Review: How to Survive a Scandal

How to Survive a Scandal by Samara Parish
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

The stranger leaned against the shack walls, and a blond lock of hair fell over his forehead. Deep blue eyes, the color of a twilight sky, stared into hers. He was not the sort of man she was acquainted with. He wasn't pretty or refined; he was granite and rock. 

How to Survive a Scandal starts us off with a scandal, Lady Amelia Crofton is found in dishabille, alone in a cabin with Mr. Benedict Asterly by her father, fiance, and Lord Karstark. Benedict had found Amelia unconscious in a broken wheeled carriage on the road during a snow storm, so he brought her to a cabin and was working to warm her up. Lord Karstark is a gossipy old thing and Amelia's fiance since the age of five, the Duke of Wildeforde, hates scandal and now wants nothing to do with Amelia or the scandal. Benedict is a footman's son (he's also the grandson of the Marquess of Harrington but Amelia doesn't know that right away) but to save Amelia's reputation he offers for her and we have our forced marriage of convenience. 

Perhaps she wasn't so frigid and dispassionate. Perhaps it was a mask to hide her fragility. He'd been there. He understood. 

I enjoyed how this started right away with the scandal and throwing our two leads together right away; the reader learns the characters as they learn each other. Amelia had the traits and personality of what one might think of an aristocratic woman of the time, she's snobby and worried about society. I didn't mind this at first, as I love to go on growth journeys with characters but, except for the very very end, Amelia doesn't lose her need for society's validation. Benedict does more of the changing and he grows to accept his aristocratic side and see how some benefits can come from it. He is an engineer and a partner in a firm that builds steam engines and we get some story of how he's working to close a deal with Americans to build engines and how that will supply the town with jobs. This is during the time of the Peterloo Massacre and while I liked how the author showed the class clashing and upheaval that was starting to manifest, I thought Benedict did more changing than Amelia and that took away some feelings of coming together cohesiveness in their relationship.

He wasn't the fine and graceful gentleman his mother had wanted, or that Amelia was used to, but that was fine. She liked him just the way he was. And that unexpected acceptance had begun to heal wounds he hadn't cared to admit he had. 

Since the marriage of convenience starts early, I was looking for some slow burn tension and while they had some moments, I can't say I really felt the emotion between the two. Their personalities never fully gelled for me and even though there is an orgasm scene for Amelia, this is a bedroom door shut romance. I usually like at least a peak in and without their personalities giving me an emotional connection, Amelia and Benedict never really came together for me. 

The end wraps-up with a surprise inheritance that was a little disappointing to me, it took away more opportunity for Amelia to show some growth and the story-thread about the Americans and steam engines being hastily dealt with to the side. There are some secondary characters that drew my interest (the foreman Oliver should definitely get his own story) and I'm sure everyone is going to want to know what is going on between the Duke of Wildeforde and Benedict's partner in the firm Fiona. This had some compelling elements but unfortunately, felt pretty bloodless to me.

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