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

He was . . .

He was jealous.

That
pedestrian word.

Ah.
So this is what the peasants feel like
, he told himself dryly.

Being honest with myself and putting this in a timeout. I have no desire to finish this series right now.

Crossing my fingers with this being what I call a Redmond adjacent book, it's a good one.

So Evie and Adam know about Jack’s existence but no one else does? How does that work?

“Perhaps we were overcome. That is all.”
“Yes. And perhaps you were being French again.”
“Yes. This is the French version of the waltz, and I was being French.”

A+ rationalization from both of you. Good luck keeping this up.

This is funny as heck. Very tongue in cheek. I hope this continues.

…“he said all of this with barely restrained patience and a hint of condescension that made her want to kick him. Likely she’d only break her foot and he wouldn’t even wobble in those hessians.”


👞🙊😂

Fantastic last page. 😁

”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.

I've been on a quest this year to find a new favourite author, and now I think I've found her.

This is just an adorable one. Julie Ann Long can do SUCH good dialog and slow build up to the love story that makes it so believable. I just love it when she does a good romance.

And she ground against him, her limbs shaking and tense with reigned-in lust.

Gah! Nothing pops me out of a book, especially a sex scene, than one of my pet peeves! Rein!

Because she did know what a man's hands could do, given free reign of a woman's body.

Gah! One of my pet peeves! "Rein", not "reign"!

Lovely story. Hope Seamus gets his own story. Can't wait to read about Olivia & Lyon finally!

Jack and Seamus are cuties. Love the slow build between Lavay & Elise. She definitely is inventive with her bargains.

Good start to this one. Love seeing Violet and Asher again. Enjoying getting to know Lavay & Elise.

“Why are you now a housekeeper, Mrs. Fountain, and not a teacher?”
“I said something out of turn,” she admitted softly.
“Shocking.”
That made her smile, and that was better.
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.

Loving it!

Considering how 'Between the Devil and Ian Eversea' ended, it would be only natural to follow it with Lyon and Olivia's book. Alas, money makes the world go 'round, so here's another filler book. I just hope I love it as much as I loved the other filler book in the series, 'How the Marquess was Won'...

I say I'm at 36%, but I'm really at 35% and change...I'm just rounding up in an effort to motivate me back to this book.
Someone tell me this is worth it!

I hope the employee/employer hero worship will be over soon.