Scandalous

(Review originally posted here at Fictionally Inclined.)

I ran across Scandalous at our university used book sale a few months ago, read the summary, and was thoroughly intrigued. After all, you get the “pose as my girlfriend/boyfriend/fiancée” storyline all the time, but how often do the love interests pose as SIBLINGS? To my recollection, I've never read another book where that happened. But if you have a good one where they did, pretty please leave a comment, because I would love to read it. Anyway, suffice to say, I absolutely had to pick it up.

Sadly, Scandalous did not quite live up to the expectations set forth by the awesome premise. I felt like there were way too many details, especially toward the beginning; they really bogged down the writing, not allowing the pace of the story to flow. It took a while for anything to actually happen to grab my interest, besides the little snippet at the very beginning. Once they actually met, though, I enjoyed the story more. The way the “posing as siblings” aspect came about was interesting, although it was not nearly as prominent as it was supposed to be. The vast majority of the book takes place inside the house due to medical circumstances.

There was an interesting sidestory that added a bit of mystery and suspense to the book, but it was kept down to a good size. It was enough to stay intriguing, but not enough that it felt unnecessary or started to overtake the main plot. It also added some good drama when things came to a head.

I did like Gabby a lot! She was totally willing to take Marcus down a peg or two when needed. Which he definitely did sometimes. They had good chemistry, and I loved reading about them! They had a super cute story, and the end left me smiling.

Overall, I did like this book, although I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did.

I went into this one wondering how the pretend siblings would 1. start their bargain, and 2. how they would become a couple without the scandal at the end. 

I wasn't totally sold on the couple, but they had some wonderful moments. The thing is, I wasn't convinced of their happily ever after. The whole set up was a bit weird to me and how the sisters and some of the servants acted didn't seem right. 

I'm not sure if I'll read the next books about the other two sisters.