Title: Lord of Scoundrels
Author: Loretta Chase
Genre: Historical: European
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago (ok, it was January, but online that’s, like, nine years ago or some shit), DocTurtle read and blogged about his romance exploration, a readerly tour of romance 101 directed by recommendations from the Bitchery. First he read Sex, Straight Up, because he dismissed the category genre in an offhand remark and I challenged him to put his reading where is snark is. He agreed, discovered the Power of Lurrrrrrve™, and went on to read Heyer’s An Infamous Army. Then, he picked up Lord of Scoundrels, the book that drags people into romance whether they like it or not.
And then, behold, there was a semester, and as a math professor, DocTurtle was a busy busy turtle. He comes bearing apologies and a new appreciation for romance.
Um…Remember me?
It’s been a long, long time since I last posted on this lovely blog. In the time that’s passed since my last contribution, I’ve had time to pop in and read the posts Sarah’s left, occasionally browse the comments, chuckle to myself, but do little else.
Shortly after I began reading and blogging about Loretta Chase’s wonderful Lord of Scoundrels, the spring semester, a heavy one filled to bursting with several time-consuming courses, came crashing down on my head. For the first time ever (and, I hope, the last time ever) I found myself teaching four different courses this past term. Add to that various conference and seminars, a few research projects, and a handful of committee commitments, and you’ve got one hell of a busy mathematician.
Bitch mewl moan gripe whine…I don’t mean it as an excuse so much as an explanation. I’ve offered my humble apologies to SB Sarah, and I hope she’s not given up on me. I’ve not given up on her, and I’ve not given up on my promise to work my way through a few more romance novels, starting with Chase’s LoS.
So here we are.
Three days ago, with every trace of the most hellacious semester in memory brushed back into my past, I picked up Lord of Scoundrels again (I was about 200 pages into it before), and just hours ago I finished rereading it.
As I know you’re all aware…It. Was. Marvelous.
I’d read the first several (eleven, I think?) chapters by January, and I blogged to y’all about my take on several of them. The journey through the last hundred and fifty pages was effortless. Pshaw.
Ms. Chase made it easy. The clever turns of phrase! the vivid metaphors! the sharp humor!
Lord Dain, on the pained look of virgin madonnas: “They look exceedingly ill-tempered. I suppose it’s on account of being virgins—of experiencing all the unpleasantness of breeding and birthing and none of the jolly parts.”
Jessica, on Dain’s taste in women: “When Bertie told me how much you paid, I thought it was their services which were so horrifically expensive. Now, however, I comprehend my error. Obviously you pay by volume.”
And the insults, oh, the insults! Henwit! Baconbrain! Ha’pennyworth of a chit! Thickheaded ox! Cocksure clodpole! Yeah, I always loves me some alliteration.
Leaving aside her knack for dialogue, there’s Chase’s exceptional eye for imagery, and for setting a scene. One can clearly see the lamppost against which Dain presses Jessica when they first kiss (a kiss lasting very nearly three pages). One can nearly feel the slightly salty water filling the air that hangs over the moors surrounding the Ballister family home. One can easily conjure up the candlelit tête-à-tête between the extortionists Charity Graves and Roland Vawtry.
None of this is to say that Chase’s work is all style and no substance. Every element of the carefully-crafted plot is subtly connected with every other, and every single thing that happens in furtherance of the plot, every conversation, every confrontation, every connivance, is believable. Dain and Jessica take turns in upping the ante on one another, calling each other’s bluffs with more bluffs, pulling aces from their sleeves until they’ve emptied out their shirts…but every move they make is the right move at the right time.
Jessica won’t give Dain the icon he desperately wants (though he can’t yet truly know why)?
Fine then, Dain will scandalize Jessica with a public disrobing.
Fine then, Jessica will have it known that the most roguish roué to ever stalk the Paris streets has fallen headlong for a well-bred spinster of thirty years.
Fine then, Dain will make love, in no uncertain terms, to said spinster in plain sight of several reliable witnesses.
