OK, we all know how I feel about cutesy titles for romance novels, I'm not in favor of them. I've already taken Avon to task for this, so I won't go over the old territory. My feelings toward the titles notwithstanding, the third book in Maclean's trilogy exhibits many of the same strengths as the earlier two.
Eleven Scandals features the trials and tribulations of Juliana Fiori. Juliana is the younger half sister of Gabriel and Nicolas St. John, who were featured in the first two books of the Love By Numbers series. The beginning of Eleven Scandals finds Juliana deeply attracted to Simon Pearson, Duke of Leighton, also lovingly known as the 'Duke of Disdain' due to his fondness for proper behavior and his rigid adherence to social rules and guidelines. Anyone who has ever read a romance novels understands immediately where this is going, fiery Juliana will shake up rigid Simon's world and love and passion will be the result. Still, even though the premise is predictable, Maclean writes with such an enormous amount of charm and humor, and her characters are so well drawn and interesting that we are willing and happy to be along for the ride.
Let me just say that Juliana is not my favorite kind of heroine. I appreciated her humor and her passionate nature, but heroines who go about falling into scandalous situations while bemoaning the fact that society will never accept them tend to wear on me. It is to Maclean's credit that she kept Juliana complex enough to engage, even as I rolled my eyes at her antics. Maclean does a fine job of exploring both Simon and Juliana's background and this allows the reader to understand and empathize with both of these often maddening characters. Simon is so uptight because he has been raised and groomed to be a Duke from a very early age. Propriety is all he knows. Thanks to his younger sister Georgiana, he is also facing a potential scandal that could spoil their family name and reputation. As a preemptive measure, he has decided to marry the most prim and proper woman he can find and that means that Juliana is out of the running. It is somewhat surprising to me that Simon seemed to alienate a lot of readers. I liked him. He appears to be doing what Dukes do and his attempts to preserve his family name and social standing seem entirely appropriate for the time period. Sure, he is a bit of a prig and his confusion concerning his attraction to Juliana causes him to behave badly at times, but I really felt more empathy for him than for Juliana. It is a credit to Maclean's great strength as a writer that I ended up understanding and liking both of these characters. In the end, their mad chemistry and the wildly romantic, if completely implausible, denouement made this book an enjoyable read.
Maclean is certainly a bright spot in the somewhat dismal world of historical romance these days. Her skill as a writer, her humor and her charm all remind me very much of the best work of Julia Quinn or Sabrina Jeffries. I have enjoyed all three titles in this series and I and very excited to see where Maclean takes us next.
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