Category: Victorian Era (1837-1901)

In the history of the United Kingdom, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.
Preceded by: Regency era
Followed by: Edwardian era
Monarch: Victoria

The Importance of Being Scandalous by Kimberly Bell

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The Importance of Being ScandalousThe Importance of Being Scandalous by Kimberly Bell
Tracy’s rating: 2 of 5 stars

Series: The Tale of Two Sisters, #1
Release Date: July 25, 2017

This book did not work for me. I usually like the friends to lovers trope, but I was disappointed with this story.

Amelia “Mia” Bishop and Nicholas “Nick” Wakefield have been friends forever – along with Amelia’s sister Julia. The three of them were inseparable as children and for his part, Nick has been in love with Amelia for as long as he can remember, but his family does not approve of hers (this was my first bone of contention – the author never explains why Amelia’s family is shunned – it is implied that there was some scandal and it is also implied that it is because of Julia – but it is never clearly explained to the reader). He leaves for his grand tour without ever telling Amelia of his true feelings. He writes to her everyday that he is away – but never sends the letters.

Amelia misses Nick, but she is content to stay home with her sister Julia. Julia was born with some sort of spinal issue and has a limp – I am not sure why, but it seems that she is part of the reason her family is shunned and she has been kept out of society. Amelia is fine with that as well, but things change when she becomes engaged to an earl.

Nick returns home after two years to find things have drastically changed, first his father is suffering from dementia and his mother doesn’t want Nick’s brother (the heir) to know and he learns that the love of his life is engaged to marry another man.

Nick and Amelia reunite, and she is confused by the feelings she has for him. Nick still hasn’t told her how he feels and is sort of a wuss. He is willing to keep silent and wallow in heartbreak until his friend Jasper “Jas” shows up unannounced. Even with Jas’ prodding, Nick will not tell Amelia how he feels.

Amelia begins to have second thoughts about her engagement and when her fiancé refuses to stand up for her sister, she tries to break things off with him. He threatens to sue her father if she does not marry him and she decides that she must make him break things off with her.

The rest of the story is Amelia with the help of Jas trying to do outrageous things to make the earl dump her.

I really didn’t care for this book, I thought Amelia was immature, Julia was a whack-job, Nick was a wuss and Jas was over the top. The writing was ok – but some of the banter between the sister was just annoying and there was a lot of modern verbiage. The story moved at decent pace and the idea of the story was good – but the execution combined with the fact that the author clearly doesn’t understand nobility titles or correct formal address and didn’t give the reader enough backstory to understand why Amelia’s family was shunned, just ruined the book for me.

*I was provided an eARC of this by NetGalley and the publisher and am voluntarily leaving a review*

The Traitor’s Club: Ford by Laura Landon

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traitors club - ford
The Traitor’s Club: Ford by Laura Landon

Release Date: 05/30/17
Series: The Traitor’s Club, #1

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lady Calinda aka Callie was burned years ago by her betrothed and has decided that men cannot be trusted and wants no part of marriage. She is content to help her grandfather run the Crown’s shipping company.

Captain Ford Remington is one of the “Queen’s Scoundrels”, he has returned from the war and is at loose ends, he feels a bit of survivor’s guilt and desperately wishes there was something he could do for all the wound/crippled soldiers that were not as fortunate as he and his friends were. His chance arises when the Queen requests his assistance with the Crown’s Shipping Company. Profits have been declining for years and she wants Ford to go undercover and find out why. His reward will be half interest in the company. The money will enable Ford to help those soldiers, so while he has no desire to spy again, he can’t turn away this opportunity.

Ford meets Callie at a ball and befriends her – he feels badly about deceiving her, but he has a mission and until he learns more, she is a suspect. Callie is shocked at her reaction to Ford, she hasn’t had any interest in a man since her ill fated betrothal. Even though she tries to keep Ford at a distance, she feels a connection to him and begins to share her worries about the company with him.

As they work together to figure out who is stealing from the company and how, they fall in love. Ford can never seem to find the right time to tell Callie about his mission and knows the longer he waits, the harder it will be for her to forgive him.

Things come to a head and when Callie finds out the truth, she shuts him out. She refuses to talk to him, listen to him or read his letters. Up until this point, I though this was a 5 star read – but the way she acted turned me off and I had a hard time liking her after that. She came across as a hypocrite since she was also keeping secrets from her family and especially from her grandfather. She assumed the worst about Ford and steadfastly refused to believe she might be mistaken.

She does redeem herself (sort of) but for me, it was too little, too late.

The book is well written, interesting, moves at a steady pace, has very mild love scenes (kissing only), great secondary characters and a decent mystery. I loved Ford, from the first page to the last and I look forward to reading the other “traitors” stories.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher*