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sheska_meroba's review
3.0
I received this ebook in a Goodreads giveaway.
I liked the story and the idea of an independent heroine, I liked the fake engagement set up, but I was just not fully sold on the romance between the two main characters. It was clear they were attracted to each other, but they kept listing traits that they loved about the other one and I was like “if you say so”. I think this book could have benefited from more focus on the romantic development and less on the sexual aspect of their relationship so that we had more buy in and were really pulling for the characters.
I liked the story and the idea of an independent heroine, I liked the fake engagement set up, but I was just not fully sold on the romance between the two main characters. It was clear they were attracted to each other, but they kept listing traits that they loved about the other one and I was like “if you say so”. I think this book could have benefited from more focus on the romantic development and less on the sexual aspect of their relationship so that we had more buy in and were really pulling for the characters.
fringebookreviews's review against another edition
5.0
Awwwwwww I loved this so much!!!! It kinda reminded me of Funny Farm but not as cooky. I loved the forced proximity, found family, and puppy love. Megan Frampton is such a fun writer and this was very light and very fluffy. They both had claims to an old house so they made a deal to renovate it in four weeks. They had to pretend to be engaged since the towns people saw them together all the time! He was a mythology scholar and the epitome of hot nerd. Also the beginning scene was her happening upon him naked in a pond. Always a win. There was a moment there for a while where I thought he was going to be a virgin hero (he was very alarmed by a kiss!), but he was actually a little alpha! If spanking is your thing, he’s your hero.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
muffreadsreview71's review
4.0
Four Weeks of Scandal was an interesting
story and characters. I liked the characters it's like the switched. Gabriel was nice and Octavia seemed like she didn't about anything and was rude. But that changed towards the end. Loved there chemistry!! I liked the story. I received an ARC for my honest opinion.
story and characters. I liked the characters it's like the switched. Gabriel was nice and Octavia seemed like she didn't about anything and was rude. But that changed towards the end. Loved there chemistry!! I liked the story. I received an ARC for my honest opinion.
plottrysts's review against another edition
4.0
A really nice low-angst romance between a straight-laced (but secretly a little alpha) scholar and a spontaneous gambling hell owner who have a shared past. You see, Octavia's father and Gabriel's father were inveterate gamblers who constantly wagered their possessions. Once upon a time, Octavia's father even put her up as the stakes in a bet with Gabriel's father - and the outcome would have been a marriage between the two. Now, years later, Gabriel and Octavia have both lost their fathers. They also both believe that they have a claim on Octavia's father's property.
Since possession is nine tenths of the law, neither is willing to move out of the property, leading to a glorious fake relationship. They pretend to be engaged while they fix up the house and Octavia looks through the rest of her late father's possessions. Of course, fake engagements lend each other to a lot of scandalous encounters (you have to make that chemistry look real, right?), which then lead to emotional revelations and more.
There's not a lot that goes on in this book, but it's a delightful way to spend a couple of hours. It's not quite as steamy as some of Frampton's other books, but the understated love story and the ultimate resolution are both very satisfying.
22-Word Summaries:
Laine: When your deal with the devil comes due, make a bargain with a man who's hotter than sin. Let the cards fall.
Meg: In debt but can’t ask the two dukes in your family for help? Cash in on Daddy’s inheritance … if you can!
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.
Since possession is nine tenths of the law, neither is willing to move out of the property, leading to a glorious fake relationship. They pretend to be engaged while they fix up the house and Octavia looks through the rest of her late father's possessions. Of course, fake engagements lend each other to a lot of scandalous encounters (you have to make that chemistry look real, right?), which then lead to emotional revelations and more.
There's not a lot that goes on in this book, but it's a delightful way to spend a couple of hours. It's not quite as steamy as some of Frampton's other books, but the understated love story and the ultimate resolution are both very satisfying.
22-Word Summaries:
Laine: When your deal with the devil comes due, make a bargain with a man who's hotter than sin. Let the cards fall.
Meg: In debt but can’t ask the two dukes in your family for help? Cash in on Daddy’s inheritance … if you can!
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.
ham6363's review
5.0
Octavia is the daughter of a gambler who runs her own gambling hall. She’s a risk taker who leaps first. She has borrowed money from a dubious source and needs to pay it back quickly. She decides to return to her village home to settle her father’s estate.
Gabriel is the son of another gambler who used to gamble with Octavia’s father. He has an IOU showing his father won Octavia’s family home and he intends to live there as his family home burned down. To complicate matters, their father’s had previously gambled their hands in marriage. Octavia and Gabriel make a deal to allow Octavia thirty days to find proof of who the rightful owner is.
This is a wonderful book. Both characters grow and learn over the course of their relationship. There is also a great play on Hades and Persephone. You can’t go wrong with a Megan Frampton book.
Gabriel is the son of another gambler who used to gamble with Octavia’s father. He has an IOU showing his father won Octavia’s family home and he intends to live there as his family home burned down. To complicate matters, their father’s had previously gambled their hands in marriage. Octavia and Gabriel make a deal to allow Octavia thirty days to find proof of who the rightful owner is.
This is a wonderful book. Both characters grow and learn over the course of their relationship. There is also a great play on Hades and Persephone. You can’t go wrong with a Megan Frampton book.
elspethm's review
4.0
Overall I really liked this book. The main characters, Gabriel and Octavia, spend a month trying to prove ultimately who owns Octavia's father's house after both their fathers die. Gabriel wants to live in the house and make it q home and Octavia wants to sell it and use the money on improvements for the gambling "hell" she owns in London. They create a little family in the house, search for promissory notes, and fall in love, all while Gabriel teaches the group about Greek myths. The sexy side went from a censored X rating to a true X rating and it seemed a bit weird that the scenes weren't either much more PG rated, or were truly an X, but I could overlook that since I enjoyed the romance and the main characters.
I read an advanced copy through NetGalley and are giving an honest review.
I read an advanced copy through NetGalley and are giving an honest review.
difficultwomanreads's review against another edition
3.0
Octavia Holton arrives at her childhood home following the death of her father, determined to claim her inheritance, fix up the property, and sell it off to settle her debts. There's one snag: Gabriel Fallon has already arrived at the estate, claiming that his late father won it from Octavia's just a month prior.
As Octavia has no way to prove that she is owed the property, she's a bit out of luck--except for the fact that Gabriel takes an immediate liking to her. He offers a four week fake engagement, which will give Octavia time to stay at the house without being questioned. If she doesn't find any documentation that the house belongs to her by the end of that time, it goes to Gabriel.
Of course... While they're pretending to be engaged, they might act on their physical attraction to each other, right? I mean, it's only right and proper.
This one has all of the things I like about Megan Frampton: a good sense of humor, great sexual tension, and a knack for blending those two elements in a way that doesn't come off as goofy. I love that there are two people duking it out for a house; I love that he had a tiny, cute dog and she has a big, intimidating dog; I love that Octavia is not shy about her sexuality, and doesn't feel any shame for wanting to get up to stuff and thangs with Gabriel.
So why didn't this quite click for me? I would say that it's because this is a good few books into Frampton's ongoing Hazards of Dukes series, and it's definitely well-connected to a previous one I haven't yet read (though I want to). I think that while this book definitely stands on its own pretty easily, there could have been some context lost from the fact that I wasn't super acquainted with the history between Gabriel and Octavia's families.
However, I don't think that was really it. I think this was largely a case of Frampton not quite going as hard for the drama as she could have. Which is fine--lots of people will love that. There's still good chemistry between the leads, hot sex, banter. All of that holds up. Plenty of people will prefer that to high drama. I'm just... a drama queen, I suppose.
There isn't that much that Octavia and Gabriel are struggling with internally, is the thing. Ultimately, they're both pretty good people with some emotional baggage, but nothing huge. He's a scholar. A very nice scholar. She is neither jaded nor totally naive. And again, as I mentioned in a review of another book... The obstacle that they think they face is not much of an obstacle. Gabriel is never dead set on fucking Octavia over if the house belongs to her, and vice versa. Their other obstacle is quite easily overcome.
And it's not that I think this should have been a book in which Gabriel was exposed as this vigilante or like, the true killer of Octavia's father or something--that's not really the style of this series, and that's well and good. However, I still feel like the emotional tension was higher in the previous installment, and that's what I was missing here.
