That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran

He's always humoring her barbed insults about his Doctor profession and talking down to him because she believes he's beneath her in station (he's actually not) she also slaps and throws things at him whenever she's furious. The dynamic between her and the hero Michael I also found not very charming. It drove me slightly insane how nobody wanted to address this big elephant in the room. Did I mention he's a Doctor? I mean.hello.

I mean that's how our hero meets her, he finds her passed out drunk in his rose bushes snoring and reeking of liquor and all scratched up. Her drunk exploits and passing out in people's houses are notorious. Every time something bad or upsetting happens she's nursing a whole bottle of liquor in her lap or chugging down wine until she can't even walk. She's also a raging alcoholic, a point of which really isn't addressed by anyone until the very end when the hero finally tells her she needs to find a better crowd of friends who don't encourage her drinking. She's 32 'merry widow' and professional beauty but obsessively hung up on her age and her looks fading. She always wants to be entertained and finds insults amusing and it goes on for far too long for reasons I really didn't get. She likes to make jokes at other people's expense as a form of sport, including the hero. That whole burgundy velvet drapes! scene would have ol' Scarlett girl quivering in delight. She put me in mind of Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind Her dialogue, her mannerisms, how she puts on airs, her condensation, and that viper tongue. I mean she acknowledges she has poor judgement skills but does nothing to correct it. I don't mind reckless heroines (in fact they are one of my favorite character tropes if written right) but you got to give me something to balance out all the flaws. I wanted her to surprise me and she didn't. Main reason I powered through was because I wanted to see if she would grow up and try to be better and I didn't really see that until the very end of the story. My biggest problem was I found the heroine Elizabeth to be too vain, flighty, self-absorbed and ridiculous for too long in this.

I also found it an odd choice to pick a reckless merry widow with some anti-heroine greyish character qualities for the very first book in a series but that's just me. I just did not care for the story or the couple. This was my first Meredith Duran book and while I did enjoy her writing style for the most part, this one wasn't a winner for me. I almost gave this an extra star when the last like 10% finally got a little interesting but the way the conflict with the hero's brother was handled just left me wanting.

That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran