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A review by adelita18
Scandal's Bride by Stephanie Laurens
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
This book was a challenging read for many reasons. The plot dragged and meandered. As other reviews I read pointed out, the crime-mystery aspect of Cynster Book #3 was much less engaging/present that in Books 1 and 2. But those are minor challenges compared to the issues Catriona posed as the "heroine" of the story.
To me, Catriona seemed like Stephanie Laurens' attempt at a full female empowerment character being THE Lady of the Vale and needing a consort who will give her carte blanche to rule as she will. The problem is Catriona fell flat over and over again. She was manipulative, self-absorbed, self-important, failed to communicate meaningfully at all with anyone in her sphere, and just did not really grow out of any of that through the entire 400+ pages of the book.
But these merely felt obnoxious compared to the egregious episodes at the beginning of the story when Richard and Catriona have 1 week to figure out if they will marry to save her ward's family from pecuniary demise.She successfully drugs Richard and rapes him in the first quarter of the book. And then attempts to do it two more nights in a row! Catriona's logic is she just needs a baby off of Richard because the ever present "Lady" tells her Richard will be the father of her children...and takes that to mean baby daddy only and can leave him. And she knows Richard is a bastard born son and has some issues relating to being given up by his mom. It is a seriously messed up plot point and it was exceedingly disappointing that it just got glossed over and that Richard, and eventually his own family, is okay with him being raped and marrying his rapist.
The other truly implausible, glossed over issue comes at the end very end of the story. It felt like Stephanie Laurens went "Oops! I forgot about Algaria and what she did!"After attempting to murder Richard by poisoning, she just disappeared from the plot. When she does reappear, it's only for Catriona to forgive her and allow Richard to punish Algaria as he sees fit. Which apparently, he finds it okay to allow his attempted murderer to become the nanny to their future children as long as she promises not to try to murder him again.
I liked Richard as a character until that happened and then it completely under cut everything he became in the story. It was profoundly disappointing to me. I found the only redeeming point of this whole novel was the arrival/presence of the extended Cynster family. Personally, I found Honoria and Patience much better, lovable, and relatable characters in this book than in their own novels.
To me, Catriona seemed like Stephanie Laurens' attempt at a full female empowerment character being THE Lady of the Vale and needing a consort who will give her carte blanche to rule as she will. The problem is Catriona fell flat over and over again. She was manipulative, self-absorbed, self-important, failed to communicate meaningfully at all with anyone in her sphere, and just did not really grow out of any of that through the entire 400+ pages of the book.
But these merely felt obnoxious compared to the egregious episodes at the beginning of the story when Richard and Catriona have 1 week to figure out if they will marry to save her ward's family from pecuniary demise.
The other truly implausible, glossed over issue comes at the end very end of the story. It felt like Stephanie Laurens went "Oops! I forgot about Algaria and what she did!"
I liked Richard as a character until that happened and then it completely under cut everything he became in the story. It was profoundly disappointing to me. I found the only redeeming point of this whole novel was the arrival/presence of the extended Cynster family. Personally, I found Honoria and Patience much better, lovable, and relatable characters in this book than in their own novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape