A review by bottleblondebookworm
The Duke Starts a Scandal by Sophie Jordan

slow-paced

3.0

First off, I love Sophie Jordan. The first three books in the series were amazing and I was very much looking forward to The Duke Starts a Scandal and Susanna’s story. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t work for me, and I found myself mainly skimming it to get to the end quicker. 

Susanna is the housekeeper for the newly arrived Duke of Penning, Lucian. Lucian and his sisters have recently inherited the title and all that comes with it after living a difficult life. Susanna is young and beautiful and has been working for the previous Duke for over a decade now, since she came to live with her aunt after a scandal in her hometown. Lucian is immediacy attracted to Susanna, but because of his own past, he was a sex worker in order to provide for his family and secure proper education and housing for his sisters, he is very rigid about society rules and expectations. Everything he has done and will do is to protect his sisters. I wish his past was explored more once he shared everything with Susanna. 

The romance felt off beat and rushed. Everything happens for the couple in the last 80% of the book, and I didn’t feel like the build up to it worked. Most of the romance and the side plots of blackmail and sister drama were predictable and, if I’m completely honest, boring. 

I did really enjoy Lucian’s sisters and their scheming ways to get Lucien and Susanna together! However, aside from this they aren’t all that relevant to the story and I’d have liked to see more of them considering how important they are to Lucian. I also felt Mattie’s, one of the sisters, side story wasn’t needed and didn’t add much to the plot. 

I think this could have been a great romance if the pacing had been better and if some of the themes had been explored in a different manner. I still love Sophie Jordan and look forward to future books, but this one wasn’t for me, sadly. 

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary arc. All opinions are my own.