Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A Perfect Scandal-Tina Gabrielle

A Perfect Scandal
Tina Gabrielle
Zebra, Oct 1 2010, $6.99
ISBN: 9781420108491

In 1814 London Lady Isabel Cameron wants to cross the Channel to study art in Paris. To achieve her goal once the Napoleonic wars end, she knows she must never marry. Her father believes a lady needs a husband so he plans to arrange a marriage for his daughter before she becomes comfortable on the shelf. Thus the earl plans to give her to a man over three decades older than her and even older than him.

Desperate Isabel needs to find the right man quick. She meets scandalous Lord Marcus Hawksley, who is her age and a younger son of an earl; however, he is unacceptable by the Ton because he earns a living as a stockbroker. Isabel chooses Marcus as ideal for her; not to marry but to destroy her reputation so no one will wed her. Without a companion, she goes to see him to ask for his assistance, but when he is accused of stealing she is his alibi, but also his scandal. They agree to a short term marriage of convenience, but an inconvenient truth surfaces when they fall in love.

A Perfect Scandal is a perfect Regency romance due to the lead characters, who bring refreshing new ideas to the entertaining story line. Whereas she wants to study art while embracing spinsterhood; he breaks a social taboo by working as a stockbroker. Readers will enjoy the relationship between these ducal offspring; as Tina Gabrielle proves that the whole formed by love is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Harriet Klausner

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