Smitten by Books

Love & Scandal
Author: Donna Lea Simpson
Publisher: Carina Press
Pub. Date: June 21, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1426890208
Retail: $5.39

Nothing sells like love & scandal…

Collette Jardiniere writes of passion and seduction but has experienced neither. Her pseudonymous novel, The Last Days of a Rake, has shocked Victorian society and become a runaway bestseller. Infamous roué Charles Jameson is “revealed” as the author, and Collette is outraged when the cad does little to curtail the gossip.

Intrigued by the book the tabloids claim is his thinly veiled autobiography, Jameson tries to find the real author. Returning to London after an unsuccessful hunt, he is pleasantly distracted by a plain country miss reading the wicked book.

Collette is dismayed when she learns the identity of the devastatingly handsome man who kissed her senseless. And Jameson cannot believe that she wrote The Last Days of a Rake. As Collette tries to convince him of the truth, their mutual attraction reaches a fever pitch, and soon they find themselves in a real-life scandal!

~*~*~

Donna Lea Simpson delivers an interesting read that explores a heroine’s search for her place in a rigid society.

Collette Jardiniere has a secret. She’s the author of a well received novel entitled The Last Days of a Rake, but because she’s not only a woman, but also a spinster from the country, she has chosen to publish under a pseudonym. She and her publisher both feel if her true identity were to get out, it would affect sales of her novel, because what would a woman in her circumstances know of rakes?

Very little, it turns out. Even though the novel is lauded as being an accurate portrayal of the decline and fall of a libertine, in the course of Donna Lea Simpson’s Love and Scandal, Collette discovers just how little she knows about both.

Most of London believes the author of Last Days to be Charles Jameson, an admitted rake who does little to deny this theory. He’s read the novel and is impressed with the writing.

And then he meets the real author on a train journey. Collette has come to London to do something about the rumors that Charles Jameson is the author of her novel, but neither knows the other’s identity at first. They share enough conversation and a kiss to become thoroughly intrigued with each other.

Later, the conflict between them isn’t enough of a barrier to prevent them from acting on their desire for each other. On more than one occasion, the couple puts their differences aside to act on their feelings, which only serves to escalate the conflict. They sate their desire, but the issues between them remain unresolved until the end.

There’s another layer to this book, a theme if you will that has to do with morality. The story is set in the rigid society of Victorian England. In the course of the story, Collette comes to realize that often the more moral choice is made by going against society’s strict standards. When she comes to London, she renews her friendship with two girls she knew in school. Henrietta is now married to a banker and the mother of five, while Philoxia is widowed and holds literary salons. A contrast is drawn between these two friends, one who lives a very conventional life, while the other has more freedom to do as she pleases. When a gossip column proclaims Collette as Jameson’s latest mistress, Henrietta’s husband forces her to sever ties with Collette. In casting the ‘immoral’ Collette out, Henrietta might have done right in the eyes of society, but her actions hurt Collette.

This novel is a bit different from your typical historical, in that the hero and heroine don’t spend all that much page time together. Much space is devoted to the development of Collette’s relationships to the other female characters in keeping with the book’s themes. This is possibly to the detriment of the sexual tension between the hero and heroine. The initial meeting fairly crackled with sparks, but then they’re separated for a time while the author introduces the secondary characters. When they do meet again, it seems some of the tension is lost.

Another potentially frustrating point, to me, was the fact that when Jameson and Collette did meet ostensibly to discuss some outstanding issues between them, they ended up pushing all that aside to hop into bed. While their actions did serve to up the conflict by leaving their issues unresolved, it made me feel as if these issues weren’t quite as important as all that if they could set them aside so easily to scratch their mutual itches. I would have preferred to see them work on their problems at the same time as gratifying their sex drive.

All in all, this book is well written and a solid read. I enjoyed the relationships between the various secondary characters, and I enjoyed the exploration of moral gray areas within the rigidness of Victorian society.

Rating: 6.5 (Very Satisfactory)

Heat-Level: 4 (includes some mild kink, as the heroine discovers she likes to be spanked…)

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