The Marchington Scandal

There was no romance between the H/H. the first kiss comes with 5 minutes left in the book. They don't hold hands, hug, or touch each other. I never got a sense that they had chemistry and so did not care if they got together.

I don't know. I don't like to write off an author because of one book, so will try onemore. She is noted as a best selling author, so someone must like her books. It was an old-fashioned romance with little physical contact, but I was reading this type of HR 30 years ago, so she does not break any new ground.

I think the narrator was good, but may have over-acted some characters. The two most notable were Mary ( who came off as a mouse, as the narrator used a quiet whisper) and Eleanor ( that sounded like a whining brat, the narrator used a high pitched, quaver for her dialogue). I think this must have been how there were written, but only have the narrator's interpretation of the character as a gauge.

I think there were too many scenes of balls where Thomas's character was behaving badly and the next scene where his wife is crying to the heroine, Katherine. After a while it was just boring. The character of Mary/Eleanor being indecisive and saying " I don't know, became repetative.

This was a very "old school" romance and would appeal to people that don't want to read about physical contact between the characters. I think it is problematic in determining the attraction between two people, if they don't interact on this level. I don't need them to jump into bed, but some idea that they feel more for each other than extreme friendship helps to draw the reader into the story, which this book did not.