Adorned in Violet

Colors of Scandal, Book 6

By: Sandra Sookoo

Narrated by: Daniella Rose

If you’re lucky, the mysterious something missing from life is found right in front of you despite the risk.

Widowed Lillian Fernsby has been buffeted by life’s ills, and the grief is sometimes unrelenting. Keeping sadness at bay by making merry or being an outrageous flirt is all well and good, but what she really wants is to marry again. So, when her brother’s best friend comes back into her life to protect her from a unidentified stalker, she’s intrigued by the mystery and challenge he represents.

The Honorable Thaddeus Carrington is the third son of a viscount, but he refuses to hang upon his father’s coattails or put much stock in family pressure to marry. As a Bow Street Runner, he’s found the thrill of solving cases, but when he’s tapped to guard the sister of his best friend from a disturbing threat, he struggles between remembering her as the tag-along girl, as well as his confusing new awareness for her.

While a flirtatious game of cat and mouse begins between them and desire builds, Lillian’s pursuer grows bolder, and Thaddeus pledges greater vigilance in keeping her safe. Peril reaches a breaking point one spring evening, throwing the important things of life into sharp relief. Only they can decide if they want to fight for them before disaster - and death - strikes.

©2021 Sandra Sookoo (P)2021 Sandra Sookoo

A delight!

Colors of Scandal is one of my favorite series and Sandra Sookoo delivers with Adorned in Violet. Lillian is recently widowed and desperately missing her husband and daughter. She wants to marry again but, at thirty, she's not a fresh debutante. She is quite a flirt and uses it to hide her grief. She's beautiful and attracts many suitors, but she has her heart set on Thaddeus, her brother's best friend. He is a Bow Street Runner and is in the middle of a murder investigation, but when Lillian gains a stalker, her brother asks him to protect her. Thad has never thought of marriage, but Lillian has him thinking that it just might be for him. This is a wonderful story with vivid characters and extensive world-building. The mystery is handled well and the love between Lilly and Thad is palpable. I look forward to the next color and scandal! 
The narration is beautifully done by Daniella Rose. Her dynamic, well-modulated voice gives each character a unique personality. 

Great story!

This was a great story and I greatly enjoyed it. It was a fast listen-to, but I'll have to go back and see about getting the rest of the stories in this series.

I loved the narrator's accent but she needs work. The majority of the time, she read stiltedly as if the sentences were full of commas. When she gets to the end of the line, she pauses, then begins again. Other times, she read from one sentence to the next with no pause between the two (mainly toward the later part of the story). Either way, it's obvious she’s reading. Her voice also would change tones as though moving away/closer to the microphone; and she mispronounced (common) words like beau, phaeton, and debutants.

A few times the wording seemed questionable to me. For example, the character “slunk from shadow to shadow, careful to follow the Thames, clinging fog maintaining his quarry difficult.” Or “She gawked at him with her lower jaw partially open.” This is a perfect example of redundancy because if someone’s gawking, this means their mouth/lower jaw is open. Or when Thaddeus trails her “from behind.” If someone is trailing another person, it means they’re behind them.

The only thing I didn't get or pick up on was the title.


I received a free audiobook code in exchange for a review.

Disappointing Narration

The story was good, but the mispronounced words and odd inflections detracted from it. “Beaux” doesn’t rhyme with bus. “Nuptials” doesn’t have two “u” sounds.