love and other scandals by caroline linden

There she throws open his curtains, makes as much noise as she possibly can, and happily badgers her brother. She realizes it’s Tristan, needles him about his rude behavior, shoves past him, and waltzes up the steps to her brother’s room. She’s startled when a shirtless man yanks it open. Joan, who is unescorted because she is only supposed to call upon her brother, arrives at his house right after breakfast and bangs on the door. (She’s especially gleeful about the prospect of waking him up from a hangover.) Joan knows Douglas would rather be kicked in the face by his horse than go to a marriage mart ball and so, being the lovely sweet sister she is, Joan volunteers to go to her brother’s and relay her mother’s command. Bennet has anything to do with it, marry – a nice young lady named Felicity. Joan’s mother has decided that Douglas simply must attend the Malcom Ball the next night so that he may dance with – and, if Mrs. Tristan is staying with her dissolute (but essentially kind) brother Douglas in the latter’s town home while Tristan repairs his own. The third time Joan meets Tristan, she’s 24. “I’ll remember you, Joan Bennet,” he said. He looked full of joy in that moment, and Joan’s smile faded away as she stared at him. His deep green eyes lit up and a wide grin creased his face, sharpening a dimple in his cheek. Tristan Burke stared at her, and then he laughed. She beamed at him, instead of smacking him across the face as her hand itched to do. He looked at her, perhaps really paying attention to her for the first time. Heaven preserve me from such unbearable oppression.”

I could never possibly understand what it’s like to be a gentleman with my own fortune, able to do as I please with no one to say me nay. She asks him why, as an independent man, he cares. When Joan approaches him and tells him she’s sorry for his loss, he kvetches to her about the way his relatives and society gossip about him. Tristan, now Lord Burke, is a tall moody man who has already began to garner a reputation as a rake. The second time they meet, it’s at Tristan’s uncle’s funeral. Joan is asleep in her room when Tristan bursts into her room, shirtless and carrying a single red rose. Tristan is up from Eton for the holiday with Joan’s brother Douglas. Joan and Tristan first meet when Joan is eight and Tristan twelve. Together, they are an engaging couple whose path to true love is sweet, believable, interesting, and sexy. The louche hero, Tristan Burke, is witty and wicked. Joan Bennet, the spinster heroine, has a sharper tongue and a sharper mind.

Caroline Linden’s Love and Other Scandals is the best historical romance I’ve read this summer.

Love and other scandals by caroline linden