Fine then, Jessica will shoot Dain, lest anyone think she’s bound to let her honor be besmirched.
Fine then, Dain will propose to marry Jessica in order to restore her honor for her.
Fine then, Jessica will accept his proposal, in order that she not be consigned to “a life of poverty and obscurity in a remote outpost of civilization.”
Fine then, neither of them will have to enjoy it.
Or will they?
The ensuing story of Dain’s redemption, and his son’s, is utterly engaging and told with perfect pace. Character? Check. Scene? Check. Plot? Check. And all of it is beautifully bundled together with various maternal metaphors: bits of Jessica, Lucia, Charity Graves, and the Virgin Mary herself are blended together to tell a story that’s ultimately one about these several mothers and their respective sons.
I’m sure it will shock no one to hear me agree with the bulk of the Bitchery that this isn’t simply a good romance novel, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Brava, Ms. Chase! Brava!
I have to offer my apologies to those of you who’ve delighted in my chapter-by-chapter posts from the planet Mars (read: the male half of the species) and find something lacking in this one-shot post, something…episodic and acerbic? Episodic: I found it hard to put this book down long enough to jot down a blow-by-blow account that would make much sense. Acerbic: there was far too little to snark in this book for me to make a meal out of what little silliness I could scrape together.
I guess the book was just too damned good.
If you’d like, I can repeat a few of the complaints I made while reading Kathleen O’Reilly’s Sex, Straight Up: I’m sorry, but “he smelled like Male” (italics not mine) and “he was a man-man” are still silly phrases.
If you’d like, perhaps the next title I tackle can be a lousier one?
My long, long absence notwithstanding, I truly am eager to continue my romantic journey, if y’all (and SB Sarah) will still have me. The summer lies before me, offering many more hours for reading and reflecting.
So, my friends, what will it be? Another regency? Another contemporary category? Paranormal? [Gulp] NASCAR? I’m all yours, I await your next request.
Thank you, Sir Turtle!
So: you interested in more hilarity from DocTurtle? If so, any books to suggest? Shall we hit him with McCarthy’s Flat Out Sexy since he gulped at the Nascar? Or perhaps a Harlequin NASCAR anthology? What’s your thought?
And dude, is there anything LoS can’t do? I wonder if it makes breakfast.
Welcome back Doc!
I love, love, love Doc’s snarky take on these books so I agree with everyone that says he should read something a little less beloved next time…
OTOH we do want him to see how good romance can be so how about a great paranormal next? I suggest “Angel’s Blood” by Nalini Singh.
I must be one of the few people that thinks “Bet Me” is seriously mediocre. I suspect Doc will find more to snark on than fans may like or expect. Same with “For My Lady’s Heart.” A long, dull read IMO.
I’d go with the Crusie—Welcome to Temptation. Though it’d be interesting to see what he makes of J.R. Ward.
If we’re going for a good contemporary, I’d say “Agnes and the Hitman” because though I love “Bet Me” I think that book is best read by a woman on a diet. The NASAR series can wait.
Paranormals – I agree with the “Dahrk Lohvehr” recommendation – it’s snarkworthy as anything, but of those books, it’s the best one and it started out very strong. I’d love to hear a chapter-by-chapter account of anyone reading that thing. I think that a lot of the paranormals being named are fantastic, but aren’t really romance – if we’re going with the ParaRomance vs Urban Fantasy split Anne Sowards (I think? Or an editor named Heather something?) mentioned in her SmartBitch interview recently, where the focus is more on the relationship than the worldbuilding. I’d like to see him read a paranormal romance where the focus is firmly on the relationship. Maybe a Kresley Cole? She’s good, but not so good he couldn’t find things to snark about. And I’m sad she hasn’t been reviewed on this site, yet. She’s crazy fun, and the power dynamics in her worldbuilding are facinating.
