A Scandalous Proposal by Julia Justiss

Another older book plucked out of my TBR pile.

A Scandalous Proposal by Julia Justiss
(2000, Regency) 2/7/08
Grade: 3.5

Emily has been struggling since her family disowned her and her soldier husband died in Spain, but she’s finally been able to open up a hat shop and support her son. But when Evan, the Earl of Cheverley, helps her, she decides a liasion with him is her best option. Evan finds her very attractive, but neither one expected to fall in love...

At first I expected to dislike the premise of this book (she’s just a mistress!) but that turned out to be less of an issue than I originally thought. I liked the characters, and even though it’s hard to understand at first why Evan is so “in love” with Emily, his love (and not just lust) becomes clearer as time goes on. However, this book felt like a series of strung-together episodes. It seemed like every time Evan and Emily got close to happiness, the author threw another out-of-the-blue obstacle in their way. It’s his position - no, it’s his friend who died in battle - no, it’s the crippled fiancee - no, it’s her title - no, it’s her engagement to his friend. It began to get tedious. Although the book started with promise and had appealing characters, I found the book harder and harder to get through as I got further into it - I just got tired.

Although the sex quotient is a bit higher here than in a typical Regency, I'd still label this Harlequin Historical as "Regency" rather than "Regency Historical".