A Scandalous Innocent combines an unusual plot and girl-meets-boy set up with enjoyable characters who connect emotionally with each other and with us readers. It made a nice change from a run of romances I’ve read the past few days that revolved around sex. This book revolves around people.
There are a few problems with the book, mostly due to the fact it is a Harlequin and thus short, with little time to develop a love affair with trust and commitment. There is little room to explore what could have been a rich plot.
Part of the plot confuses me. Lark is on trial in England’s High Court because her cousin Gary embezzled tens of thousands of pounds from his employer, then took poison and blamed Lark for the embezzlement, claimed she had blackmailed and coerced him. Lark is alone in the world, terrified and the case has gotten immense press coverage. Of course everyone thinks she is guilty.
I was confused because the case appears to combine civil elements – the former employer hired the prosecuting counsel – and criminal because Lark faces prison if convicted. No one had to prove Lark was guilty, instead she had to prove her innocence. No one had to determine where the money went; Lark clearly didn’t have it. There should have been a paper trail, bank deposits or if not then some evidence she used drugs or gambled or sent money to a numbered account. Author Jordan wrote a romance, not a crime story but the disconnects bothered me.
It turns out the prosecuting counsel, James Wolfe, recognized Lark’s innate innocence and convinced the employer to drop the case and asked his mother to hire Lark as her assistant. Of course he and Lark fall in love and we have the usual passionate encounters mixed with distrust and fear.
I particularly liked the tension between Lark and James. She wants to love him but he terrified her at trial and Lark thinks that James believes her guilty. We can put ourselves in her shoes and imagine how it would feel to be in love with someone we think believes us conniving, cruel and vicious, greedy. Of course James could have cleared this up right away, and in fact he tried but Lark couldn’t bear to listen
Jordan complicates the plot with spoiled Charlotte who informs Lark that James and she are engaged. Add that to the mix and we have potent distrust and fear.
The romance rings true despite the melodramatic backdrop. We can see how James would see Lark and her response to him and we can enjoy and sympathize as they learn to trust each other and allow love to overcome past distrust and fear.
I would like to see Jordan rewrite this story outside the Harlequin format confines. She hints that Lark’s aunt and uncle – the embezzler’s parents who took Lark in when her parents died – may have been unscrupulous with her inheritance. Lark remembers the large house and car, lovely antiques and her aunt’s avaricious disappointment when Lark took her mother’s heirloom dresser set with her when she left home.
I would have reading James’ point of view on the romance and the legal case. The romance from the man’s point of view would have gone through the evidence, or lack thereof, and compared Gary’s deathbed accusation with Lark’s obvious lack of money, the absence of lovers’ trysts, few phone calls, and he could have dug into the blackmail claims. How exactly could Lark blackmail her cousin?
Lark suspects Gary had a rich man’s wife as his mistress and that he might have embezzled for her sake. Again, we don’t have any idea what happens to this other lady or whether Lark is right. As a longer novel, with more resolved plot and side stories and more time to develop the characters this could be a wonderful treat.
As a Harlequin novel A Scandalous Innocent suffers from the brevity, the focus on sexual attraction and the hurried brush off of the underlying crime. A sentence says it all: “Despite the time they had spent together, it seemed almost as though they had no point of contact other than as lovers.” It is still quite a good story and I enjoyed reading it.
4 Stars