A Scot in the Dark
Ratings10
Average rating2.7
"Miss Lillian Hargrove has lived much of her life alone in a gilded cage, longing for love and companionship. When an artist offers her pretty promises and begs her to pose for a scandalous portrait, Lily doesn't hesitate . . . until the lying libertine leaves her in disgrace. With the painting now public, Lily has no choice but to turn to the one man who might save her from ruin. The Duke of Warnick loathes all things English, none more so than the aristocracy. It does not matter that the imposing Scotsman has inherited one of the most venerable dukedoms in Britain--he wants nothing to do with it, especially when he discovers that the unwanted title comes with a troublesome ward, one who is far too old and far too beautiful to be his problem. Warnick arrives in London with a single goal: get the chit married and see her become someone else's problem, then return to a normal, quiet life in Scotland. It's the perfect plan, until Lily declares she'll only marry for love . . . and the Scot finds that there is one thing in England he likes far too much . . ."-- page 4 of cover.
Series
Featured Series
3 primary booksScandal & Scoundrel
Scandal & Scoundrel is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2015 with contributions by Sarah MacLean.
Reviews
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I'm pretty lenient when it comes to historic accuracy in romance novels but parts of this really got my ire up. The biggest offense: Lily has a white wedding dress squirrelled away in her trunk, years before the start of that trend.
The plot is very contemporary. Lily's ex is going to share a nude picture of her with the world in two weeks and it's going to ruin her. Meanwhile her new love interest, a sexy manbeast in a kilt, has so much baggage he's convinced he's not worthy of any woman.
This book isn't very well constructed. Some parts seem like they belonged to a different story, then were edited in. The time between The Rogue Not Taken and this book isn't consistent either. Lily's only skill is sewing, but it's barely relevant.
Two characters from The Season make appearances, which is nice I guess. The aliterative chapter titles continue, but with less enthusiasm, up until the last few chapters where they make way for puns on “ward”.
Yeah, I didn't like this, but I really wanted to, which seems to be my usual reaction to Sarah MacLean books these days, sigh. I did like the dogs and some of the supporting cast - mostly the Talbot sisters and the dressmaker. The book really seemed to come to life when Sesily was around, and I found myself wishing it was about her instead of Lily, who really came across as a drip without a lot of personality for a good portion of the book. I could've done without all the cameos from the various other heroes, though - even the ones from the books I've read I didn't feel any burning need to see again. And my god, the plot got so damn repetitive! "I want her but I'm garbage and not good enough, but I won't tell her or the reader why!" Repeat at least twice, and then once more after the reveal of the hero's big secret, which was such an eye-roller for me. Alec is just kind of an awful character all the way around, honestly - his only personality traits are being big and tall, being Scottish, and being insanely jealous. While I don't much care for writing out Scottish dialect, it was so inconsistently done here and I wish she'd picked one or the other - either write it out all the time or not at all. And he's just wandering around London in a kilt? Sure. Seems legit. Also, why does every damn historical romance have to end with a baby or a pregnancy announcement? Especially when people have been married like two minutes.
I'm not sure why I finished this, honestly. I probably should've given up halfway in. This book should've been about Sesily, since she's the only character I enjoyed reading about. Well, her and Stanhope.
