Book 29: Scandal

So, after the last disastrous offering by Amanda Quick I felt compelled to go back and read one of her earlier works. Yes, I liked her before she was popular, I'm just as annoying as most of the people who like The Smiths, REM, and U2. Yay, me!

Scandal came out in 1991, but I read it in 1993. In my college dorm room. It was a pretty great year actually. I also recall that my boyfriend at the time mocked my reading materials. Who's laughing now? Really?

Incidentally, in order to read this book again, I had to go to a used book store to find a copy. I missed closing time at Mary's Used Books on Maple and went to Half Price Books on Center. I am sorry to report that I forgot the name of the store long enough to ask some buttmunch working there how much the book would be. "Umm. Half Price Books." What a cock! You think he acts like a dick to people in the philosophy section? I should have put the Evil Eye on him.

Let's agree not to make fun of people for what they read, even the Left Behind books.

The nice thing about historical romance novels is that it takes a long, long time for them to read as dated since they start out that way already. The other nice thing is that you don't have to read tedious descriptions of people's jobs since the heroines and heroes are pretty much all the idle rich. Really, the last thing I want interspersed among the clinches is talk of spreadsheets.

The book holds up: I did still enjoy it. The heroine (Emily) was smarter than I remembered. I fear I can no longer read a romance novel without the terms used by the Smart Bitches website bouncing around my head. We have a clear case of The Magic Hoo-Hoo in here. The hero (Simon) realizing he is in looooooooooove because of the fantastic nookie. I have not found this particular talent to be of much use in Real Life. Thank God I can get by on brains, I guess.

I had forgotten what a useless twerp Emily's father was. Actually, I remembered more about the descriptions of dresses than I did of the secondary characters. I'd forgotten most of the tertiary ones entirely. (I sort of look forward to dementia, when everything old is new again. I hope my eyesight holds out.)

The story is evenly paced-- a lot of times (edited to add-- in this genre, not this particular novel) there is too much exposition or an ending that is too rushed. The conclusion satisfactory. I was pleased that Emily's father didn't suddenly reform and become noble. He wasn't an outright villain, but he was pretty much unchanged at the end, and that was believable.