I think that after Chase and Heyer we can lay off the historicals for a bit. Still, I’d love to see a man’s take on “The Duke and I” which I both love and hate. Love the angsty love story and the writing, hate that Daphe kind of forces fatherhood on Sir Angsty Duke. Sure, his reasons for resisting were terrible, but I wasn’t comfortable with that at all, and I think it says a lot about “baby as ethical failsafe/female motive justification” in romance novels (could we get Sarah and Candy to have a conversation about that one online, now that law school is out for the summer? I’d love to read their thoughts on that). I’ve always thought a man would have a lot to say about that book.
I think paranormal is the way for Doc to go next. J. R. Ward, Patricia Briggs, or Kresley Cole are all good suggestions. But definitely one that focuses on the relationship, not NWRE. And at some point he must read Naked In Death.
Contemporary should perhaps come after that, Crusie (but NOT one of the co-written books, at least not to start) and Erin McCarthy’s Flat Out Sexy.
Having had a rather hellacious spring semester myself, I welcome Doc to a summer of reading and having a life!
How about some Emma Holly? I’m grinning just thinking about the response to Strange Attraction…
Or, you know, to leave the sciences out of it completely, Personal Assets. I’d be curious to hear a male reaction to that.
How about Decadent by Shayla Black? LOL!
I have to agree with some of the others above and go with Jennifer Crusie’s Bet Me. I think he needs more good stuff. And isn’t everyone sick of paranormal already?
however45- however He could ready Twilight and snark the heck out of it!
I would love to see his take on Dark Lover! It seems almost cruel but it is so snarkerific and a male perspective has the potential to be endlessly entertaining. If you wanted to be cruel, you could give him any recent Sherrilyn Kenyon. Acheron is utterly crappy but that would be too mean.
I feel like I haven’t read any really good paranormals in a long time. I have fond memories of the first Anita Blake.
Bet Me is lovely and definitely a good representative of contemporaries. A snark worthy choice would be any of the Lora Leigh Nauti’s. They are all craptastic but for some reason I forced myself to read all four.
Just chiming in to say that whatever he picks up next, I’m quite willing to read his male point-of-view on romance novels whenever he has the time. Real life always takes precedence.
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments on my review, and for welcoming me back. The summer promises to offer a fair share of free time, in between bouts of mathematical mayhem.
As for my next romantic read, I’m game for anything. Personally, I almost have more fun when doling out the snark, but as I’m still a relative noob to the romance genre, I’m also up for another “good” title from one of the subgenres you’ve not yet asked me to explore. Maybe one of each?
I promise I’ll be more prompt next time! You gotta believe me when I say that I felt a twinge of guilt every time I glanced at my copy of Lord of Scoundrels.
@ Rae: yeah, I’m in NC, too…and never have been a NASCAR kinda guy. Although there aren’t many mathematicians that are into NASCAR, there are a few.
@ Ms. Kinsale, re your Flowers from the Storm: recently one of my best friends, a very non-mathy person and soon to be a published author of speculative fiction (hey, yo, Darin!), pumped my brain for mathematical lingo to include in a prospectus he’s writing for another novel, one of whose central characters is a mathematician. We had fun.
I want him to read some paranormals. Hey, I want him to read mine…of course, he is enjoying the romance genre at the moment, and I’d hate to make him regret that. Hmmmm….
Didn’t he say he wanted a not-so-good one this time? Let him read a Lass Small TEXAS book. Blurg.
It HAS to be “Bet Me.” It’s modern, it’s funny, it’s charming, it’s got a GREAT theme (in fact, lots of them!) and it’s the BEST romance about a woman with a weight issue. The reader loves her AND Cal equally! It’s a classic, that I think will be in print fifty years from now (and as much as I love Ward, do you really think her brotherhood will be? It will not age well, IMO). Doc Turtle is not so steeped in romance that we can afford to risk losing him by giving him something that he might not like—yet. If you can read “Bet Me” and not laugh, you need to call the rescue.
