Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart by Sarah MacLean
See the time stamp on this post? Yeah - that's the actual time I'm finishing it. I put the book down at 2:12 a.m. *shakes fist at Sarah*
As long-time readers already know, I'm a huge fan of Sarah MacLean's writing, and have been ever since her debut novel, a YA historical romance entitled The Season. And I adored Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake and Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord, so I was quite excited for yesterday's release of the final book in the series. I scored my copy around mid-day, but due to scheduled events - a writing date, a tai chi class, picking M up after lacrosse (she manages the JV team - oh, but wait - that's when I got to start the book!), then dinner and a few evening chores, etc., I didn't get to finish the book on it's release date.
I'd say that I mind, but I'd be lying.
I've always had a soft spot for Juliana, the Italian half-sister of the St. John twins. I love her imprecise grasp of English idioms. I was delighted to learn that she conjugates verbs in Latin in order to calm herself down. And I was positively thrilled to learn much more about Simon Pearson, the Duke of Leighton, who turned out to be quite interesting indeed - and not just because he happened to be fluent in Italian because of his love for the works of Dante.
I was especially glad to see the couples from the first two books again, and to find out how their marriages were working out, as well as learning the resolution of Georgiana's situation, which was left dangling in Ten Ways. This book handles the "fish out of water" premise extremely well, with an Italian commoner trying to earn the approval of the English aristocracy - all the while being dogged by a decades-old scandal involving the wayward mother of the siblings involved in these three books. I was pleased to see a bit of "girl in drag" action in this book as well, although there wasn't nearly as much as in the prior two books. (And you all know how I love a girl in drag, yes?)
My powers of analysis are completely shot, y'all, what with it being VERY LATE/EARLY and all, so I'm going to completely cop out and say, somewhat inarticulately, that I quite liked this book, and that I'm looking forward to reading it again.
I'm also looking forward to reading Sarah's The Fallen Angel quartet, the first book of which is due out in Winter - scandals, exiled aristocrats, the London underworld and redemption: I. Cannot. Wait.
