A Beastly Scandal

HISTORICAL, MYSTERY:  Lady Annabelle Marchant used to live in a world of glitter, dancing and balls. Now she’s far away from it all, but what she still has are her extra senses. The feelings she gets can help people and when she hears a ghost is bothering the recently widowed Lady Terrance, an old family friend, she feels the need to help. The problem: the widow’s son, the beastly Lord of the Manor, believes the worst of her because of a meeting that led to the loss of her fiancée and Rufus' father. Not to mention Lord Rufus Marlesbury would never believe in such nonsense as ghosts. Drawn to him, but compelled to resolve the haunting, what is Belle to do? Rufus has been living in hell and under a time limit for six months now, since his father's murder. The chief suspect: Rufus himself. He only has a little time left to prove his innocence. Three things that are not helping his plight are Belle and his unwilling attraction to her, everyone’s fear of him (hence the nickname Lord Terror) and all that ghost rubbish. Time is running out….

A lovely regency tale by Shereen Vedam! Picking up this book, a reader gets an interesting rendition of Beauty and the Beast, with sparkling characters, lots of family drama, humor, a mystery and ghosts! If there is one issue with the novel it is the expedient nature of the love between Belle and Rufus. Felt a bit unreal and forced. That’s too often the case with romance novels, though, and was offset by the brilliance of the author’s writing.

Mimi Smith