ARC Review: Scandalously Yours by Cara Elliott

Olivia Sloan and her sisters are an interesting group. They are all different (in an unconventional type of way) and with no dowry. I thought that Olivia and Anna were very advanced for their time period. Olivia writes political commentary under an alias and Ana is a novelist, also under an alias. I loved that Ms. Elliot wrote about such radically different women. Olivia, to me, seemed awkward, which makes sense since that is part of her personality. She speaks her mind and likes to shock people. She is nicknamed “the Hellion of High Street”. I thought she used this as a weapon to keep people, or society, at an arms distance. For example, when she is dancing with John she complains about having to follow dictated to steps, instead of being able to dance naked. She definitely doesn’t abide by the conventional rules of society. Because Olivia’s father was a believer in including his daughters in his own interests all his daughters didn’t follow the traditional upbringing of English ladies. I really enjoyed that the daughters had their own unique interests and personalities. These are not your typical English ladies waiting for a chance to be courted, or asked to dance. Olivia sits in the shadows on purpose to write down her thoughts in a notebook she carries around with her.

John, Earl of Wrexham is, a “perfect hero”. He is retired from the military, a widower and looking for a wife and stepmother to his son, Prescott. I loved Prescott, I thought for a little boy he had a lot of great scenes and I loved his relationship with Lucy. I wondered if Ms. Elliott was planting the seeds for a future story with these two young characters. At the beginning of the story, I found John to be boring. I sympathized with his efforts to become a better husband and father. I assumed that his possible fiancée, Lady Serena or as his son calls her- Lady Steele Corset- was supposed to be an example of what his perfect wife would be like. John began to grow on me when he asked Olivia to help him champion new ideas to the Parliament. I really liked their companionship in working together to introduce new ideas, such as a pension, to English society. Although I didn’t find that they had incredible chemistry I did think that they made a good match. As John often mentions, he faced tougher situations in the army then having to deal with Olivia. Ms. Elliott provided very unique characters! Not one of these characters felt duplicated. Even John’s sister, Cecilia was different and interesting. Where the main hero and heroine might have seem a little flat at times the cast of supporting characters were excellent and provided a lot of entertainment.

I personally think Anna and Devlin Greville, the Marquess of Davenport, stole the show. I loved every scene they were in and thought they had excellent chemistry. I also found Anna to be very smart, clever and charming. She masterminded many of Olivia’s adventures, from the mysterious letter to Prescott (John’s son) to the eventual rescue. I also thought they had great banter and great chemistry. I can’t wait to read “Sinfully Yours (The Hellions of High Street#2). I anticipate that Ms. Elliott will give both Anna and Devlin a great chemistry filled adventure. I loved the way that they got under each other’s skin and they were perfectly matched. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this story because it was a great mix of adventure, history, romance and even a little bit of feminism.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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