On one hand, she was this independent woman who was as intelligent as she was caring- on the other hand she was impulsive and oblivious. Her accepting the hero's proposal, marrying him despite being aware of his intentions, easily giving in, coming up with utter hair brained schemes, believing the man who tried to ruin her and her father.. are just a few examples of her simple mindedness. I think her character seemed very disjointed. The hero was a brooding ass who falls for the heroine, has wild sex with her but keeps assuring himself that he's evil and heartless.
Now that I have whined about the negatives, here are the things I DID like/ were tolerable
-her whole obsession with hero and him being a dragon
-her loyalty towards those she loved- which includes the hero- and how protective she was about them
-the smoking hot lovemaking scenes
The whole metaphysical thing was absurd though.
This was an average read.
Safe
2.5/5
December 8, 2010
Upon reading a synopsis of Scandal, I was hesitant to read it. I haven't read a marriage of convenience in a long time and really, this just didn't seem like my thing. I got about a quarter of the way through and still wasn't so sure. The heroine, Emily, appears almost stupid at parts, too stuck in her romantic literature to face reality. However, there is a point, when she carefully lays out the reasons the Earl should marry her, where Emily's supposed stupidity becomes almost endearing and the reader realizes that she can indeed recognize reality from fiction.
It is wonderful to watch the hero, Simon, struggle with himself. An alpha male, Simon finds it difficult to let anyone take charge. And while he definitely struggles with trying to control her, he does not ever really confront the struggle consciously. There are not pages and pages devoted to his arguments with himself, and I loved that.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book in the end. It was an enjoyable read, more so than most romance books I've read in the last few months.
It is wonderful to watch the hero, Simon, struggle with himself. An alpha male, Simon finds it difficult to let anyone take charge. And while he definitely struggles with trying to control her, he does not ever really confront the struggle consciously. There are not pages and pages devoted to his arguments with himself, and I loved that.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book in the end. It was an enjoyable read, more so than most romance books I've read in the last few months.
September 23, 2020
*pours herself a glass of water*
*sits quietly for a few minutes, staring into the distance, gathering her thoughts*
It's not that I dislike romance novels. I've been reading a number of them lately, and some I deeply enjoyed. It's not even that I don't understand the historical context - I do. Amanda Quick wrote this book in 1991, when romance was a genre with different expectations. Men were more likely to be forceful. Women, more likely to be ingenues.
But still. Why did this have to be so bad? Barbara Cartland wrote before (and after) 1991, and she didn't make such a mess of things.
*takes another pensive sip of water*
This is my second Amanda Quick novel, the first being "Mischief". If memory serves, I bought three of her books at the same time, the first two being these and the third being in a box somewhere, waiting for me to unpack my library again. Had I known she'd be Amanda Quick-To-Get-On-My-Nerves, I'd have stuck to buying just one book.
But it seems she has the same unpleasant tendencies, because I recognized the things that pissed me off to no end in "Mischief": a clever ingenue female protagonist whose smarts lie in a very concrete slice of reality and in that one alone (in "Mischief", archaeology; in "Scandal", financial investments). Female naivete in spades. A dangerous, secretive man with a plan. And leitmotifs repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... over.
Emily, the female protagonist, believes she is communicating with Blade, the male protagonist, on a metaphysical, transcendental higher plane which she brings up so often that I deeply regret I don't have a digital copy of this book to count the instances. She thinks he's dragon-like and he, in turn, is obsessed with dragons to the point where his eyes are dragon's eyes, his attitude is a dragon attitude, his colors are dragon colors and his decorative items are dragon statues. Emily decides to go with that and gets a wardrobe in dragon colors, embroidered with dragons.
If you think I'm exaggerating this list for comedic effect, know that I'm not. That's exactly how the book reads.
*sips more water*
...I wish this water were alcohol.
The main characters are so iffy. Her name would be better off as Lady Emily d'Umberthan Asack of Bricks. She falls in love with a character who is known to be dangerous and cold and who lies to her... and proceeds to marry him from a belief that they have a connection in a higher, metaphysical plane. She's surprised when he acts cold and aloof - prompting her to run away from home one day after her wedding, diving head-first into danger. She comes up with schemes so dumb she needs to be saved from the consequences of her own heroic actions. By the end, it isn't clear if she'll know not to do something abysmally dumb (like try to hire a "villain" or try to confront a man in a dark alley) in the future.
Blade is a dude out for revenge. He's possessive and Quick tries to throw a romantic light on that by saying he protects what's his... but this can't make up for the fact that he forbade her to see her family (they're dicks, but that's beside the point) and he didn't seem to ease up much on his attitude even at the end - he remains controlling, even if he agrees to let her have her way in *some* things. He finds Emily exotic and amusing rather than anything else and while the end of the story tries to portray him discovering her as a person, it's not doing a very persuasive job of convincing me he broke out of his bad habits.
And the sex is... golden and transcendental, bringing them closer on a metaphysical level. (Quick's words through Emily's voice, not mine.) I get that Emily is a virgin before encountering Blade, but she is straight-up naive about some things and Blade takes advantage of that. I think we're meant to read her thoughts and go "Awww, how cute", but I'm thinking she's a 24 year-old woman with the emotional maturity of a 14 year-old.
I mean. Listen. Sex can be transcendental and metaphysical and everything Quick added to this higher plane of messes, but there's something very uncomfortable about only one member of the couple seeing things that way while the other rolls his eyes and occasionally plays along for fun and profit.
I don't know, chief. Amanda Quick tries to persuade us at the end that it's all good, that she saved him and healed him, that he learned to love her and accept his love for her, but I ain't buying.
No, literally. I won't buy another Amanda Quick novel. I might read the one I still have (unless I'm wrong and it wasn't a novel by her), or I might just make book art out of it. Making book art is fun. More fun than wondering whyyyyyy the protagonists are so annoying, unlikable and frankly quite worrying in a domestic abuse sort of way.