What a happy surprise to see DocTurtle back… and me, just re-reading LoS at the moment! Cool. WB, Patrick! :o)
I have never been a big fan of paranormals, so I don’t have any suggestions for those. I can, however, recommend lots of good and painful categories! LOL
In fact, Sarah, if you kept that box of books I sent you way back when, just pull out one of those Patti Salier books… can’t get much more painfully purple than those. LOL
There were also some seriously good ones—ones that are still available in e-books and reprints today, tho I think I gave you originals. Hmn… Korbel’s A Rose for Maggie is a good one. Won the Rita, as I recall.
Diane :o)
Well, there’s always V. C. Andrews and Flowers in the Attic. That could be the snark of the century – even beyond Cleolinda’s “review” of Breaking Dawn.
How about the paranormal historical Royal Blood, by Rona Sharon.
I’d love to see some DocTurtle snark about vampires at the court of Henry VIII!
i absolutely cringe when anybody brings up NASCAR. To paraphrase my favorite comic: I don’t understand what is exciting about people making left turn after left turn.
My vote is for Three Fates by Nora Roberts, which is my favorite book.
So glad that Doc got waylaid by real life…because that meant I got to finish LoS before he posted his final review here! It was so hard earlier this year to avoid spoilers when he was posting chapter by chapter and it was on my TBR list. But now I was able to read his review and nod in agreement with everything…even the “smell of Male”.
And I’m furiously jotting down some of these recommendations…I have For My Lady’s Heart sitting there waiting for me to finish The Sevenwaters Trilogy first…so I hope he chooses something else for now.
Hmmm …. speaking of mathematicians … how about Nobody’s Baby But Mine by the incomparable SEP?
Welcome back to the turtle with a degree!
I both love and fear (for my wallet) these kinds of comment threads…
Dark Lover – Oh yes, that I’d like to see with snark!
Otherwise (keeping in mind I’m still just a wee young thing as far as romance goes):
I’ll [whatever number we’re up to]-th Naked in Death, by J.D. Robb.
Sea Swept, by Nora Roberts
Sexiest Man Alive, by Diana Holquist (I thought it was a really funny read)
Goddess of Spring, by P.C. Cast (I’m glad I was able to get one with the original cover, but, for the most part, if I want to collect the others I’ll have to go with the crappy new covers-GRR!)
Welcome back Doc Turtle! Yu haz bene misst.
I vote for Bet Me by Jenny Crusie, or
A Laura Kinsale – I’d vote for Flowers from the Storm, maths professor or not, or
Naked in Death by JD Robb.
Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy is one of my Top Favourite romances. I re-read it constantly.
For recently written period romances, The Lost Duke of Wyndham and Mr. Cavendish I Presume by Julia Quin are GEMS.
Contemporary romance that I would recommend are Nora Roberts’ Carolina Moon (I never see much about this, don’t know why, especially as it is my favourite Nora book), Crusie’s Getting Rid of Bradley and Alisa Kwitney’s Flirting in Cars. The last one I think is an even better choice of ‘modern romance’ and I prefer it over Bet Me.
And I hope that last statement doesn’t bring the fury of SBTB readers upon me…
Ohhh, I forgot! Fantasy would be an awesome sub-genre to follow up and I’d rec the Black Jewels trilogy from Anne Bishop. Those books might just get some men’s balls rear up and roll back into their bodies. XD How much can Doc Turtle take?!
The Forbidden Enchantment by Nina Bruhns (Harlequin): it’s got a Cajun pirate reincarnated as a fireman! What’s not to like?
I started to read LoS at the same as the Doc and it took him so long…I thought, this is bad, he hates it, damn, double-damn.
Don’t snark this wonderful book…
Glad to hear his positive review.
I can’t wait to hear his take on “that” dialogue we had such fun with – in ur ass, saving yr life. lol
Please. Pretty please. Assign him this one. Please. *grovel*
Naked in Death gets my vote. I love that series.
I would love to see what he has to say about Mr Perfect by Howard – this is one of my favourite reads.
Then again Joey Hills Natural Law would be great too.
However I would love to see what he has to say about the Brotherhood
Oh my verification word: boys69—should I have given out some m/m choices??
I agree that he should read a contemporary next to shake things up . . . and Crusie would be the best choice imho.
