Saved by Scandal
By: Barbara Metzger / Narrated By: Pippa Rathborne
Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
One o’ Metzger’s romp-iest romps… and whazzis: A bit of inCREdible depth? >sniffle<
Okay, I reeeeally liked this!
Okay, I reeeeally loved this!
It’s like this, see: I do sooo love the pairing of B. Metzger and P. Rathborne, and I adore that Metzger’s Regencies, whilst sometimes not heavy on the Regency and with true-to-era lingo/info, well? They’re always SUCH romps!
However deSPIcable a Hero can be? Yesss, he IS that… -BUT- he actually grows into a truuuue Hero by the end through clever situations and heavy character development. -And- Whatever can go wrong? In a Metzger romp? It WILL.
Some reviewers despised that sooo much hits the fan in this, Saved by Scandal, to the point where they felt done, absolutely DONE with Metzger. Oh, how I do beg to differ! Yesss, things go painfully awry through so much of the story that one chortles mightily because our Hero and heroine are challenged beyond belief, have to grow beyond belief. I laughed; oh my how I laughed. Gimme a line like, …such and such “is like giving a toad a roadmap” and I snigger.
Hero Lord Galen Woodbridge has just been left at the altar… jilted for the second, count it: SECOND time by Lady Floria. The first time? Well, she was just a wee bit too young, her dearest papa told Galen. The second time? Dude! Galen’s in front of a packed church when a coach barrels over, and Floria gabbles that she’s on her way to Gretna Green with a not-so-gentlemanly gentleman whom everyone KNOWS is just a fortune hunter. Ta-Ta, she coos, and the pair of nincompoops are off, leaving Galen somewhat distressed, and most CERtainly embarrassed as all get-out.
The only antidote, he surmises? Why, to cause an even greater scandal. He’ll show the Ton with their laughing behind his back, with the gentleman in all the Clubs guffawing at his expense (But! there’d been betting done as plenty were positive Floria was juuust flaky enough to fly the coop a second time…). And so? It’s off to his best friend’s abode for a Special License. The Reverend Skippy has just woken up from his drunken stupor, and now he’s shocked, SHOCKED! that his dearest buddy has decided to wed the famed and most beautiful and most sensuous songstress, Margot Montclair.
Uhm, this is news to Margot.
What follows is the most deLIGHTful Marriage Of In-Your-Face-to-Society Convenience.
Now that depth I mentioned is that what turned Margot TOWARD Lord Galen is the fact that Galen will do everything in his power to help her get her sickly little brother away from the clutches of a wicked Uncle hellbent on getting the Barony in any way he can. And so, after the nuptials (Not to be consummated for 6-months, respect and all that…), Galen is off with his valet to retrieve the boy, Ansel, and gets him back through duplicitous means.
Turns out that the Uncle has been slowly poisoning little Ansel, dosing him up with ever-increasing amounts of laudanum to the point where the boy is sore-truly an addict. What Galen thought was to be a quick jaunt takes many many days and nights as Ansel and his poor little body fight addiction and cold turkey withdrawals. To say this brought a tear (Or two) to m’ eye would be an understatement as I never could’ve believed that Metzger would actually plan a story arc to go THERE.
Then back to the chaos and hijinks Margot has to deal with. Throw in Galen’s gadabout and nearing-scandal younger sister. Add Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman, uhm… Who’s Jilted Galen TWICE.
And what would a Metzger Regency Romp be without a mongrel, a scrawny and barely-tufted dog, who eats everything and EVERYONE in sight but who’s loyal as the day is long?
AND what would a Metzger Regency Romp be without Pippa Rathborne? I mean, yeh yeh yeh: It always takes me a second or two to get used to her voice cuz she sounds so much older than who will be our heroine, but dude! when she gets to dialogue and accents, none better. When she gets to Metzger’s dastardly hiLARious plotting? Oh my good golly gosh:
NONE BETTER! So huzzah to the highest of heavens for Rathborne. And maaaaybe, I’ll look to find her narrating something/someone else just to experience such Blissed-Out ears yet again!
Total Love Fest for me with just the right amount of bawdy innuendos, just the right amount of growing to love one another for our fair couple. And just the right amount of depth in the story-crafting to cause that tear (Or two) to roll down m’ cheeks.
Oh how this is a Fave. Oh yes indeeeeed!!!
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