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beckymmoe's review against another edition
4.0
Another early Meg Cabot I'm glad I went to the effort to find. Fun read in the author's usual style.
reader_fictions's review against another edition
3.0
Things are finally looking up, a little bit, in my veeeeery slow binge of all of Meg Cabot’s books in publication order. Her romances so far have been largely humorless and full of all the worst romance tropes. A Little Scandal may not be great, but there are finally some signs of the writer Cabot will eventually become.
The book starts off pretty strongly. The hero, divorced and now the single parent of one extremely stubborn daughter, is trying to drag her to a social event. Isabel, however, wants to go to a much better social event, so she’s fighting. Kate, seeing a young woman thrown over the shoulder of a much older man, threatens Burke (snerk) with her parasol. When the matter is cleared up, everyone continues about their business, but a seed has been planted: Kate might be the perfect chaperone for Isabel.
When it comes to the kissing scenes and some of the language, there’s still a bit too much of the GRAAR ALPHA MALE ownership BS, but mostly that’s been left in Cabot’s prior books. Burke also has a really horrific temper (I’m reminded of Anthony Bridgerton). Setting those aspects of his character aside, Burke’s a bookish nerd who wants a chaperone so he won’t have to go to the parties because he’d rather read (and not because he doesn’t give a shit about his daughter). Pretty damn cute tbh that he then proceeds to go to those balls anyway to spend time with Kate. It’s also refreshing that, though he’s been cheated on (by the wife he divorced and his mistress who he summarily dumps at the start of the novel), I appreciate that there wasn’t a ton of jealousy stuff directed Kate’s way (aside from the first sex scene which ARGH Cabot WHY, though it could have been worse). And I also liked that, even before he was smitten with Kate, he was thinking he was a little too old to be bothering with a new mistress; not something you see much romance.
By no means is A Little Scandal perfection, but it was lightly shippy, only occasionally offensive, and sometimes quite funny. That’s a big step forward.
The book starts off pretty strongly. The hero, divorced and now the single parent of one extremely stubborn daughter, is trying to drag her to a social event. Isabel, however, wants to go to a much better social event, so she’s fighting. Kate, seeing a young woman thrown over the shoulder of a much older man, threatens Burke (snerk) with her parasol. When the matter is cleared up, everyone continues about their business, but a seed has been planted: Kate might be the perfect chaperone for Isabel.
When it comes to the kissing scenes and some of the language, there’s still a bit too much of the GRAAR ALPHA MALE ownership BS, but mostly that’s been left in Cabot’s prior books. Burke also has a really horrific temper (I’m reminded of Anthony Bridgerton). Setting those aspects of his character aside, Burke’s a bookish nerd who wants a chaperone so he won’t have to go to the parties because he’d rather read (and not because he doesn’t give a shit about his daughter). Pretty damn cute tbh that he then proceeds to go to those balls anyway to spend time with Kate. It’s also refreshing that, though he’s been cheated on (by the wife he divorced and his mistress who he summarily dumps at the start of the novel), I appreciate that there wasn’t a ton of jealousy stuff directed Kate’s way (aside from the first sex scene which ARGH Cabot WHY, though it could have been worse). And I also liked that, even before he was smitten with Kate, he was thinking he was a little too old to be bothering with a new mistress; not something you see much romance.
By no means is A Little Scandal perfection, but it was lightly shippy, only occasionally offensive, and sometimes quite funny. That’s a big step forward.