I would vote for WELCOME TO TEMPTATION, but BET ME is good too. Either one is a nice introduction to Crusie.
Joey Hill’s Natural Law would be too much of a shock to the system imho. That book is not for the faint of heart and you have to walk before you can run.
I would vote for any of the following:
Historicals:
PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS (Thomas)
RANSOM (Garwood)
DREAMING OF YOU (Kleypas)
Contemporaries:
WELCOME TO TEMPTATION or GETTING RID OF BRADLEY (Crusie)
IT HAD TO BE YOU (Phillips)
I’m new to the blog, so I just read all of Doc Turtle’s reviews yesterday – so I didn’t have to wait as long as the rest of you for the last installment, lol. I’ve enjoyed them immensely.Coincidentally, I stopped at a new book warehouse on the way home last night, and there was Lord of Scoundrels, which I’ve never read, right there in front. After seeing all the rave reviews, I picked it up so I could share in the joy.
I vote for Nora Roberts next. 🙂
Go for the snharhk – go for Ward’s Bhrotherhood. As countless of people have already mentioned, they are both highly crhackthastic and begging to be unmercifully mocked. And I imagine most of us have actually read at least the first book so all the better to enjoy the recaps!
As a contemporary, I would agree with Cruisie but would suggest WELCOME TO TEMPTATION. BET ME always struck me a being a more chick-lit than romance. And TEMPTATION does have THAT sex scene ;-). Whatever you can say about Cruisie, she gives good “fun sex”.
For more snark-worthiness but still classic, I would give our Doc SEP’s NOBODY’S BABY BUT MINE – here’s a book with such a ridiculous premise that STILL manages to win you over… I would give him IT HAD TO BE YOU but that would just be another LoS/Crusie situation of non-snarkiness.
does anybody else imagine hugh jackman as lord dain?
I’m really torn…I think Decadent would be hilarious (even though I think I’m the only person who mildly liked the book) as would Dhark Lovher…For a contemp: Welcome to Temptation vs La Nora (my favorite is Northern Lights, but I’ll accept any Nora).
Oh, the anticipation..it burns!!!
seconding all the nominations for: In Death Series, Jennifer Crusie and any Nora. And as timing is everything just finished Flat out Sexy so would add that to ‘good’ pile
hours79? Why yes, I think I read three Lisa Kleypas books in the last 79 hours. Thank goodness for three day weekends!
Geez, a couple of days away from the computer and Doc Turtle comes back. I bought this book based on his commentary and loved it.
I’m torn, because I’d really love his take on Naked in Death (and it’s at the other end of the spectrum from the historical), but I’ve already read it (and the series—more than once). I like finding new stuff here.
But yeah, I vote for Naked in Death. And being from Florida, I get lots of votes, right?
Chase, via Smart Bitches, converted me to romance. Crusie, to contemporary romance. Bujold to SF romance. Has DT read Crusie or Bujold, yet?
heh: my code is answer93
I vote for Crusie, specifically, Getting Rid of Bradley.
It’s a fabulous contemporary, & screamingly funny to boot !
A book that cry’s out for a sequel , but she parted company with Harlequin before that could happen
I vote Dark Lover also. The names alone!
Flowers from the Storm had me all teary. I also really liked The Shadow and the Star.
Goddess of the Spring is another good one.
If I were going to vote for a non-Crusie contemporary, though I really like Agnes and the Hitman, I’d go for Lucy Monroe’s The Real Deal. I don’t know why, but I love that book. Maybe it’s something to do with hot smart guys. I seem to have a thing for hot smart guys, especially socially awkward ones.
I’m gonna hafta go with all the Decadent recommendations. We didn’t get any snark out of LoS….
I vote for some Crusie, Bet Me or else Agnes. Also, I love Susan Elizabeth Phillips, pretty much any of the football ones—Make Me a Match is good, but the older ones are as well. I also love love Linda Howard Mr. Perfect, Open Season, the Mackenzies…. is he really ready for Decadent or the Nautis? Why not just throw him right into the August brothers? 😉