Status Updates From It Started With a Scandal (...

”But I believe that you and I, Mrs. Fountain, are now engaged in something like a reel.”
She sucked in a surprised breath.
Because she understood.
Meeting and parting. Meeting and parting. Meeting and parting.
Their eyes met.
And just like that, all at once they might as well have been the last two people in the world [...]

Oh, this book!

And just like that, after he’d fished around and unearthed her deepest pain based on a teardrop on a letter, she was dismissed [...] But oddly, he had shared with her a peculiar moment of absolute peace, so singular and distinct that she realized that nothing had been peaceful about the last six years of her life. [...] His silent understanding [...] had flowed into all those fissures that ached like cracks in skin.

Some trees toppled when continually battered by storms. Others just grew deeper, stronger roots.
He suspected he knew which kind of tree Mrs. Fountain would be.

This IS suffering because I haven't read any of the nine previous books. Past events and characters are being mentioned frequently and they mean nothing to me, evoke no fond memories of those characters' own books. I ask myself, why did you request this end of series book without having read any of the previous books?! That's so unlike you. *shakes head at misguided choices*

I requested my library purchase this for me two years ago. I have no idea why and don't remember doing it. Nevertheless they agreed and after noticing that it was on my list of suggestions but I had yet to read it I figured I had better take the opportunity before it got removed from the catalogue all over again.

Now to see whether the book will suffer because I haven't read any of the previous books...

Fine, I'll admit cried when I read the letter from her parents. I'm a wuss.

Already I'm hooked. Ms. Long never fails to engage me from the first word!

Poor Mrs. Winthrop had been informed that Lord Lavay had become charming and had stopped shouting and throwing things. She felt betrayed by how untrue this was.

He’d gotten awfully voluble and French, and she was both amused and dangerously enchanted.

He was a little concerned that if she’d said I committed a murder, he would have found a way to rationalize her current position. Perhaps merely keep her away from the meat cleavers, that sort of thing.