Historical Romance Book Club discussion

Buddy Read for:


It Started With a Scandal by Julie Anne Long

Synopsis: (view spoiler)[
Lord Philippe Lavay once took to the high seas armed with charm as lethal as his sword and a stone-cold conviction: he'll restore his family's fortune and honor, no matter the cost. Victory is at last within reach--when a brutal attack snatches it from his grasp and lands him in Pennyroyal Green.

An afternoon of bliss brings a cascade of consequences for Elise Fountain. Shunned by her family and ousted from a job she loves, survival means a plummet down the social ladder to a position no woman has yet been able to keep: housekeeper to a frighteningly formidable prince.

The bold and gentle Elise sees past his battered body into Philippe's barricaded heart...and her innate sensuality ignites his blood. Now a man who thought he could never love and a woman who thought she would never again trust must fight an incendiary passion that could be the ruin of them both. (hide spoiler)]

Starting soon! We'll discuss in thread actual start date.

Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "Buddy Read for:


It Started With a Scandal by Julie Anne Long

Synopsis:
Lord Philippe Lavay once took to the high sea..."

I'm ready any time.

I'll be behind on this one about a well or so, I'm guessing.

I'm behind on everything now!

I am debating if I want to squeeze her latest in first.... but I don’t think I can start until this weekend regardless. The rest of this week will not give me much reading opportunities.

I've just started and realised I started this once before and always planned to come back to it. I'd totally forgotten till I got to the bit where it's revealed (view spoiler)[the h has a son (hide spoiler)]. Then it started to come back to me.

I can't remember why I stopped before. Think I got to 30% or so but have pretty much forgotten it all. GR seemed to think I'd finished it, which is confusing, because I know I didn't. Oh well. I'm looking forward to reading it right through this time

I've only read 5% this time, but sfsg. The aristocrat who falls for the housekeeper isn't my fav trope though. But I've really liked the last two in the series, so here goes for the lucky third.

I think, I might start this weekend. My current read is just getting interesting and I only have enough brainpower to focus on one book at a time currently.

Joanna, I'm interested in your take on JAL's new release, if you do decide to read it. I'm a bit on the fence currently because I'm a bit unsure about Angelique as heroine because she was a bit too sharp-angled in book 1 and I'm really not fond of the courtesan-turn-heroine trope. I will read it eventually, I'm sure.

Jan, I too am hesitant about aristocrat falling for staff member trope. It can be done really well when addressing the social differences and power imbalance, but it is a pet peeve of mine if they just jump straight into bed without any tortured thoughts of why it should and could not be.

Oops. I made the mistake of also starting the new JAL (Angel in a Devil's Arms) and I'm liking it. Classic JAL. Heh heh. I guess I'll get them both read....

Okay, sorry I'm late, but I just started last night. Really enjoying it so far. I love me a cantankerous hero. Elise has balls and her interactions with Jack is quite sweet.

Lavay is promising to be an interesting character. He is astute but also surprisingly considerate (view spoiler)[ when he ducked his head to give her a 'private' moment when she somewhat lost control of her emotions (hide spoiler)] and not completely unaware of her as a woman, even in her deliberately prim and unfussed state.


...he could read ­people as fluently and swiftly as he read five languages. Questions were merely a way to distract his subject while he quietly summed them up.


And then he did turn.
Slowly.
She wondered if he did that for effect. Perhaps he understood that the common, mundane female of the serving class, such as herself, would need time to prepare herself for his impact, and it was an act of generosity.



Finished Chapter 3. The ending is a beauty! (view spoiler)[They're testing each other out, she outwardly deferential but with defiance blazing in her eyes, and he too observant to miss her attitude but still pushing her boundaries to see how far she's willing to carry the act of servitude. Loving it! (hide spoiler)]


“The carpets in this room need beating, too,” she said quite neutrally.
And at that he turned abruptly, plucked up the quill, and twirled it in his fingers.
She was almost positive he’d turned in order to hide a smile.
“Are you implying that something else in this room would benefit
from a beating, Mrs. Fountain?” he said idly, dragging the letter toward him.

Ha ha ha. I haven't read that far yet. I'm going to finish Angel In A Devil's Arms first then come back to this one, but I do like the little I've read of this one so far.

I am starting on this today. In the first chapter. The first time I read this I was expecting something a bit different from Lavay considering his flirting in the fourth book. I think I was able to read more into it his situation more this time so am more able to keep an open mind about him.

Darbella wrote: "Awww.....the urchins last name is Plum. Liam Plum.
I like the Phillippe and Elise have that body chemistry/spark going on. (Though I wish a little more romance would start happening which is hard t..."

I like that lion analogy too, Darbella. A clever little point.

I'm up to Chapter 12. Still loving it. The two leads are mature, antagonistic enough to add spice but respectfully so and without any unnecessary meanness of spirit especially Lavay who we soon find out has reasons aplenty to behave the way he did in the beginning.

I'm back to highlighting with great abandon. A few random quotes that I enjoyed:


Some trees toppled when continually battered by storms. Others just grew deeper, stronger roots.
He suspected he knew which kind of tree Mrs. Fountain would be.

He was perilously close to being amused by how ingeniously Mrs.
Fountain was conducting what amounted to an epic power struggle in the most passive manner conceivable.


“Clever, Mrs. Fountain. The trouble with clever ­people is that they often assume that no one else is as clever as they are.”

Hello, anyone still around? I realise that it's a busy season currently and it's certainly affecting my reading speed. Much that I am vastly enjoying this book, it's taking me painfully long to progress through it because real life dominates my time too much. In any case, I'm up to Chapter 17 and the story is still going strongly.

I adore Lavay's first meeting with Jack:


“I wish I had a lion,” the boy said suddenly.
“Of course. Everybody does.”
And a horse.”
“Naturally.”
He’d happened into a conversational labyrinth without a compass,
clearly.
Jack brightened. “Do you eat little girls instead, then? I know where you can find loads of them. Over at Miss Endicott’s Academy. They’re usually cleaner.”
“I’m partial to apple tarts. I have not yet eaten a person. I have eaten a weevil.” He said this as if playing a trump.
“Ewwww!”
A gratifying reaction.
“When I’m a little bigger, I’ll be able to ring the church bell by myself with no help at all.”
“An admirable ambition.”
“I like apple tarts, too,” the boy confided. “Have you slept in a ham
mock?”
“Have I wha—­yes. I have.” He’d begun to rather look forward to
where this conversation would next lead. It was a bit like fencing, but much less dangerous.

My usual random favourite quotes:

He was jealous.
That pedestrian word.
Ah. So this is what the peasants feel like, he told himself dryly.


He watched her go, rotating as if he’d been a weathervane and she the wind. Just that helpless.


Her hand rose, as if she meant to touch him, to placate him.
Then she dropped it.
Right back into its place.
Because everything had a place, of course.

I'm really liking the slow-burn, that they are considering the many factors standing in their way of pursuing a physical let alone emotional relationship. That they are restrained and realistic give them greater credibility and of course it serves to heighten the tension between them.

I'm creeping. I desperately want to be reading this but trying to get other things done. I read this so recently, and I love JAL+kids. She's great at them

I am creeping as well. Through chapter 8. Those are great quotes Julia :)

Getting towards the end now and little Jack, he is not only a giant slayer but he slayed my heart too. Okay, so he squeezed a tear or two or a stream out of me. He and Lavay together and I'm a goner!

I finished this a few days ago. I think, I'm leaving it at 4.5 rounded up for the writing and the interactions between Jack and Lavay.

I'm glad the book ended the way it did (view spoiler)[ with him content to stay put and looking forward and not try to regain ownership of his Chateau. I was a bit ambivalent towards his initial ambition of purchasing his old family estate and bemoaning his losses. I felt there were no recognition of the social inequalities and the extreme poverty of the common people lead to the revolution in the first place. Granted he grieved for the loss of family members and properties of sentimental value, not for the material wealth itself, but still it would feel like all the devastation occurred in vain if he returned as lord of the chateau. (hide spoiler)]

I liked that both Lavay and Elise were realistic and pragmatic when it came to the future of their relationship and that he could not disrespect her by offering her anything less than marriage and that she could not disrespect herself or risk further social ostricism for herself and Jack by entering into an extra-matrimonial 'arrangement' with him. But then (view spoiler)[ they both did just that in the end without any concern for potential pregnancy! (hide spoiler)]

Now I'm looking forward to Lyon's turn. I love how this book ended (view spoiler)[ with Lavay discharging his debt to Lyon in the best possible way (hide spoiler)] I actually read Lyon's book before this one initially, so now Lavay's letter actually makes sense, because I had no idea who the hell this Lavay person was, who was helping Lyon out.

I finished up this morning. There’s a lot I like about this book, but something falls a bit short. Elise is wonderful. A great heroine. I enjoy the bits between Lavay and Jack, but I wish there was more of the Lavay charm that was present in Violet’s book but isn’t much here. The romance is a slow build, or feels slow and is underwhelming for me.

Keeping this at 4 stars - in the same company as How the Marquess Was Won and The Perils of Pleasure in terms of ranking. Middle tier in the series.

Joanna Loves Reading wrote: "I finished up this morning. There’s a lot I like about this book, but something falls a bit short. Elise is wonderful. A great heroine. I enjoy the bits between Lavay and Jack, but I wish there was..."

Fair enough, Joanna. I do agree that Elise was better portrayed than Lavay. I do think the speed at which we go through a book makes a difference to our appreciation of it sometimes. Especially for the slow-burn books like this, if the reading speed is slow and interrupted it can really feel like nothing is happening and underwhelming as you described. When you put the plot on fast forward, it gives the illusion probably of more happening. :)

Darbella wrote: "I started the Legend of Lyon Redmond. It is going better than I remembered. I forgot that this was an instant love between Lyon and Olivia."

Good to see that you're enjoying it more this time around, Darbella. I read very slowly these days, because by the time I get to my book, I struggle to keep my eyes open. I'll start on it after my current read, but it might take me several more days to get there.