Book Review: A Touch of Scandal by Jennifer Haymore

Saturday 27 March, 2010 By 6 Comments

Title: A Touch of Scandal
Author: Jennifer Haymore
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: March 30, 2010
Paperback: 432 pages
ISBN: 978-0446540278
Genre: Historical Romance

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From the Publisher:

The last thing Garrett, Duke of Calton, expects to find while tracking his sworn enemy is the delectable, mysterious Kate. This beautiful servant girl rouses a longing the battle-scarred ex-soldier had never hoped to feel again. But when she turns out to be the sister of the man he seeks, he’s convinced he’s been betrayed.

Kate knows her duty to her family, yet how can she ignore Garrett’s powerful pull on her heart? Or the heady temptation of his stolen-and sizzling-kisses? Scandal has followed the duke since the war. Now the greatest shock of all is on its way-the one that can separate Garrett and Kate forever.

My Review:

Before A Touch of Scandal, there was A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore, a novel I have not had the pleasure to read, rest assured that will be remedied immediately. A Touch of Scandal is an exhilarating historical romance, which can easily stand on it’s own merits written with a fluidity of prose that renders the reader back to England in the 1820s. Her characters are quite realistic and her descriptions leave little for the reader to imagine as one feels as though one is with the characters. 22-year-old Kate is a lady’s maid for Lady Rebecca whose husband happens do be William Fisk, Kate’s brother, a piece of information that has been kept from Lady Rebecca. Kate does not sleep in the house with the other servants but rather she travels 6 miles by foot each day so she can tend to her ailing younger brother Reggie. One evening Kate sees a man bathing in a semi-hidden pool of a castle ruins and she is drawn to him. She learns his name is Garrett and knows little else of him, but her brother then catches the two together, and holds Garrett hostage back at Debussey Manor. If he is so dangerous and a wanted man, why would he put his mother, sister and brother at risk? Kate does not understand, nor does she realise that Garrett is the Duke of Calton and Lady Rebecca’s brother. Kate as well as Lady Rebecca are sweet and trusting women, innocents caught up in a long-standing quarrel between Garrett and William. Which is telling the truth of events that took place eight years past? The answers and what become of these fabulous characters makes this book a delightful read and a captivating novel that will touch the reader’s heart and mind and keep the reader fully engaged as the plot continues to unwind. A Touch of Scandal is a historical romance novel filled with deep seeded family secrets, deceptions, and scandal and above all, family. I am anxiously awaiting Jennifer Haymore’s next novel, A Season of Seduction, which will be in stores sometime in October.

About the Author:

I’ve been writing since I could pick up a pencil….

Wait, no…that’s what every other writer says! I started writing just before my eighth birthday, and it wasn’t on my own volition. I was sailing with my family in a 42-foot sailboat across the Pacific, and since there were no local schools (except those pertaining to fish) nearby, my mother homeschooled me. She was a strict taskmaster! A veritable slave driver! She demanded a new story every day.

So I’d sit in the boat’s galley and write. And stare out the porthole, and write some more. And doodle, and write some more. By the time we arrived in Hawaii the following year, I had a portfolio of stories, and I was hooked. Since then I haven’t stopped. (Well, much. I did take breaks now and then, for things like college, young kids, and a master’s degree.)

I love to read just as much as I love to write, and actually the reading bug hit me at about the same time my mom was cracking the whip over my head and commanding me to write. What else to occupy your time with when there are no other kids to play with and nothing to do but stare at the endless sea? Some of my most recent favorites: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, River God by Wilbur Smith, and anything by Laura Kinsale and Loretta Chase.

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I received a complimentary copy of A Touch of Scandal by Jennifer Haymore from Hachette as part of the tour. Receiving a free copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Spotlight Series: The Singer’s Gun

Saturday 27 March, 2010 By 5 Comments

This review is part of the Unbridled Books Spotlight Series. To read other wonderful book reviews, spot by the Spotlight Series website.

Title: The Singer’s Gun
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication Date: May 2010
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-1-936071-64-7
Genre: Fiction

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From the Publisher:

Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents deal in stolen goods and his first career is a partnership venture with his cousin Aria selling forged passports and social security cards to illegal aliens. Anton longs for a less questionable way of living in the world and by his late twenties has reinvented himself as a successful middle manager. Then a routine security check suggests that things are not quite what they appear. And Aria begins blackmailing him to do one last job for her. But the seemingly simple job proves to have profound and unexpected repercussions.
As Anton’s carefully constructed life begins to disintegrate around him, he’s forced to choose between loyalty to his family and his desires for a different kind of life. When everyone is willing to use someone else to escape the past, it is up to Anton, on the island of Ischia, to face the ghosts that travel close behind him.
Emily St. John Mandel follows up her electric debut with a spellbinding novel of international crime, false identities, the depths and limits of family ties, and the often confusing bonds of love. Taut with suspense, beautifully imagined, full of unexpected corners, desperate choices, betrayals and halftruths with deadly consequences, The Singer’s Gun explores the dangerous territory between one’s moral compass and the heart’s desire.

My Review:

Upon completion of Emily St. John Mandel’s first novel, Last Night In Montreal, I began reading her second novel, The Singer’s Gun. It was with trepidation that I began the next novel. How could it possibly compare to her first and yet maybe it would be as well written, possibly more so, I had to know. The Singer’s Gun was all I was hoping it would be and more. Often I read passages to my husband simply so I would have someone to discuss the novel with. The Singer’s Gun is written in a heartbreakingly beautiful prose with a heavy dose of extremely well timed and quite clever wit. Told in both past and present, weaving together the lives of an array of characters, The Singer’s Gun becomes real in the reader’s mind. Whether in Brooklyn or the Island of Ischia, the reader is transported there through the lyrical, descriptive prose and held there until Emily St. John Mandel decides to move on to another locale or time. An extremely moving novel that delves into the grey areas that makes up every day life. Through the expertly drafted prose, each character springs to life, from each member of the Walker family, to the mysterious Elena and the ever-persistent Alexandra Broden. For fear of giving any of the plot away, I will say that each character must look into the grey areas of life, to determine what is good, what is worth fighting for and to know when to stop. The Singer’s Gun contains an expertly crafted plot with several surprise twists that will not only keep the reader engaged, but will make the reader crave discussing the issues. I truly cannot praise this novel enough and my only regret is that I had not read this novel with a colleague so I could discuss the key issues and all those delicately woven grey areas.


About the Author:
Emily St. John Mandel was born on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, in 1979. She studied dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York. She lives in Brooklyn.

I received a complimentary copy of The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel from Unbridled Books. Receiving a free copy in no way reflected my review of the aforementioned novels.

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