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Syrie James’ Dare to Defy series continues with its second volume, Summer of Scandal.
American Madeline Atherton is determined to marry for love, not money. A college graduate, she dreams of writing novels, but instead, her shipping magnate father has endowed her with a million dollar dowry and her parents have accompanied her to London in order to secure her a husband. When a handsome but impoverished nobleman – who is variously referred to as a marquess, a duke and a plain old lord – proposes, she panics, and inspired by her older sister Alexandra’s flight towards love in the previous book, runs away to Cornwall to seek her.
But it’s not Alexandra who arrives at the train station to meet her but Charles Grayson, Earl of Saunders, who is Alexandra’s husband’s best friend. The roguish earl caused a massive scandal by running off to America with Thomas’ former fiancée and subsequently dumping her before returning to England. Alexandra and her husband are away from home for two weeks, which means Madeline must make other plans. Charles offers to escort her to an alternative destination, which results in their having to share a carriage unchaperoned – the beginning of a series of scandalous events that will draw them closer together.
Charles has problems of his own. His father has been ailing for years but has finally taken a turn for the worse. Charles is relieved to be pulled out of the whirl of the London Season, and away from the expectations of his family, who, following the scandal he created because of his impulsive behavior, is pressuring him to propose to his cousin Sophie and settle down. While Sophie is a perfectly nice, accomplished rose of English society, he cannot conjure the words to ask her to be his wife and doesn’t wish to settle down, even if her family thinks she’s a perfect marchioness-in-the-making. His family also disapproves of his hobby of creating inventions and crafting jewelry. Looking out for his best friend’s annoying sister-in-law seems to be the perfect distraction.
The twosome end up caught in a violent storm, which lands them – thanks to flooded roads and downed trees – at Trevelyan Manor, the Saunders’ country seat. When Sophie arrives seconds later for a visit, Charles is more than flustered. But Madeline, promptly plunged into the culture of the Grayson family, thrives, making friends with the innocent and open-hearted Sophie and Charles’ two younger sisters – bold Anna and quiet Helen. But when an act of personal defiance causes Charles’ father to collapse from a seizure, Charles is determined to follow his father’s instructions and ‘do his duty’, which means marrying Sophie, taking care of the family, making sure the estate thrives… and ceasing to create his inventions. Yet he remains tempted by Madeline, who understands his inventing as well as he understands her need to write novels and create plays. They only find themselves getting closer as time goes on. Can Charles and Madeline manage to find true happiness without hurting Sophie?
Summer of Scandal is a study in longing and human need. It’s entertaining, romantic, slow-burning and restrained, with a level of class and intelligence that’s appealing.
Our hero and heroine are well-matched in their brainy nerdiness. I liked Madeline’s nerdy tendency to spout facts, and her love of writing and reading that’s incomparable. And Charles is the kind of guy who names his horse Tesla. They were clearly meant for one another.
Charles and Madeline immediately embark upon a battle of the sexes, in which she proves her gender is just as strong as his, and it’s extremely charming. She’s incredibly smart and he’s willing to bend to her superior intellect; she’s entranced by his creative side. Together they have a sense of understanding and banter that goes beyond and beautifully melds them together.
I loved Sophie, and I loved Madeline’s friendship with her; Alexandra and Madeline’s sibling relationship, too, is endearing and strongly written. Their mother and Charles’ father, sadly, are stick figures whose strange antiquated opinions about creativity made absolutely no sense even for an old-fashioned gentleman.
Summer of Scandal’s biggest problem involves its lack sense of time and place. Occasionally it felt like the proper Victorian era romance it was; sometimes it felt more like a Regency in manners, tone and setting. Terms of address occasionally trip things up; there is a point where one character is varyingly called the Marquess, Lord and Duke of Oakely, for instance, which is poor continuity and editing if nothing else. And having Our Hero invent mining helmets years before they were invented feels like fantasy movie territory; as this is historical romance taking place in a given time period, you’re forced to remember that those things were invented much much later in time.
Yet the novel’s sense of romance and character worked quite well for me. Summer of Scandal was interesting, even at its most ahistorical.
Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/iBooks/Kobo
Grade: B
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 11/10/18
Publication Date: 09/2018
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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Very late to the party here, but I have a question. A Marquess is addressed as “The Most Honorable the Marquess of ____________” when referring to a specific Marquess, but as “My Lord,” and “Your Lordship” when the title is referenced more generally. In letters, he is addressed as “My Lord Marquess.” (See this page in Debrett’s: https://books.google.com/books?id=RdoNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA444&dq=Debrett’s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJmJ3m7LjeAhUHHDQIHTsnBhEQuwUINDAC#v=onepage&q=Marquess&f=false). Was the marquess in this book addressed this way, or as “Lord __________”?
This is a better link: https://books.google.com/books?id=RdoNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA444&dq=Debrett’s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJmJ3m7LjeAhUHHDQIHTsnBhEQuwUINDAC#v=snippet&q=Modes%20of%20Addressing%20Persons%20of%20Title&f=false
There was a couple of plain “My Lords” thrown in. Mostly “My Lord Marquess” though, and no letter writing between anyone and the Marquess in question ends up taking place, to my recollection!
Thanks. I was mostly curious, but that does sound like she got it wrong. It can be confusing; for example there’s this page aimed at writers which differs from Debrett’s on how to address a marquess and I think that may be due to error.
https://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles12.html
My Go-To page for things like this is usually the blog written by K.J. Charles a couple of years back – Enter Title Here. I generally find it a bit more readable than Debretts!
Thank you so much, Lisa, for your wonderful review of my novel, SUMMER OF SCANDAL. I’m delighted that you enjoyed it, and really appreciated everything you shared! I’m sorry for any confusion regarding Lord Oakley’s title, and wanted to explain–there was no continuity error. He is the “Marquess of Oakley, eldest son of the Duke of Courtenay .” Eldest sons of peers were given an honorary title one level lower than their father, until they inherited their father’s title. Lord Oakley is therefore a marquess now, and, as referred to several times, a “future duke.” (I never called him Duke of Oakley, which would indeed make no sense!)
I agree with you that a sense of time and place are critical in a novel, and I make a point of thoroughly researching all my books. You are absolutely right–Electric Miner’s Cap Lamps were actually invited in 1915 by Thomas Edison (see http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mining-lights-and-hats). The point I was trying to make, though, is that Charles was a true visionary and ahead of his time. And although he’s working on the invention, he hasn’t been successful. At the end we learn he will probably be meeting Thomas Edison in New York–so I’m suggesting that maybe it’s Charles’s idea that inspires Edison! And Charles’s father wasn’t opposed to his son’s creativity, but rather to his son’s working as an inventor. At the time, it was unthinkable for a member of the peerage to work or “get his hands dirty” or earn money from any occupation; such activity equated them with the working class, and they felt they were above all that! :) Again, thanks for your great review. I so enjoyed writing SUMMER OF SCANDAL, and I hope this feedback was helpful!
You’re quite welcome, Syrie!
In response to the points you addressed – he’s most often addressed as Marquess but it’s Lord a few times, and the intermixing was a little confusing for me. Not sure how Duke slipped in there.
The invention part – I loved Charles as an inventor, and I liked the way his creative process (And Madeline’s!) was treated in the book, but I think having him invent a thing that already exists proved distracting in the real world. I did indeed remember that part from the end, but I don’t think it helps! Maybe if he’d just invented a component for the device it would’ve gone down more smoothly for me, maybe if his techniques had led him in a different direction. And I did acknowledge that part about his father – it did seem his creativity was part of it, but only part of it (he does say multiple times that it’s Not the Thing to Be Done and Not the Grayson Way).
Just to clarify – eldest sons weren’t given a courtesy (not honorary) title “one level” lower – they were given one of their father’s lesser titles, usually the one bestowed immediately before the one they have now. In Lisa Kleypas’ Devil in Winter, Sebastian is the son of a duke, but his courtesy title is viscount. Some sons of dukes hold the courtesy title of earl, some are marquesses some are viscounts. It depends on how the title was arrived at,