The blurb:
Kathlyn Partland mistrusted Lord Chase’s offer to pay her for appearing in public with him. But she was in need of the money, and he was in need of proving to Society that he was a rake. Chase assured her it was a ruse, that he believed both bride and groom should arrive at marriage with innocence intact.
We first meet COURTNEY COATE, Viscount Chase when he and his fiancee get caught in a snowstorm. It appears that the two young lovers will anticipate their marriage vows, until…Courtney confesses that he is a virgin and wants to wait until their wedding night. No spoilers but this confession does not end well.
Fast forward a couple of years and we find Miss KATHLYN PARTLAND struggling through a snowstorm herself before getting rescued by our hero who has a proposition for her.
But there’s more to Kathlyn than meets the eye – well at least that’s what a gang of jewel thieves believe, and they’ll stop at nothing to find the truth.
What did I particularly like about this book?
Well that’s pretty much the whole of the book that I liked. That the hero does not believe it appropriate that his wife should be virginal whilst he is not.
Oh and the heroine. Kathlyn is intelligent, self-sufficient and generally thinks before she acts. She comes up with a plausible explanation for why Courtney wishes her to pretend to be a mistress and keeps her head when she’s in danger. She also works out the jewel mystery under very trying circumstances.
But apart from that, well I felt like the author was just ticking off various components to a romance novel:
- Virtuous hero – check
- Virtuous heroine – check
- Heroine in danger, saved by hero even though she’s ugly – check
- Heroine actually turns out to be drop-dead gorgeous – check
- Hero has two silly friends as comic relief – check
- Heroine wins over everyone with her external and internal beauty – check
- Lots of secondary characters to add (more) comic relief and danger to the heroine – check
- Heroine turns out to be something / someone which allows for happy ever after – check
And in the end, none of those components really added up to anything out of the ordinary.
In summary
Look, Snowdrops and Scandalbroth isn’t a bad book – I was able to finish it which isn’t always the case lately sadly. But it isn’t one I’ll be re-reading either.
I’d recommend getting it if / when it goes on special in your local Amazon but otherwise there’s plenty of other Romance books with a mystery, smart heroine and a gentle hero to spend your money on.
Not recommended.