Comments on: GUEST REVIEW: Scandalous Lovers by Robin Schone

By: Tumperkin

Tumperkin — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:34:53 +0000

Great review Meredith. I wasn’t blown away by the only Schone novel I’ve read (Awake My Love) but you’ve really made me want to try this one.

By: Barbara B.

Barbara B. — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:27:51 +0000

I don’t mind the angst, the pain, or the suffering. I actually like it. I never feel like I get the payoff for all that misery, though. Schone’s endings are just too abrupt and anticlimactic for me. I don’t expect uncharacteristic gushing but I’d like to *feel* the love. Plus, even though I’ve enjoyed all of her previous books, Schone’s style gets progressively more annoying to me. I love the idea of this story. I just wish someone whose writing “voice” I like had written it.

On the positive side, I love how Schone incorporates period details of the late Victorian era into her stories. In that sense Schone is really one of the few TRUE historical romance authors around today.

Thanks for the review, Meredith.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:05:11 +0000

To some extent, I’ve enjoyed the three Schone books I’ve read but have hesitated on this one because 1) it took so long to finally be released and I sort of forgot all about it and 2) her last book, actually the last two before this one were just so darned depressing.

Angst.

Pain.

Suffering.

Lasting so long before finally….

The Wounded characters found love.

By: Lynne Connolly

Lynne Connolly — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:38:35 +0000

I absolutely agree.
“Scandalous Lovers” is one of my books of the year, because it lives and breathes the real Victorian era, rather than trying to create some vague recollection of it. Her details are superb and you can tell she has been to, or consulted heavily with someone, who knows the Natural History Museum in London’s Cromwell Road well. The giraffe did exist, was sexless and was one of the sights until the mid 20th century. Rather as Guy the Gorilla is today (but he’s not sexless!)
The characters are human beings, not some young approximations of it, and you really care for them. I’m in two minds about the ending because of the melodrama of it, but it was completely with the time. And for those of you wondering, yes, it is a romance with the right ending for a romance.
I met Robin at this year’s RT, a completely charming person but I put off reading the book for a long time because even without her recent legal dispute with her publisher, she’s a slow writer and I knew there won’t be another one around for a while. And I was afraid she might not live up to my high expectations. But she did.