One Night of Scandal

I have many "favourite" authors in Romance. For intense, dark and deadly males, I go to Anne Stuart. If I want giggles till I hurt, I choose Lynsay Sands and Katie Macalister. If I hunger for Off-World adventures, I got Robin D. Owens and C.J. Barry, hot sexy vampires or futuristic drama look to a new voice Angela Knight. But if I want a near poetic faerytale that evokes the style of Victoria Holt, you can do no better than Teresa Medeiros. Ever since I read her Whisper of Roses, I have been a big fan.One Night of Scandal is not really a Romance in today's mold. It's more of the old style gothic. The isolated manor in Cornwall, the brooding, too contained hero, the full of life wife he was forced to marry, hovering over them all is the ghost of the previous wife and the tile the hero now carries - the Murderous Marquee. 31-year-old Hayden St. Clair is content in his dark hell of memories, content to live away from the Ton and this narrow minds and vicious gossip, but he needs a governess for his 10-year-old daughter, so he is forced to go to London to seek one. Finding one is proving impossible, since the Ton feeds on the facts he was forced to kill his best friend in a duel, and later his wife took her own life by jumping off a cliff. Naturally, it's wondered if the Murderous Marquee did not lend his wife a helping hand.Lotte Fairleigh, 21-year-old ward of a Duke, is facing her coming out party, but she cannot resist one last adventure until she is firmly planted on the marriage mart. The adventure is sneaking out a second-story window to dash across the lawn to the house next door. The Murderous Marquee is in residence there and it's said he will be leaving in the morning. This is her last chance for a peek of the man who has captured her imagination. Hayden has just seen a good friend off, the friend hinting he was going to send a woman to him to break his boredom. When Lotte turns up peeking in his window, he mistakenly believes she is the woman. Their embrace is broken up by her guardian. The Duke is enraged and demands Hayden marry Lotte to save her reputation. Hayden assures him nothing happened between them but a kiss, and says he will never marry again, leaving the Duke to challenge him to a duel.Lotte cannot permit her brother-in-law to risk his life, so she goes to Hayden and begs him to marry her. Hayden does, but not for the reasons Lotte believes. She is startled when she arrives at her new home to find Hayden has a 10-year-old daughter, a wild hellion who enjoys vexing her father. Lotte is hurt to learn Hayden married her only to have a suitable governess for his daughter, crushing the young woman's hope of making a good marriage.The situation goes from bad to worse, as the child sets out to drive Lotte nuts. Only, Lotte, a hellion in her own right, knows all the tricks of the trade and pushes the girl to finally call a truce. Lotte makes strides with her stepdaughter, but her marriage only grows more distant

Teresa Medeiros never fails to deliver! She is only one of a very few authors who never fails to make me chuckle out loud and when I come to the end of her stories, I'm grinning like a loon. This was such an enjoyable and entertaining read, with such lovable characters. Hayden is one of those tortured heroes that you can't help but fall madly in love with and Lottie is so deft at healing his and his daughter, Allegra's, broken heart and tattered soul. They will stick with me for a long time afterward.

Setting - London 1825 --- Carlotta "Lottie" Fairleigh at the ripe age of 21 is finally, to have her debut ball. Minutes before the first guest would be arriving she and her best friend Harriett, are lamenting the fact that her hoyden days where she was well known as the "Hertforshire Hellion" were fast coming to an end. Innocently, Harriet had just given her incentive for one last adventure before having to behave and act like a lady for the rest of her days. Right next door,and over the garden wall sat the rented home of Hayden St. Clair, scandalously dubbed the "Murderous Marquess". Dreaming of one day becoming a famous author, she couldn't possibly miss her one chance to see, such a scandalous man, and give her ideas for a future villain in her fiction. After all he'd killed his best friend in a duel and then he wife had such an unfortunate and fatal `accident'.Hayden had vowed to never marry again, had come to London for only one reason, to find a woman. What he was not looking for was to have himself and the little blonde trespasser compromised. In spite of Hayden's refusal to wed her, Lottie, realizing that her latest escapade had ruined her, and not wanting to see harm come to her brother-in-law who would be honor bound to fight a duel, snuck off and managed to convince Hayden to save her from ruin. Reluctantly, Hayden agrees to marry her then whisks her off to his remote Cornwell estate where ghostly apparitions, purported to be of his first wife, haunt the halls and himself. Settling in and doing her best to keep up her own spirits from the disregard Hayden shows her, Lottie, in her own indubitable way, wins the favor, and acceptance of the daughter he neglected to tell her about and his staff. However, what Lottie most wanted was to win both his regard and his love, as she came to realize that the tortured man who was now her husband was also the man she was falling in love with. This engaging novel has humor, mystery, tenderness and a bit of a gothic-underlying theme. Lottie, is an extremely likeable and very courageous heroine. She has her work cut out for her as she battles to break through her husbands reserve to find the open and friendly man his best friend described to her as the man he once was. I found it to be a very fast read with twists and turns that had me hating to put the book down. Most of all, and contrary to other reviewers comments, I found the ghost theme central and key in this story which rather than turn me off thoroughly enchanted me. Teresa Medeiros has again provided a thoroughly enjoyable, tender, and fun tale that will give pleasure to a multitude of her fans.

Remember mischievious Lottie from A KISS TO REMEMBER? Well, Teresa Medeiros made her the heroine of ONE NIGHT OF SCANDAL, and I'm so thrilled she did! Hayden is a great hero for her, and Teresa works her special magic on their love story. I laughed and I cried. I've waited a long time for another Teresa Medeiros book, and this one proved worth the wait. She's my favorite author. I can't wait for the next one!

This book was funny, laced with sexual tension and a definate page-turner. Carlotta (Lottie) is known as a hellion until a final stunt gets her a reluctant husband. Now she is determined to be the perfect wife. Meanwhile, Hayden, her husband, is doing his best to ignore her and his building attraction for his new bride. He is tortured by his first wife and the life they led before she her mental disorder destroyed their family. Medeiros paints a picture of a family torn apart by bipolar disorder - undiagnosed and feared in this 19th century setting. With her usual talent Medeiros shows us the pain and suffering for all those affected by the disease. When Lottie is able to help Hayden and his daughter deal with the loss of their loved one, they are able to let her into their hearts. Which is good because Lottie has loved them since the beginning.Overall, this was an excellent story, well written with great characters. I now have to go back and read all of Medeiros' books! You won't be disappointed with this one - pick it up!