*sits quietly for a few minutes, staring into the distance, gathering her thoughts*
It's not that I dislike romance novels. I've been reading a number of them lately, and some I deeply enjoyed. It's not even that I don't understand the historical context - I do. Amanda Quick wrote this book in 1991, when romance was a genre with different expectations. Men were more likely to be forceful. Women, more likely to be ingenues.
But still. Why did this have to be so bad? Barbara Cartland wrote before (and after) 1991, and she didn't make such a mess of things.
*takes another pensive sip of water*
This is my second Amanda Quick novel, the first being "Mischief". If memory serves, I bought three of her books at the same time, the first two being these and the third being in a box somewhere, waiting for me to unpack my library again. Had I known she'd be Amanda Quick-To-Get-On-My-Nerves, I'd have stuck to buying just one book.
But it seems she has the same unpleasant tendencies, because I recognized the things that pissed me off to no end in "Mischief": a clever ingenue female protagonist whose smarts lie in a very concrete slice of reality and in that one alone (in "Mischief", archaeology; in "Scandal", financial investments). Female naivete in spades. A dangerous, secretive man with a plan. And leitmotifs repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... over.
Emily, the female protagonist, believes she is communicating with Blade, the male protagonist, on a metaphysical, transcendental higher plane which she brings up so often that I deeply regret I don't have a digital copy of this book to count the instances. She thinks he's dragon-like and he, in turn, is obsessed with dragons to the point where his eyes are dragon's eyes, his attitude is a dragon attitude, his colors are dragon colors and his decorative items are dragon statues. Emily decides to go with that and gets a wardrobe in dragon colors, embroidered with dragons.
If you think I'm exaggerating this list for comedic effect, know that I'm not. That's exactly how the book reads.
*sips more water*
...I wish this water were alcohol.
The main characters are so iffy. Her name would be better off as Lady Emily d'Umberthan Asack of Bricks. She falls in love with a character who is known to be dangerous and cold and who lies to her... and proceeds to marry him from a belief that they have a connection in a higher, metaphysical plane. She's surprised when he acts cold and aloof - prompting her to run away from home one day after her wedding, diving head-first into danger. She comes up with schemes so dumb she needs to be saved from the consequences of her own heroic actions. By the end, it isn't clear if she'll know not to do something abysmally dumb (like try to hire a "villain" or try to confront a man in a dark alley) in the future.
Blade is a dude out for revenge. He's possessive and Quick tries to throw a romantic light on that by saying he protects what's his... but this can't make up for the fact that he forbade her to see her family (they're dicks, but that's beside the point) and he didn't seem to ease up much on his attitude even at the end - he remains controlling, even if he agrees to let her have her way in *some* things. He finds Emily exotic and amusing rather than anything else and while the end of the story tries to portray him discovering her as a person, it's not doing a very persuasive job of convincing me he broke out of his bad habits.
And the sex is... golden and transcendental, bringing them closer on a metaphysical level. (Quick's words through Emily's voice, not mine.) I get that Emily is a virgin before encountering Blade, but she is straight-up naive about some things and Blade takes advantage of that. I think we're meant to read her thoughts and go "Awww, how cute", but I'm thinking she's a 24 year-old woman with the emotional maturity of a 14 year-old.
I mean. Listen. Sex can be transcendental and metaphysical and everything Quick added to this higher plane of messes, but there's something very uncomfortable about only one member of the couple seeing things that way while the other rolls his eyes and occasionally plays along for fun and profit.
I don't know, chief. Amanda Quick tries to persuade us at the end that it's all good, that she saved him and healed him, that he learned to love her and accept his love for her, but I ain't buying.
No, literally. I won't buy another Amanda Quick novel. I might read the one I still have (unless I'm wrong and it wasn't a novel by her), or I might just make book art out of it. Making book art is fun. More fun than wondering whyyyyyy the protagonists are so annoying, unlikable and frankly quite worrying in a domestic abuse sort of way.
August 2, 2016
In all the Amanda Quick books I have read s far, this was a bit different, I had some issues with the characters.
But as usual Amanda Quick delivered yet another great book.
One of my biggest issues with the book was the main characters especially the heroine, the only word that comes to mind when I think of Emily is Gullible. Naivete doesn't even measure up, in the story they make it seem that she only sees the good in people, and even the main guy wants her t face reality, I thought her harshest reality was him.
I really hated the idea of her worshiping him, and to the public eye she's like a pet waiting for the crock of his finger, which is exactly what some other characters described her. It's not that she looked fearless to me, it's that she have an image f another guy in her head. At first they communicated about literature for several months, then he marries a gave her a reality check, several times, that he's cold-hearted and he didn't even love or like her, that shes a means to an end. Yet she still clung to the idea that they are linked in spiritual ways that not everyone can reach. Honestly it got on my nerves most of the time, I just wanted to strangle her), oh yeah plus her total adoration and devotion to him, t the degree that she would have shot someone for him.
The only thing I have to say about Simon is that he was one asshole of a jerk, granted he succumbed to her whims at times, but those times aren't worth all the criticism and the hurtful things her said to her. and I hated that he only told her he loved her at the very very very end.
I loved the idea that most of the staff were former pirates and the sort and how all of them in their own way worshiped and adored Emily.
Loved how her twin brothers started to look up at him in the manner of hero-worshiping
Overall, other than what I have stated about the main characters it a *thumps up*
But as usual Amanda Quick delivered yet another great book.
One of my biggest issues with the book was the main characters especially the heroine, the only word that comes to mind when I think of Emily is Gullible. Naivete doesn't even measure up, in the story they make it seem that she only sees the good in people, and even the main guy wants her t face reality, I thought her harshest reality was him.
I really hated the idea of her worshiping him, and to the public eye she's like a pet waiting for the crock of his finger, which is exactly what some other characters described her. It's not that she looked fearless to me, it's that she have an image f another guy in her head. At first they communicated about literature for several months, then he marries a gave her a reality check, several times, that he's cold-hearted and he didn't even love or like her, that shes a means to an end. Yet she still clung to the idea that they are linked in spiritual ways that not everyone can reach. Honestly it got on my nerves most of the time, I just wanted to strangle her), oh yeah plus her total adoration and devotion to him, t the degree that she would have shot someone for him.
The only thing I have to say about Simon is that he was one asshole of a jerk, granted he succumbed to her whims at times, but those times aren't worth all the criticism and the hurtful things her said to her. and I hated that he only told her he loved her at the very very very end.
I loved the idea that most of the staff were former pirates and the sort and how all of them in their own way worshiped and adored Emily.
Loved how her twin brothers started to look up at him in the manner of hero-worshiping
Overall, other than what I have stated about the main characters it a *thumps up*
July 30, 2024
Regency romance from 1991 with no suspense plot
Emily Faringdon is a 24-year-old spinster from an aristocratic family, who lives in a mansion called St Clair Hall, on a prosperous estate in the country, which has been in her family for 23 years. She has never considered or cared about the origins of that property's coming into her family. (Which is why she has no idea of the connection between her family and the previous owner of this property until very far into this novel.) Emily is brilliant at financial management and primarily employs her investment genius to keep her profligate father and older twin brothers afloat, by routinely providing them with enormous sums of money to pay off their gambling debts. The three men are entitled jerks, who completely take Emily for granted. Rather than feeling reasonably resentful at this cavalier treatment, Emily believes it is her duty to maintain this codependent relationship, because her mother did it before her, and Emily made a deathbed promise to her mother six years before, that she would continue to keep her male relatives out of dun territory.
As a much more personally satisfying use of her financial wizardry, Emily runs an investment club made up of herself and multiple impoverished, local spinsters. She also includes all the servants in her home in her investment schemes. As a result, all of these people have built up a quite comfortable cushion of retirement savings, and unlike her relatives, they are all profoundly grateful.
Simon Augustus Traherne, Earl of Blade, has not been back in the village of his birth in 23 years, since the night his father committed suicide, after losing St Clair Hall and the surrounding estate, their family's last remaining asset, in a game of cards with Broderick Faringdon. From ages 12-17, Simon and his widowed mother lived with his mother's sister, and from 17-19, he was in the military. From then on, up until the recent past, he resided in the East Indies, where he made his fortune. Currently, he is a wealthy and powerful aristocrat, who is a prime catch on the marriage mart.
Emily has fallen in love with a man she knows only as S. A. Traherne, via a delightful correspondence with him over the past few months. In addition to her financial skills, Emily fancies herself a poet. She reads a lot of romantic poetry and continually makes attempts to write and publish poetry herself. So far, however, all of the poems she has submitted for publication have been rejected by every available publishing house in London. Mr. Traherne has been wonderfully supportive of her writing, and he is obviously intelligent and well read. In fact, as far as Emily is concerned, he is her ideal man.
Simon purposely began a correspondence with Emily soon after he arrived in England. His initial intentions toward her are entirely dishonorable. He places no blame whatsoever on his own father for gambling away everything their family owned, then killing himself and leaving Simon and his mother to pick up the pieces. Instead, Simon has transferred his rage and resentment onto Emily's father, and has been nursing those toxic emotions for over two decades. Having no idea that Broderick Faringdon is as much of a narcissist as his own father obviously was, Simon wrongly assumes that one of the best ways to hurt Broderick would be to hurt his daughter, at least for his opening salvo in taking down the entire Faringdon clan. Simon believes that causing Emily to fall in love with him through their soppy correspondence will make it quite simple for him to seduce and abandon her, destroying her reputation. What he also does not realize, though, is that her reputation has already been ruined, because she ran off with a young aristocrat five years ago, and she was not caught and returned home by her father until she had spent the night at an inn with that man.
This is only the third historical romance Jayne Ann Krentz wrote as Amanda Quick. It was published in 1991. She had not yet settled into her favored pattern of writing romantic suspense, with the MMC and FMC forming a partnership to solve one or more murders. Instead, this story is a classic revenge version of the "Beauty and the Beast" trope.
During the '80s and throughout much of the '90s, it was quite common for romance authors, both historical and contemporary, to create an MMC who is seeking revenge on the family of the FMC. And in one way or another, it always evolves from his goal of seducing and abandoning the FMC into a marriage of convenience between the MMC and the FMC. Typically, the only real character growth arc in this trope is for the MMC to evolve from an anti-hero "beast," who is determined to harm the FMC as a means to harm her father, or her clan in general, into a decent human being, who is madly in love with and protective of the FMC. In such a plot, the FMC is almost always a naive innocent, who manages to see the best in the MMC, in spite of his harsh outer shell, falls in love with him rapidly, and remains consistently in love with him, no matter how badly he behaves. The reader is able to forgive his beastly behavior because it is regularly alternated with his decent side peeking through. But every time gentle kindness sneaks out of him, it freaks out the MMC, because he views behaving with empathy and compassion toward any member of his enemy's family, in the case of this plot, the Faringdons, as weakness and disloyalty. He has made a vow of vengeance, by Jupiter, and he is going to carry it out! No soft-hearted female is going to turn him away from his goal!
Emily is definitely the aforementioned soft-hearted female in this novel. It is essential to have an FMC like that in this type of plot, or there is no believable way to keep this mismatched pair together. Even when, which is typically the case, and certainly is the case in this novel, they end up in a marriage of convenience. There is nothing particularly romantic about a married couple who are both constantly snarling at each other, like two wildcats trapped together in a sack.
Emily is quite different from the type of FMC that JAK evolved into writing, one who insists on on equal agency in her partnership with the MMC. In this book, Emily doesn't show a lot of angry determination until toward the very end of the book, when a villain crops up who is a threat to Simon, and she is determined to take him on all by herself in order to keep her man safe.
Fans of the B&B trope will probably enjoy this book. For me, personally, the way that Simon blows hot and cold with Emily got rather redundant after a while. To me, he is rather like the "little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead" in the famous nursery rhyme: when he was good he was very very good, and when he was bad, he was horrid. The structure of Emily's response to his horrid actions very much reminded me of the way that insult comedy is written in classic situation comedies such as The Golden Girls (though this story is not humorous). The one being insulted virtually never takes offense so that we, the audience, can enjoy a no-holds-barred punchline without feeling uncomfortable because, in the real world, such a slur would end a friendship. In the same manner, Emily consistently underreacts to Simon's wounding remarks. Mainly because she does not view them as the real Simon, since she never loses faith that the real Simon is the man who wrote her all those beautiful letters.
I listened to this book in audiobook format. It is narrated by Ann Flosnick. She isn't one of my favorite narrators of JAK/AQ historical romances, but she does a decent job.
This is my second time listening to this novel. The first time I rated it 3 stars. This time I rate it 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 stars, because I really liked Emily, both her brilliant financial savvy and her generosity and compassion. I also liked Simon's non-beastly side quite a bit.
Emily Faringdon is a 24-year-old spinster from an aristocratic family, who lives in a mansion called St Clair Hall, on a prosperous estate in the country, which has been in her family for 23 years. She has never considered or cared about the origins of that property's coming into her family. (Which is why she has no idea of the connection between her family and the previous owner of this property until very far into this novel.) Emily is brilliant at financial management and primarily employs her investment genius to keep her profligate father and older twin brothers afloat, by routinely providing them with enormous sums of money to pay off their gambling debts. The three men are entitled jerks, who completely take Emily for granted. Rather than feeling reasonably resentful at this cavalier treatment, Emily believes it is her duty to maintain this codependent relationship, because her mother did it before her, and Emily made a deathbed promise to her mother six years before, that she would continue to keep her male relatives out of dun territory.
As a much more personally satisfying use of her financial wizardry, Emily runs an investment club made up of herself and multiple impoverished, local spinsters. She also includes all the servants in her home in her investment schemes. As a result, all of these people have built up a quite comfortable cushion of retirement savings, and unlike her relatives, they are all profoundly grateful.
Simon Augustus Traherne, Earl of Blade, has not been back in the village of his birth in 23 years, since the night his father committed suicide, after losing St Clair Hall and the surrounding estate, their family's last remaining asset, in a game of cards with Broderick Faringdon. From ages 12-17, Simon and his widowed mother lived with his mother's sister, and from 17-19, he was in the military. From then on, up until the recent past, he resided in the East Indies, where he made his fortune. Currently, he is a wealthy and powerful aristocrat, who is a prime catch on the marriage mart.
Emily has fallen in love with a man she knows only as S. A. Traherne, via a delightful correspondence with him over the past few months. In addition to her financial skills, Emily fancies herself a poet. She reads a lot of romantic poetry and continually makes attempts to write and publish poetry herself. So far, however, all of the poems she has submitted for publication have been rejected by every available publishing house in London. Mr. Traherne has been wonderfully supportive of her writing, and he is obviously intelligent and well read. In fact, as far as Emily is concerned, he is her ideal man.
Simon purposely began a correspondence with Emily soon after he arrived in England. His initial intentions toward her are entirely dishonorable. He places no blame whatsoever on his own father for gambling away everything their family owned, then killing himself and leaving Simon and his mother to pick up the pieces. Instead, Simon has transferred his rage and resentment onto Emily's father, and has been nursing those toxic emotions for over two decades. Having no idea that Broderick Faringdon is as much of a narcissist as his own father obviously was, Simon wrongly assumes that one of the best ways to hurt Broderick would be to hurt his daughter, at least for his opening salvo in taking down the entire Faringdon clan. Simon believes that causing Emily to fall in love with him through their soppy correspondence will make it quite simple for him to seduce and abandon her, destroying her reputation. What he also does not realize, though, is that her reputation has already been ruined, because she ran off with a young aristocrat five years ago, and she was not caught and returned home by her father until she had spent the night at an inn with that man.
This is only the third historical romance Jayne Ann Krentz wrote as Amanda Quick. It was published in 1991. She had not yet settled into her favored pattern of writing romantic suspense, with the MMC and FMC forming a partnership to solve one or more murders. Instead, this story is a classic revenge version of the "Beauty and the Beast" trope.
During the '80s and throughout much of the '90s, it was quite common for romance authors, both historical and contemporary, to create an MMC who is seeking revenge on the family of the FMC. And in one way or another, it always evolves from his goal of seducing and abandoning the FMC into a marriage of convenience between the MMC and the FMC. Typically, the only real character growth arc in this trope is for the MMC to evolve from an anti-hero "beast," who is determined to harm the FMC as a means to harm her father, or her clan in general, into a decent human being, who is madly in love with and protective of the FMC. In such a plot, the FMC is almost always a naive innocent, who manages to see the best in the MMC, in spite of his harsh outer shell, falls in love with him rapidly, and remains consistently in love with him, no matter how badly he behaves. The reader is able to forgive his beastly behavior because it is regularly alternated with his decent side peeking through. But every time gentle kindness sneaks out of him, it freaks out the MMC, because he views behaving with empathy and compassion toward any member of his enemy's family, in the case of this plot, the Faringdons, as weakness and disloyalty. He has made a vow of vengeance, by Jupiter, and he is going to carry it out! No soft-hearted female is going to turn him away from his goal!
Emily is definitely the aforementioned soft-hearted female in this novel. It is essential to have an FMC like that in this type of plot, or there is no believable way to keep this mismatched pair together. Even when, which is typically the case, and certainly is the case in this novel, they end up in a marriage of convenience. There is nothing particularly romantic about a married couple who are both constantly snarling at each other, like two wildcats trapped together in a sack.
