Book review

For some years, I reviewed romances for Compuserve. It was enjoyable and I got free books in the process. Even after Compuserve shut down its review board, I kept reading romance novels for the fun of it. But the last one I bought was a little disappointing.

"A Dash of Scandal" by Gloria Dale Skinner, writing as Amelia Grey
Jove Books, 2002
ISBN: 0-515-13401-5

The title attracted me. It was obviously a Regency romance. Ever since I read Jane Austen's stories, that period has held enjoyment. The story is of a country girl who visits an aunt in London for 'the season'. Her aunt is a gossip columnist and has had a fall which precludes her going to parties and gathering gossip. She persuades her niece to do the gathering while she continues to write her column. The niece meets a naughty earl and falls in love with him. In the mean time, a thief has been stealing from the homes at which the parties are held, including the earl's. After some misunderstanding, the niece and the earl form a team to catch the thief. He falls in love with her and all ends well.

A cute story and very well written. But there is a problem for me. The author has her characters saying some things that reek of Regency and others that might have come from her local high school right now. Her character's actions are not those of a pair of Regency gentles. In fact, they might have been a pair of high school lovers in Regency dress up.

Of course, each costume change of our heroine is detailed by the author. She also provides details of the dress of other female characters and some of the males... sometimes. I'm not sure if this is 'de rigeur' for a modern Regency writer. But between skipping those descriptions and the protracted, unlikely love scenes, this book was a very quick read.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the reading. The problem was more in non-Regency charactizations and speach. I think that Ms. Dale Skinner should re-read "Pride and Prejudice" to see what actions were more probable in the gentles of that period.