Dingbat Publishing, $0.99, ISBN 978-1005559274
Historical Romance, 2021

Based on the copyright notice, Vivian Roycroft’s Scandal on Half Moon Street was originally published by Astraea Press back in 2012. I’m not sure whether this latest edition is a mere reissue or it has been revised in any way. 

Anne Kirkhoven is horny for her best friend, Frederick Shaw. Frederick is handsome and exciting—sure, here’s a mere barrister, but he’s also an author of popular Gothic novels, ooh. Sadly, her mother disagrees about him being the right guy for Anne, and forbids our heroine to even speak to him.

Well, our heroine is unfazed by this. He is her fiancé, so there! All she has to do is to wait until she reaches her majority, and then Freddie better get ready for her honey!

Hold on, now the First Duke of Cumberland, Ernst Anton Oldenburg, is giving her the sexy eye too. He looks like a rake that will show no respect about personal boundaries and a lady’s sensibility. He is more likely to paw at her chest and give her a sexy leer. That’s so horrible, hence naturally our heroine is gagging to be disrespected and violated by such a lout.

So, which of these two will get to earn the privilege of being Anne’s… er, let me check, oh yes, this is a “clean romance”… true love. Yes, true love, because we are all clean and innocent today.

Let’s see. Here’s Amelia with Ernie Hornybert:

Anne didn’t dare breathe as the most notorious rake in the ton lifted her hand and kissed the air a hair’s breadth from her glove. She couldn’t feel any actual touch from his lips, but he may as well have scorched her with his heat, and her entire arm threatened to quiver with her hand in his. His open admiration took in her hair, her face, the fur around the neck of her pelisse, her — attributes, and she would certainly die before he was done. The atmosphere in the coffee house thickened, deepened, and she didn’t have to look to know every eye in the place followed his assessment, seconded his assessment, with avid interest.

Then there’s what’s-his-face:

Behind him, her own beloved Frederick watched the spectacle with agony etched into his brown spaniel’s eyes.

Brown spaniel eyes versus heated, womanly-part-moistening eyes… ooh, this is suspenseful! I can’t tell at this early stage which guy’s name would the heroine engrave over her h… heart. 

Okay, I’m half-kidding at this point. While it seems apparent early on that Freddy is out for the count, that guy isn’t going to give up that easily. 

Now, people may be surprised by this, but I do like traditional regency historical romances as much as I do sexy ones, but that’s mostly because authors that excel in these romances also tend to work magic with words. Here, Vivian Roycroft does such magic with amazing adroitness and poetry here that I find myself completely absorbed by the story from the very first paragraph.

Now, my brain wonders what both men see in Anne. Her idea of true love seems to revolve closely around which man can indulge her more and make her feel more special. In fact, here’s her grand romantic declaration:

“You’ve proven your love for me with all your hard work on my behalf. I love what you’ve done for me, and I love you.”

I snipped the excerpt a bit because she reveals the name of the guy she chooses in the next part, but the snipped part sees her going on and on some more about what he has done for her and to win her affection.

Yikes, it’s all about what they bring to her table, not what she also brings to theirs. I have my doubts about the discrepancy of maturity between her and the guy she chooses, but then again, Anne is pretty young, so hopefully she’d mellow and adapt as time passes.

Still, despite my reservations about Anne’s maturity and the romance centered so much around what she gets out of both men, I find myself liking the main characters, even Anne, a lot. 

This is because the author’s phraseology and descriptive narrative give me an intimate look into Anne’s head that I can understand that she’s more immature than silly, and hence it’s easy to still like her, even relate to her a little. Which woman doesn’t long to be the center of attention of a hot guy at all time, after all? 

Perhaps more importantly, I love reading this story. The pacing, cadence, and rhythm in the narrative captivate me so much that I read the whole thing and even the author’s afterword in one sitting. Seriously, I have never enjoyed reading an author’s afterword this much in a long time! 

I actually feel a deep pang of disappointment when I realize that I’ve reached the last page of the whole thing, so much so that I cheer myself up by looking up the author’s books. Oh my, she has written so many stories, and I only discover her now. Still, I’ve checked out three of her latest books.

Anyway, this is an adorable introduction of mine to the author. Four oogies!