Emily is quite different from the type of FMC that JAK evolved into writing, one who insists on on equal agency in her partnership with the MMC. In this book, Emily doesn't show a lot of angry determination until toward the very end of the book, when a villain crops up who is a threat to Simon, and she is determined to take him on all by herself in order to keep her man safe.
Fans of the B&B trope will probably enjoy this book. For me, personally, the way that Simon blows hot and cold with Emily got rather redundant after a while. To me, he is rather like the "little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead" in the famous nursery rhyme: when he was good he was very very good, and when he was bad, he was horrid. The structure of Emily's response to his horrid actions very much reminded me of the way that insult comedy is written in classic situation comedies such as The Golden Girls (though this story is not humorous). The one being insulted virtually never takes offense so that we, the audience, can enjoy a no-holds-barred punchline without feeling uncomfortable because, in the real world, such a slur would end a friendship. In the same manner, Emily consistently underreacts to Simon's wounding remarks. Mainly because she does not view them as the real Simon, since she never loses faith that the real Simon is the man who wrote her all those beautiful letters.
I listened to this book in audiobook format. It is narrated by Ann Flosnick. She isn't one of my favorite narrators of JAK/AQ historical romances, but she does a decent job.
This is my second time listening to this novel. The first time I rated it 3 stars. This time I rate it 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 stars, because I really liked Emily, both her brilliant financial savvy and her generosity and compassion. I also liked Simon's non-beastly side quite a bit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2018
4,7 estrellas.
Emily Faringdon se resignaba a su vida de soltera fruto de un escándalo del pasado, pero inesperadamente unas cartas con el misterioso y también sensible Simon Augustus de Traherne, conde de Blade, le hicieron brotar una chispa de ilusión. Simon por otra parte tiene motivos ocultos que quizá cambien la visión de la muchacha.
Esta novela me ha gustado por muchos motivos, sigo diciendo que incluso más que las nuevas novelas de la autora. La primera parte de la historia nos tiene intrigada con los motivos ocultos del conde y de cómo dejará parada a Emily, es por tanto que no esperéis un romance instantáneo cosa que a mí me gusta y veo “más realista”. La relación entre estos dos personajes es de lo más particular y no tan usada por así decirlo.
Otro de los motivos son los personajes no solo los principales sino el resto están bien caracterizados; pero centrándome en Emily y Simon, tanto una como otro son de importancia, ella es una mujer que pese a que a veces parezca inocente y con poco mundo es una mujer bastante realista solo que intenta no dar importancia a distintos asuntos, un punto positivo por dejarnos una mujer inteligente para variar que en varias ocasiones me sorprendió. En cuanto a Simon pues tiene cosas al principio que no me gustaron pero que luego le di explicación, aunque sigue siendo un personaje con un carácter muy singular pero que al final atrapa. En definitiva, creo que pese a ser bastante diferentes entre ellos ha llevado una buena complementación y química.
La historia en sí es bastante entretenida, buena ambientación, buenos personajes, creo que no tiene nada de relleno - que siempre se agradece -, la parte de romance es la necesaria así que tengo que darle una buena puntuación porque como novela romántica la veo bastante completa en todos los aspectos.
Emily Faringdon se resignaba a su vida de soltera fruto de un escándalo del pasado, pero inesperadamente unas cartas con el misterioso y también sensible Simon Augustus de Traherne, conde de Blade, le hicieron brotar una chispa de ilusión. Simon por otra parte tiene motivos ocultos que quizá cambien la visión de la muchacha.
Esta novela me ha gustado por muchos motivos, sigo diciendo que incluso más que las nuevas novelas de la autora. La primera parte de la historia nos tiene intrigada con los motivos ocultos del conde y de cómo dejará parada a Emily, es por tanto que no esperéis un romance instantáneo cosa que a mí me gusta y veo “más realista”. La relación entre estos dos personajes es de lo más particular y no tan usada por así decirlo.
Otro de los motivos son los personajes no solo los principales sino el resto están bien caracterizados; pero centrándome en Emily y Simon, tanto una como otro son de importancia, ella es una mujer que pese a que a veces parezca inocente y con poco mundo es una mujer bastante realista solo que intenta no dar importancia a distintos asuntos, un punto positivo por dejarnos una mujer inteligente para variar que en varias ocasiones me sorprendió. En cuanto a Simon pues tiene cosas al principio que no me gustaron pero que luego le di explicación, aunque sigue siendo un personaje con un carácter muy singular pero que al final atrapa. En definitiva, creo que pese a ser bastante diferentes entre ellos ha llevado una buena complementación y química.
La historia en sí es bastante entretenida, buena ambientación, buenos personajes, creo que no tiene nada de relleno - que siempre se agradece -, la parte de romance es la necesaria así que tengo que darle una buena puntuación porque como novela romántica la veo bastante completa en todos los aspectos.
November 12, 2017
#96 for 2017 RC
Genre: Historical Romance
Genre: Historical Romance
March 11, 2019
Enjoyable story of a wildly romantic, naive young woman who is married by a man who wants to use her to gain revenge on her family. Normally, I have no use for revenge plots that involve using innocent parties but this is a light, airy love story. Simon's 23 year quest for vengence quickly begins to fall apart in face of Emily's steadfast love and conviction that he is a noble and decent man. That is the fun part. At times, Emily teeters on the edge of annoying with her constant reference to flowery romantic phrases. She definitely strays into Pollyanna territory with her determination to look for the good in all and especially in her husband. However, her practical, realistic side does become more apparent as the story progresses. Also, when Simon loses his temper a number of times with her for her apparent naivete, you see there is more to Emily that the cheery, bright, pretty "Elf" she seems to be on first, second and third appearance.
A fun, sweet Regency romance.
A fun, sweet Regency romance.
