HER SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE

Author: Leslie LaFoy ISBN: 0312347707 5/2006 HISTORICAL Publisher: ST. MARTIN'S PRESS
Time Period: Victorian London

The illegitimate daughter of a decadent lord, the lovely Caroline Dutton has worked hard to become a successful London dressmaker and is content to answer to no man. That is, until a devastatingly handsome duke walks into her shop with the most outrageous demand. Drayton MacKenzie, the new duke of Ryland, cursed his fate and his philandering great-uncle. To collect his inheritance, he must turn the old duke's three by-blow offspring into proper ladies and marry them off. Two are mere children, but Caroline Dutton is all woman—a headstrong beauty he can't help wanting to seduce. Now ensconced in Ryland's country estate, Caroline is being called a lady and readied for the marriage mart during the next London season. Her dowry is large, her past overlooked, and her prospects bright... except she is breathlessly, madly drawn to the one man who is sweeping her toward scandal—and the sweet satisfaction her heart demands.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

When someone does such a marvelous job of transporting a reader back in time, I have to give the book a Top Pick. Not just for the setting, but for the magnificent characters, dialogue, and the writing in general. All of those things create the perfect tapestry for a historical romance that will melt the hardest of hearts and tickle a funny bone!

I love it when an eclectic group of characters finally get on the same page, so to speak. They finally stop banging their heads against the wall by trying to please everyone else, which is impossible, to say the least, and decide that perhaps their own happiness is worth any strife they may face. The consequences of their actions are spelled out neatly and shockingly, but they don't care because no one will ever truly accept them anyway. Many authors have tried to allude to such fates, but none really succeed like LaFoy does here.

The hypocrisy of the ton, the well meaning but self-serving advice given by friends, and the street urchin who knows the score and refuses to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her beg, are just a few things in this well paced and superbly detailed read. There is much more to it, but I will let you discover the gems in HER SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE all by yourself.

Shannon Johnson