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A review by leonora
Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
3.0
I have never read a romance novel about sillier people. I know this is a classic of the genre and historical romance has never been known for its subtlety, but this is the most bodice ripper to ever rip a bodice. He's big and Man and haaaaaaaates women, so he only sleeps with prostitutes, who are all mercenary and unfeeling whores. But then he meets our female lead who's a Small Delicate and Highborn virgin, but also Sassy, so what's he supposed to do? He's never met a woman with opinions before! It's very confusing!
This book took me on a roller coaster of opinions. I love mess and I love people arguing in ways that lead to sexual tension. Dain's rampant misogyny initially turned me off, but then he just went around acting like such a theatre kid's idea of a Bad Boy™ that I couldn't take it seriously. He's just such a major drama queen and it almost made me not want for him to end up with Jess, since she initially seemed like a generally sensible person. But then she quickly revealed that she was just as batshit insane as he was, if not more, and I started to root for them. How can you not want these two absolutely deranged people to end up with each other? It's kind of beautiful.
I'm knocking off a couple of stars because, while I fully support two grown adults behaving like delusional high schoolers with serious attachment issues for my own amusement, the male lead misogyny and the general way that the novel treated sex workers was not quite my cup of tea. I know this was written over twenty years ago and "man who hates all women but falls in love with me" is a lot of people's fantasy, but it's not quite my thing. Couldn't he be a dark and sinful diva who, at the very least, doesn't refer to basically all women he meets as sluts and whores (derogatory)?
There was also a subplot around the male lead's illegitimate child that was not quite my thing. He has an illegitimate child with a prostitute when he's young and, while he eventually comes around to realizing that maybe he has some responsibility towards the child, everyone still acts like it was mainly the mother's decision to have the child. Like, yeah, I get that she could have had an abortion, but you chose to sleep with her, my man. Sometimes there are consequences for that and maybe you should have thought that through. But, no, instead she's characterized as a crazy slut who just cares about money. So that's nice.
After writing all that, logically, I know I should probably knock this down to two stars, or maybe even one. But, even as I was reading and being like yeah, that's kind of problematic, everyone was acting so ridiculous that I couldn't take it seriously enough. Like, he's not a misogynist, he's just silly! She's not slut-shaming, she's just a goof! Neither of them has ever had a sane thought in their life, their marriage is so incredibly chaotic, and I'm very happy for them. Plus, I can't give a romance novel where the female lead shoots the male lead with a gun and he goes hot anything less than three stars. If a hot woman shot me, I would also marry her.
This book took me on a roller coaster of opinions. I love mess and I love people arguing in ways that lead to sexual tension. Dain's rampant misogyny initially turned me off, but then he just went around acting like such a theatre kid's idea of a Bad Boy™ that I couldn't take it seriously. He's just such a major drama queen and it almost made me not want for him to end up with Jess, since she initially seemed like a generally sensible person. But then she quickly revealed that she was just as batshit insane as he was, if not more, and I started to root for them. How can you not want these two absolutely deranged people to end up with each other? It's kind of beautiful.
I'm knocking off a couple of stars because, while I fully support two grown adults behaving like delusional high schoolers with serious attachment issues for my own amusement, the male lead misogyny and the general way that the novel treated sex workers was not quite my cup of tea. I know this was written over twenty years ago and "man who hates all women but falls in love with me" is a lot of people's fantasy, but it's not quite my thing. Couldn't he be a dark and sinful diva who, at the very least, doesn't refer to basically all women he meets as sluts and whores (derogatory)?
There was also a subplot around the male lead's illegitimate child that was not quite my thing. He has an illegitimate child with a prostitute when he's young and, while he eventually comes around to realizing that maybe he has some responsibility towards the child, everyone still acts like it was mainly the mother's decision to have the child. Like, yeah, I get that she could have had an abortion, but you chose to sleep with her, my man. Sometimes there are consequences for that and maybe you should have thought that through. But, no, instead she's characterized as a crazy slut who just cares about money. So that's nice.
After writing all that, logically, I know I should probably knock this down to two stars, or maybe even one. But, even as I was reading and being like yeah, that's kind of problematic, everyone was acting so ridiculous that I couldn't take it seriously enough. Like, he's not a misogynist, he's just silly! She's not slut-shaming, she's just a goof! Neither of them has ever had a sane thought in their life, their marriage is so incredibly chaotic, and I'm very happy for them. Plus, I can't give a romance novel where the female lead shoots the male lead with a gun and he goes hot anything less than three stars. If a hot woman shot me, I would also marry her.