March 31, 2020
This was the perfect quarantine book. It was light hearted and funny with just enough serious edge to keep it interesting. The Earl of Blade has been waiting and planning revenge for 23 years. The daughter of the family he seeks to ruin, Emily, is a key part of that revenge. He didn't plan actually falling in love with her. They are so funny together. The way they each use coldness or romantic notions to hide their real feelings, including some deep seated anger at their families, was fun as they break down those walls. I got sick of hearing the term "higher plane" and you will too, but it's worth putting up with that for the fun, romantic book. So good! Almost 5 stars but the higher plane thing really did grate on my nerves, and I would have liked an epilogue to round off a few minor plot points.
April 28, 2018
A scatter of moments saved this book from a 1 star experience, the very few glimpses of a brain in the heroine being one of those. Otherwise you would gladly consign both her and the books in literary hell. She's near unbearable both in utter stupidity and unreadable speech.
And as Maddox said:
That said it's always fun to see the brooding, villainesque hero gets twisted in a pretzel shape by the heroine. And that was the only saving grace to an otherwise somewhat difficult read.
And as Maddox said:
And if I have to hear the words: Metaphysical, transcendental, or higher plane one more time....there will be explosive projectile vomiting.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
That said it's always fun to see the brooding, villainesque hero gets twisted in a pretzel shape by the heroine. And that was the only saving grace to an otherwise somewhat difficult read.
September 17, 2024
I first read this years ago, and it's become a favourite re-read. The h is great, she is naive but not stupid and she protects the H with her life. He is bitter and taking his revenge, uses her and his plans turn to dust, because he sees her sweetness. And although he fights, he can't help but love her too. It's one of this author's best stories.
April 30, 2019
I have banned the following words from my vocabulary: transcendental, metaphysical, higher plane. Used so much in this book they spoiled a good story. I am sure the author had fun with these terms, probably laugh out loud when she was writing them. But I found the constant repetition irritating.
Despite this the story is entertaining and light hearted.
Despite this the story is entertaining and light hearted.
June 4, 2017
This is an older Quick novel, and the hero's condescension is typical of the time the book was written. At times I was really frustrated, but I also felt that his treatment of Emily was pretty realistic for the time. The story is different from many Quick/Krentz stories. There is no murder, and most of the plot devices that are common in her more recent books are not in this story. It is about a young woman who fell in love with a man through letters, and a man who is consumed with the need for vengeance due to tragedy in his past. She is optimistic and loves the fantastical. He is manipulative and controlling. They make a good pair, though it takes some time for each to fully understand and support the other. Her father is particularly unpleasant, which is also different. Overall, I enjoyed it more the second time around than the first.
July 17, 2017
1.5 Stars!
July 2, 2015
Sadly, this is now my least favorite Amanda Quick novel.
The story is about Simon, the Earl of Blade, who has been corresponding for several months with a young woman named Emily Faringdon. Because Emily has a stained past, born of romantic foolishness, she knows that their correspondence will never be more than it is but she relies heavily upon the illusion and the unlikely connection she's able to have with a likeminded gentleman. Only (but not shockingly!) it turns out that Simon is using Emily to exact revenge against her father and the story begins from here...
The reason that I really couldn't get on board with this book is for the same reason that I didn't enjoy Sarah Maclean's A Rogue by Any Other Name: why the hell do they need to get revenge?! Of course the people they hate are terrible and slimy, but let's think about the real problem for a second... did no one ever tell them that if you play with fire you might get burned? What kind of person gambles and then blames the winner for all their problems? Don't gamble if you don't want to face the consequences.
And, okay. So I know that this dude technically wasn't at fault. He was just a child. But did he ever blame his father? Kind of... but not really. It seemed like he just wanted to vow revenge on everyone else, including their families, and this is where the story lost me.
I don't care what anyone did to his father, he had no right to be mean to Emily. He wasn't awful, but he wasn't nice and why do I want to read about that? He could definitely be verbally abusive and it doesn't help that she just stood there and smiled at him. Am I supposed to find that cute? I don't. I get that she's super sweet and it's funny that she likes him when no one else does, but also she should stand up for herself.
That being said: she was not that smart. The book told me she was smart, but I didn't see proof (case in point: her plan at their house party). Also, I really couldn't get on board with all of her "metaphysical connections" and "transcendental planes" because even though she was super cute, that got old pretty quickly.
Anyways, I still love Amanda Quick's book and I'll probably go read another one tomorrow. This one just didn't sit well with me, so read at your own risk.
The story is about Simon, the Earl of Blade, who has been corresponding for several months with a young woman named Emily Faringdon. Because Emily has a stained past, born of romantic foolishness, she knows that their correspondence will never be more than it is but she relies heavily upon the illusion and the unlikely connection she's able to have with a likeminded gentleman. Only (but not shockingly!) it turns out that Simon is using Emily to exact revenge against her father and the story begins from here...
The reason that I really couldn't get on board with this book is for the same reason that I didn't enjoy Sarah Maclean's A Rogue by Any Other Name: why the hell do they need to get revenge?! Of course the people they hate are terrible and slimy, but let's think about the real problem for a second... did no one ever tell them that if you play with fire you might get burned? What kind of person gambles and then blames the winner for all their problems? Don't gamble if you don't want to face the consequences.
And, okay. So I know that this dude technically wasn't at fault. He was just a child. But did he ever blame his father? Kind of... but not really. It seemed like he just wanted to vow revenge on everyone else, including their families, and this is where the story lost me.
I don't care what anyone did to his father, he had no right to be mean to Emily. He wasn't awful, but he wasn't nice and why do I want to read about that? He could definitely be verbally abusive and it doesn't help that she just stood there and smiled at him. Am I supposed to find that cute? I don't. I get that she's super sweet and it's funny that she likes him when no one else does, but also she should stand up for herself.
That being said: she was not that smart. The book told me she was smart, but I didn't see proof (case in point: her plan at their house party). Also, I really couldn't get on board with all of her "metaphysical connections" and "transcendental planes" because even though she was super cute, that got old pretty quickly.
Anyways, I still love Amanda Quick's book and I'll probably go read another one tomorrow. This one just didn't sit well with me, so read at your own risk.
March 31, 2015
I first read this novel in 1991, which is almost 25 years ago. I've since read it about 5 times.
Funny, I used to love the character of Emily. This time around I found her naiveté to be rather tiresome. And if I had to read the word "metaphysical" one more time, I was going to scream!
I'm going to let the 5 star rating stand, but I guess I am past this book now (or I'm really tired of it). It was more of a 3 star this time around.
Funny, I used to love the character of Emily. This time around I found her naiveté to be rather tiresome. And if I had to read the word "metaphysical" one more time, I was going to scream!
I'm going to let the 5 star rating stand, but I guess I am past this book now (or I'm really tired of it). It was more of a 3 star this time around.
January 30, 2021
Саймън Оугъстъс Трейхерн, граф Блейн и мис Емили Фарингдън
След почти 20 години далеч от дома, Саймън се връща от средният изток, богат като крез и готов да отмъсти за съсипаното си семейство. Когато е 12 годишен, бащата на Саймън, който е добър картоиграч и никога не губи много, изведнъж губи цялото семейно богатство заедно със семейните имоти. Като джентълмен баща му плаща дълга си, след което се затваря в библиотеката и се самоубива. Саймън и майка му остават на улицата и са приети в дома на леля му, която обаче не е особено богата. Скоро след случилото се майка му се разболява и умира, и леля му продава последните си бижута, за да купи на Саймън военен чин. След края на войната той започва да работи за короната, като залавя пирати и така натрупва неземно богатство. Сега той е решил да съсипе мъжа, който някога е спечелил от баща му всичко, което е било притежание на семейството му, а именно Бродърик Фарингдън, и най-лесният начин е като използва дъщеря му.
Емили е на 24 години и вярва, че завинаги ще остане стара мома. След младежко увлечение, когато бяга за Гретна Грийн с млад лорд репутацията й в очите на обществото е безвъзвратно опетнена.
Тъй като баща й и брат й са отчайващо пристрастени към хазарта и харчат наред, тя поема ролята на починалата си майка, учейки финанси и правейки инвестиции с които мъжете от семейството й да подържат стандарта си на живота. Когато започва кореспонденция със Саймън, Емили дори не си е мечтала да го срещне лице в лице, а още повече да й предложи брак. Младата жена е влюбена в него и вярва, че помежду им има нещо силно и красиво, и дори факта, че той иска да отмъсти на семейството й, не я спира да го желае.
Саймън е на мнение, че женейки се за Емили, за него има много преимущества. Първо, ще накара баща й да му върне семейния дом в провинцията, давайки го като зестра на дъщеря си. След това, ще забрани на Емили да се вижда с роднините си и като няма кой да им движи финансовите дела, 3мата проидохи бързо ще затънат до шия в дългове, и 3то... незнайно защо, Емили го привлича неимоверно, събуждайки в него закрилнически инстинкти за чието съществуване дори не е подозирал. Сега само трябва да успее да свали жена сои от облаците в които витае и да я накара да му се подчинява. Няма да е никак трудно, нали?
Като за начало трябва да кажа, че бащата на Емили е отврат. Гаден манипулатор, който говореше какви ли не неща по адрес на дъщеря си, умишлено проваляйки изгледите й за брак, за да може да продължи да я използва и да вади пари, които той пръска с лека ръка. Дори след сватбата, когато уж искаше да се сбогува с нея, реално търсеше начин да я накара да пренебрегне нарежданията на Саймън и да продължи да се грижи за финансите им, а после, когато Саймън се изправи пред него, думите, които наговори на Емили бяха грозни и са нещо, което никой баща не бива да казва на дъщеря си. Пълен отвратеняк. Признавам, в началото се дразнех и на Емили. Вечните й брътвежи за метафизика и т.н. простотии бяха доста изнервящи, и Саймън с право на няколко пъти избухваше, започвайки да я нарежда така, че да я смъкне от облаците. Супер дразнещо е като почне да се прифантосва. Но после се оправи, тъй че се преживява. Саймън на моменти пък беше като биполярен. В
един момент е мил и сладък, в следващия ръмжи и се зъби като разярен мечок. В крайна сметка обаче си паснаха. Нагодиха се един към друг. Имаха забавни и романтични моменти, и както винаги книгата ми хареса много. <3 Иначе факта, че Саймън беше толкова влиятелен, че можеше да държи в ръцете половината Лондонски благородници беше много яко. Как без усилие можеше да съсипе някой финансово, или със самото си участие в сделка да я направи изключително печеливша. Много яко.
След почти 20 години далеч от дома, Саймън се връща от средният изток, богат като крез и готов да отмъсти за съсипаното си семейство. Когато е 12 годишен, бащата на Саймън, който е добър картоиграч и никога не губи много, изведнъж губи цялото семейно богатство заедно със семейните имоти. Като джентълмен баща му плаща дълга си, след което се затваря в библиотеката и се самоубива. Саймън и майка му остават на улицата и са приети в дома на леля му, която обаче не е особено богата. Скоро след случилото се майка му се разболява и умира, и леля му продава последните си бижута, за да купи на Саймън военен чин. След края на войната той започва да работи за короната, като залавя пирати и така натрупва неземно богатство. Сега той е решил да съсипе мъжа, който някога е спечелил от баща му всичко, което е било притежание на семейството му, а именно Бродърик Фарингдън, и най-лесният начин е като използва дъщеря му.
Емили е на 24 години и вярва, че завинаги ще остане стара мома. След младежко увлечение, когато бяга за Гретна Грийн с млад лорд репутацията й в очите на обществото е безвъзвратно опетнена.
Тъй като баща й и брат й са отчайващо пристрастени към хазарта и харчат наред, тя поема ролята на починалата си майка, учейки финанси и правейки инвестиции с които мъжете от семейството й да подържат стандарта си на живота. Когато започва кореспонденция със Саймън, Емили дори не си е мечтала да го срещне лице в лице, а още повече да й предложи брак. Младата жена е влюбена в него и вярва, че помежду им има нещо силно и красиво, и дори факта, че той иска да отмъсти на семейството й, не я спира да го желае.
Саймън е на мнение, че женейки се за Емили, за него има много преимущества. Първо, ще накара баща й да му върне семейния дом в провинцията, давайки го като зестра на дъщеря си. След това, ще забрани на Емили да се вижда с роднините си и като няма кой да им движи финансовите дела, 3мата проидохи бързо ще затънат до шия в дългове, и 3то... незнайно защо, Емили го привлича неимоверно, събуждайки в него закрилнически инстинкти за чието съществуване дори не е подозирал. Сега само трябва да успее да свали жена сои от облаците в които витае и да я накара да му се подчинява. Няма да е никак трудно, нали?
Като за начало трябва да кажа, че бащата на Емили е отврат. Гаден манипулатор, който говореше какви ли не неща по адрес на дъщеря си, умишлено проваляйки изгледите й за брак, за да може да продължи да я използва и да вади пари, които той пръска с лека ръка. Дори след сватбата, когато уж искаше да се сбогува с нея, реално търсеше начин да я накара да пренебрегне нарежданията на Саймън и да продължи да се грижи за финансите им, а после, когато Саймън се изправи пред него, думите, които наговори на Емили бяха грозни и са нещо, което никой баща не бива да казва на дъщеря си. Пълен отвратеняк. Признавам, в началото се дразнех и на Емили. Вечните й брътвежи за метафизика и т.н. простотии бяха доста изнервящи, и Саймън с право на няколко пъти избухваше, започвайки да я нарежда така, че да я смъкне от облаците. Супер дразнещо е като почне да се прифантосва. Но после се оправи, тъй че се преживява. Саймън на моменти пък беше като биполярен. В
един момент е мил и сладък, в следващия ръмжи и се зъби като разярен мечок. В крайна сметка обаче си паснаха. Нагодиха се един към друг. Имаха забавни и романтични моменти, и както винаги книгата ми хареса много. <3 Иначе факта, че Саймън беше толкова влиятелен, че можеше да държи в ръцете половината Лондонски благородници беше много яко. Как без усилие можеше да съсипе някой финансово, или със самото си участие в сделка да я направи изключително печеливша. Много яко.
November 5, 2012
Like most readers I like strong and intelligent heroines. Emily is that, but she's also very naïve and gets carried away with her poetry – which got annoying. Even though later we realize that her romantical (I hate when they used this term in the book) imagination is probably how she coped with the hard realities in her life, it was too late for me to overlook my annoyance.. therefore I never ended up liking her. At all.
In the first 3/4 of the book, I didn’t like any of the characters!! And I REALLY wanted to just put the book down unfinished and chalk it off as wasted time I’ll never get back – but not finishing a book when I’m more than halfway through would have irritated me more so I pressed on. I’m glad I did because Simon, Devlin, and Charles’ characters redeemed themselves – and the book got an extra star (from 1 to 2)
My biggest complaint about the book was the torturous references and use of the words “Unfortunate Incident,” “higher plane,” and “Bloody Hell.” – I literally cringe and even made an effort to not read those words because it was making me furious. I don’t know why Amanda Quick took forever to reveal the Unfortunate Incident - tell us what it is already! The buildup only made it all the more disappointing when we finally find out what it is. I also understood that Emily’s character curses, but did it always have to be “Bloody Hell” – there are so many curse words and phrases to use! Then to make it worse, Simon started doing it! Ugh! Barf!
Also, was it just me (and how I pictured the characters based on AQ’s description) or was this couple mis-matched? Physically/aesthetically speaking. I picture Simon as this handsome, tall, muscular, perfect male specimen. However, Emily is described as an elfin-looking woman with mousy features – how is that attractive? I really couldn’t understand why Simon was attracted to her… even with her financial aptitude-which he didn’t need because he was savvy himself.
I hate to say it but I was really disappointed with this book and couldn’t understand how so many people liked it. This didn’t put me off Amanda Quick as a whole since I really liked her book Ravished. Though she has a tendency to write heroines that border or cross into annoying territory (Harriet from Ravished annoyed me, but then somewhere along the story she recovered)..so I will need to watch out for this in the future. I will definitely be reading more reviews of her other books before I pick up the next one.
In the first 3/4 of the book, I didn’t like any of the characters!! And I REALLY wanted to just put the book down unfinished and chalk it off as wasted time I’ll never get back – but not finishing a book when I’m more than halfway through would have irritated me more so I pressed on. I’m glad I did because Simon, Devlin, and Charles’ characters redeemed themselves – and the book got an extra star (from 1 to 2)
My biggest complaint about the book was the torturous references and use of the words “Unfortunate Incident,” “higher plane,” and “Bloody Hell.” – I literally cringe and even made an effort to not read those words because it was making me furious. I don’t know why Amanda Quick took forever to reveal the Unfortunate Incident - tell us what it is already! The buildup only made it all the more disappointing when we finally find out what it is. I also understood that Emily’s character curses, but did it always have to be “Bloody Hell” – there are so many curse words and phrases to use! Then to make it worse, Simon started doing it! Ugh! Barf!
Also, was it just me (and how I pictured the characters based on AQ’s description) or was this couple mis-matched? Physically/aesthetically speaking. I picture Simon as this handsome, tall, muscular, perfect male specimen. However, Emily is described as an elfin-looking woman with mousy features – how is that attractive? I really couldn’t understand why Simon was attracted to her… even with her financial aptitude-which he didn’t need because he was savvy himself.
I hate to say it but I was really disappointed with this book and couldn’t understand how so many people liked it. This didn’t put me off Amanda Quick as a whole since I really liked her book Ravished. Though she has a tendency to write heroines that border or cross into annoying territory (Harriet from Ravished annoyed me, but then somewhere along the story she recovered)..so I will need to watch out for this in the future. I will definitely be reading more reviews of her other books before I pick up the next one.
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