In Pursuit of a Scandalous Lady (Scandalous Lady, 1)

Three young ladies are caught by three gentlemen trying to steal a painting. The gentlemen make a wager and a trilogy starts. This first book is the story of Rebecca and Julian. The premise had some promise, but in the end the whole thing ended up being rather unremarkable. The characters are fairly boring, and the whole thing suffered from a bit of telling not showing. The characters are products of their less than ideal childhoods. We know this because the characters (especially Rebecca) tell us over and over again. This was incredibly annoying because we are ALL a product of our childhoods, so why mention it repeatedly? Why not just tell the story and then let the characters display that behavior? Very frustrating.In addition, the resolution of the mystery of the Scandalous Lady (the jewel, not Rebecca) seemed tacked on. I won't spoil it for you, but it made very little sense.I only finished the book because it was there. I was able to walk away from it for days, which is not generally the case for me. As a whole, it was unsatisfying.

I liked the story line...a young woman of the ton poses nude for a painting because she is bored (among other things) wearing a famous jewel believed to be stolen and which resulted in a family's loss of face, etc. But there were problems with the story as it developed. It begins with three young women each of whom claims to be the subject of the painting and three young men who wager they can find out which one it is, one of whom is from the family who lost the jewel. From there, the story devolves into a single tale of Lord Parkhurst (the young man of the three men whose family lost the jewel) and Rebecca Leland (one of the three young women). What happened to the other two stories?? And it seemed less interesting that Lord Parkhurst never doubts that the woman in the painting is Rebecca. It would have been best to allow for some mystery there. So while the story of the romance between them is good, it could have been more complete. A more interesting ending would have had the painting be a composite of the three young women. That way, when each claimed to be the subject they would be correct and they would win the wager with the young men. The wager between the young men and the women just sort of gets dropped along with the other loose ends. Oh, yes...another comment. I felt the author's need to tell us about how the poor lived was over done. Some of the descriptions about the poor living conditions just got old. At times I felt like she was lecturing to us. It's a romance for Pete's sake. I just want a nice intriguing romance with a happy ending. I know the poor existed in England at the time. The poor are always with us, right? I don't want to live it in my romances. Overall, this book is either a 3 star plus or a 4 star minus. Either way, it's not a 5 star.

I enjoyed the story and the attraction between Julien and Rebecca, but there was something lacking in their romance. That dramatic spark just wasn't evident between hero and heroine, at least for me. Although I did enjoy the story and would recommend it. However, I have found that more depth between the main characters adds so much.I must suggest also Tessa Dare's "To Dance With A Duke" and Christie Kelly'sEvery Time We Kiss" !!

I was not very impressed with this story. It went on forever as I actually had a hard time reading it. I just didnt find the story that well written or captivating.

Romance and a mystery to solve. A very good read.

This was a very enjoyable read where you changed your mind several times over as to how the plot would play out. A good read, fun and entertaining all the way

great book!

I've read a million of these, I only review the ones that are worth buying - there are a few problems but generally good read

Nachdem ich die deutsche Version "Ein skandalöses Geheimnis" gelesen hatte, wollte ich auch die Originalversion lesen, um evtl. weitere engl. Bücher, die bisher nicht auf deutsch erschienen sind, mir zu holen. Es war kein Problem.Die Geschichte um eine nackte Frau auf dem Porträt, war gut erzählt. Auch mal Mitglieder des "ton" mal in nicht erwarteten Situationen zu erleben hat Spaß gemacht.Ich werde mir wahrscheinlich weitere Bücher von Gayle Callen besorgen.

very good