Nonetheless, if you're looking for a lighter book with good smut, I would recommend it. Not everything needs to be super high stakes.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As Octavia has no way to prove that she is owed the property, she's a bit out of luck--except for the fact that Gabriel takes an immediate liking to her. He offers a four week fake engagement, which will give Octavia time to stay at the house without being questioned. If she doesn't find any documentation that the house belongs to her by the end of that time, it goes to Gabriel.
Of course... While they're pretending to be engaged, they might act on their physical attraction to each other, right? I mean, it's only right and proper.
This one has all of the things I like about Megan Frampton: a good sense of humor, great sexual tension, and a knack for blending those two elements in a way that doesn't come off as goofy. I love that there are two people duking it out for a house; I love that he had a tiny, cute dog and she has a big, intimidating dog; I love that Octavia is not shy about her sexuality, and doesn't feel any shame for wanting to get up to stuff and thangs with Gabriel.
So why didn't this quite click for me? I would say that it's because this is a good few books into Frampton's ongoing Hazards of Dukes series, and it's definitely well-connected to a previous one I haven't yet read (though I want to). I think that while this book definitely stands on its own pretty easily, there could have been some context lost from the fact that I wasn't super acquainted with the history between Gabriel and Octavia's families.
However, I don't think that was really it. I think this was largely a case of Frampton not quite going as hard for the drama as she could have. Which is fine--lots of people will love that. There's still good chemistry between the leads, hot sex, banter. All of that holds up. Plenty of people will prefer that to high drama. I'm just... a drama queen, I suppose.
There isn't that much that Octavia and Gabriel are struggling with internally, is the thing. Ultimately, they're both pretty good people with some emotional baggage, but nothing huge. He's a scholar. A very nice scholar. She is neither jaded nor totally naive. And again, as I mentioned in a review of another book... The obstacle that they think they face is not much of an obstacle. Gabriel is never dead set on fucking Octavia over if the house belongs to her, and vice versa. Their other obstacle is quite easily overcome.
And it's not that I think this should have been a book in which Gabriel was exposed as this vigilante or like, the true killer of Octavia's father or something--that's not really the style of this series, and that's well and good. However, I still feel like the emotional tension was higher in the previous installment, and that's what I was missing here.
Nonetheless, if you're looking for a lighter book with good smut, I would recommend it. Not everything needs to be super high stakes.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
cramz's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The author said she thought of actor Matthias Schoenaerts when writing the character Gabriel. Thinking of him definitely helped me enjoy the story!
lenabrary's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Four Weeks of Scandal is a fun experience where you get to see the characters grow and fall in love slowly. I was afraid there would be a lot of miscommunication (my most hated trope) but I was pleasantly surprised by how well Octavia and Gabriel communicated about what they wanted and needed (aside, of course, from their developing feelings - but that was handled very well). I liked how this book was a retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth, in a way, and how both Octavia and Gabriel interacted with the myth in the story.
The smutty scenes were pretty hot, too ;)
The smutty scenes were pretty hot, too ;)
mephala's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Four Weeks of Scandal, the final installment in the Hazard of Dukes series, was very light, but ultimately rather forgettable book.
While reading I was never fully invested in Octavia and Gabriel’s story; they were ok characters, but there was something missing in their romance, some spark. The chemistry was there, but it was very sparse, and through the whole book I didn’t quite get why they fell for each other.
I enjoyed the reference to Persephone and Hades story, especially because it had a nice genre reversal as it was pretty clear from the beginning it was Octavia who “ruled the underworld”.
This pretty much sums up how the author flipped the typical characteristics the hero and heroine in (historical) romance usually have. Gabriel is more optimistic, gentle, while Octavia seems almost weary of the world, maybe even slightly jaded. He’s a scholar, she was never shy to admit she didn’t know much about Mythology. What comes to mind is a bluestocking meeting a worldly rake/libertine/ruler of the underworld. I quite liked that.
As well as the ‘found family’ trope and presence of cute pets.
The hero and heroine had a nice “meet cute”, and the sex scenes were great – I think the hottest I’ve read by this author.
Unfortunately, I felt like the story dragged a little and it never fully captured my attention.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence