Fun, Quirky, Sweet....lots of LOL

I must have LOL'd twenty times while listening to this book. The Harpies were so funny. Loved Olivia and Perregrin (Lisle) when they were children in the other books so I was super excited to see them as the main characters in this book.

Olivia is a wonderful character. The interaction and dialogue between her and Lisle is some of the best ever. I just wish they would have become a "couple" sooner in the book, but you can't have everything.

Definitely credit worthy.

6 people found this helpful

My favorite contemporary regency author

What did you love best about Last Night's Scandal?

The characters of Olivia Wingate Carsington and Percival, Lord Lisle first appeared as children in the earlier Carsington brothers book Lord Perfect. It is Olivia in that book who dragoons Lisle into a wild-goose chase adventure across England. She is a 'dreadful deLucey', an aristocratic family known for their ability to con their way through life. She is a thoroughly delightful zany character who carries a lot of that book and the 13 year old Lord Lisle is an excellent comrade, providing the brakes and the sanity while supporting and protecting the rather reckless Olivia.

In Last Night's Scandal, the two protagonists are now young adults. Lisle has spent his teen to adult years in Egypt, his passion, and the hero and heroine have mostly communicated through letters. In the printed book, Olivia has a way of over dramatizing everything, so her letters are full of all kinds of inappropriate capitalization; this is actually very funny in the book, but hard to convey when read, although Kate Reading does a very good job using phrasing and emphasis, but you still miss out on just a bit of Olivia's character, I think.

The two protagonists are thrown together by Lord Lisle being brought back to England by his parents and basically being prevented from returning to Egypt. Lisle's parents, who are a bit of a nightmare have decided that they want Lisle to go to Scotland and restore an old castle that belongs to the family. This sets up the plot; Olivia knows how much Lisle wants to be in Egypt and she sets out to 'help' him and save him from his parents. And things develop from there.

Loretta Chase is so very good at humorous romance; there is always wonderful dialogue between her characters and Olivia and Lisle rub each other wrong enough that there is plenty of scope for lots of laugh out loud arguments and minor skirmishes between them.

I loved these two characters as children, and it is very fun to watch them find each other as adults.

What other book might you compare Last Night's Scandal to and why?

I rarely find this kind of comparison useful; Loretta Chase's style is very much her own. She is the author of the extremely popular Lord of Scoundrels, which is definitely one of the best Regency Romances ever written. I would always recommend that anyone who has just read The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer to go and read other authors before coming back to other Georgette Heyer books. And if you've just read Lord of Scoundrels, please do go read other authors and genres before coming back to Loretta Chase. I have loved every single one of her books, but I find I don't appreciate each one as I might if I've just read my favorite right before.

What about Kate Reading’s performance did you like?

Kate Reading is an astoundingly good narrator. She does have some mild idiosyncrasies in her reading style, but her voices are so incredibly good that she fades right into the story. I can easily listen to her read books back to back which can be hard for me with some narrators whose style dominates the reading. And I have never heard her mispronounce a word! (She does use British pronunciations.)

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Loretta Chase writes fun books; I definitely smile a lot at the situations and dialogue.

Any additional comments?

I'd recommend reading the Carsington Brothers series in order. I think they're almost all on audio now.

11 people found this helpful

Second half was very boring

I loved the banter during the first half of this story and I thought I had found a new favorite. However, the second half was so boring!! I barely finished. The narrator was good, but I prefer a narrator to be age appropriate and not sound like a grandmother when narrating young characters. Her male voices were very good, though.

4 people found this helpful

What a fun read!

The story is entertaining, the characters are hilarious and the reader brings it all together. Great book!

2 people found this helpful

A winner EVERY TIME

Loretta chase's clever writing, humorous lines and engaging storyline is enough to be the best part of my day when I read. I adored this book and the characters. The hero takes a bit to grow on you but the heroine is a hoot. Clever and cunning to get what she wants but in a way not harmful to anyone and super cute. Can't wait to read another LC book. A true pleasure.

4 people found this helpful

Formulaic & not Author's best

Compared with earlier entries in this series, this book scrapes the bottom. A few standard repeated plot line gimmicks & not inspired. Disappointing. Chase has produced far better books.

1 person found this helpful

Good but not my favorite

This started out so well. I just love the correspondence between Olivia and Lisle and I have since they first met in an earlier book. Their characters are wonderful and their dialogue is delightful. I laughed aloud more than once. The story was good, not great. And the narration was a bit sub-par for me. The whining was a little too much. And I felt Olivia's "voice" was inconsistent.

But the series is fantastic and I hope there are many more books in this family's future.

1 person found this helpful

Laugh out Loud with a Mystery

Can't say enough wonderful things about this book. It was some of the wittiest banter in a romance book I have ever listened to. I think this book is right up there with Tessa Dares Wallflower Wager. Maybe better, dare I say. The narrator was FABULOUS, too.

Great dialogue, engaging characters

Kate Reading ranks right up there with Rosalyn Landor and Nicholas Boulton as among my favorite narrators. Reading gives the snappy, witty dialogue just the right inflection to make the humor sparkle. The hero and heroine are wonderfully quirky and engaging and their attraction to each other—physical and emotional—pulls you through the story, which is clever and fun. Just a wonderfully entertaining audio experience.

Boring, but still recommend to complete the series

As a favorite author for me, I relisten to most of Chase’s books. This was like listening to a new book, because I couldn’t remember what this book was about, probably because it’s boring and very little happens. As childhood friends, Olivia and Lyle are meant to be together, but all they seem to do is argue. And if they’re not arguing, then they’re fighting their attraction for each other. It got old, and tedious, and boring. And though Kate Reading is a favorite narrator, her performance was only average for this book. She has the bored-aristocrat persona down pat, but with ghostly elements and brawling scenes, a more brisk or swashbuckling narration would have added levity to a book that needs it. Since this is such an excellent series, it’s still worth investing in this book to complete the series.