Something Scandalous
Author: Christie Kelley
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Pub. Date: April 6, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1420108767
Retail: $6.99
352 pages

Raised as the youngest daughter of the Duke of Kendal, Elizabeth learns a devastating truth on his deathbed: he wasn’t her father at all. And because the Duke had no sons, his title and fortune must go to his only male heir: a distant cousin who left England for America long ago. Anticipating the man’s imminent occupation of her home, Elizabeth anxiously searches for her mother’s diary, and the secret of her paternity…

Arriving in London with his seven siblings, William Atherton intends to sell everything and return to his beloved Virginia farm, and his fiancée, as quickly as possible. But as Elizabeth shows William an England he never knew, and graciously introduces his siblings to London society, it becomes clear the two are meant for each other. Soon, Elizabeth finds herself determined to seduce the man who can save not only her family name, but her heart…

~*~*~

What might have been a good story with loads of conflict is dragged down by unconvincing characterization and confusing plot.

In the tradition of Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series, the heroine of Christie Kelley’s Something Scandalous is part of a group of friends known as the Spinsters’ Club.

I recently enjoyed another book in this series, Every Night I’m Yours. Its bickering hero and heroine’s love/hate relationship had a great deal of chemistry that kept things moving along. Add to that their friends amazed reactions when these long-time enemies announced their engagement, and it was a great deal of fun.

The premise of Something Scandalous, a Regency set in 1817 London, promised a great deal of conflict. At the outset, we learn that the Duke of Kendal has died, leaving behind several daughters, but no male issue. Elizabeth, the one daughter remaining at home, learns that she isn’t even the duke’s daughter but the result of a liaison her mother had. The identity of Elizabeth’s real father is part of her character arc.

Elizabeth also has a couple of irritating distant cousins, Richard and Caroline, who crop up from time to time to annoy her about their evil plans to take over the old duke’s estates should the actual heir fail to put in an appearance. The problem here is the heir lives across the pond in Canada, and while he’s been notified of his inheritance, he has yet to turn up and claim it.

Have no fear, this is a romance novel. The new duke barges into the house at the end of chapter one, bringing a number of brothers and sisters with him. However, he is not the heir everyone expected, as his own father has recently died. His name is William and he prefers everyone refer to him as Will rather than Your Grace. He is young and handsome, and, above all, uncultured in the ways of the English aristocracy. It will fall to Elizabeth to see to his education, if he is to fit into his new role.

Problem is, he doesn’t particularly want to fit into his new role. He wants to sell off as many as the estates as he can (and he quickly learns that those are fewer than he expected due to entailment), so he can return to America a rich man. In doing so, he hopes to finally turn the head of a young woman named Abigail, whom he claims as his fiancée, but whose father is standing in the way of their relationship.

While Will’s father is a member of the English aristocracy, Will has mainly been raised by his American step-mother, who instilled in him all sorts of American ideals, such as all men are created equal and no one ought to live in poverty just so the few privileged can live a more comfortable life.

All this conflict ought to make for a compelling read. Unfortunately, this story didn’t work for me as well as the other one did. I would have liked for the characters to exhibit a little more depth. They do a lot of talking about their differences, but I never felt as if they were really convinced of their opposing view-points. They said a lot of nice things, without there being much emotional conviction behind their statements.

I was also confused on a couple of minor plot points. For example, Will takes his family and Elizabeth on a carriage ride through the Whitechapel district to show them that life in England isn’t all fun and games for everyone. While they’re there, Elizabeth spots someone who looks an awful lot like her friend Victoria and wonders what she’s doing there. That idea gets maybe one other mention, but the issue is never resolved. This is a series, and perhaps that was a bit of groundwork for Victoria’s story, but for me it stood out as an unnecessary inclusion.

Elizabeth’s search for the identity of her real father is presented as something that is close to her heart, because it will redefine her identity, even though she is an adult at this point, she has grown up believing she is a duke’s daughter, and he never repudiated her in the eyes of society. When the issue comes up, she becomes very angsty and tearful. But the issue only seems to crop up as the plot demands it. If she was that worried about the repercussions of her father’s identity, I would expect to see her thinking about it in down moments where the plot doesn’t require an extra boost to keep it moving.

Without getting too spoilery, a death at the end of the book struck me as completely gratuitous. It came about as the result of the villains’ machinations to get their hands on the ducal estates, at least for their progeny, if not for themselves. In keeping with the other characters, the villains didn’t show much depth. Most of their actions revolved around Caroline’s single-minded, social-climbing determination that if she can’t be a duchess, by gosh and by golly, her son will become the next duke.

The book ends with an epilogue that mainly focuses on a minor character. This had me scratching my head. Yes, we see Will and Elizabeth happy, along with the heroes and heroines of the previous book in the series, but all through this story, this minor character has been teased with learning the name of some woman, who… Well, we never learn why, exactly, he needs this woman’s name. Only that he wants it, and she’s somehow in the room he’s just left. I have no clue what this referenced, as it seemed to have little to do with the rest of the story.

Again, it’s a series, and perhaps it’s part of a larger story arc. But it’s an arc that made no appearance at all in Every Night I’m Yours, and I still have no clue how it all fits together.

Rating: 5 (Fair )

Heat-Level: 4 (Hot)