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Review: Tessa Dare’s Do You Want to Start a Scandal

By Cheryl Wassenaar

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Let’s take a look at Tessa Dare’s latest, Do You Want to Start a Scandal.

Confession time: yours truly has read a lot of romance novels over the years. At this point, I’ve accepted that it remains an extremely difficult genre to write well in, which means that most of the romance novels I read don’t quite work for me. Not so with Tessa Dare’s latest, Do You Want to Start a Scandal. (Or any of her books, really.)

Not only is the book hilarious, the romance is believable, the characters are great, and the love scenes are actually readable without skimming.

In other words: this may in fact be my new favorite Tessa Dare book, and I heartily recommend it.

The Good

This tweet comes from my first reading binge-session on this book:

The caption reads, “actual footage of me reading the new @TessaDare (just add giggling)”. The GIF shows Hillary Clinton’s shimmy from the first presidential debate paired with the infamous Shaquille O’Neal shimmy in one GIF. Said GIF is almost painfully accurate. I can’t count the times I had to put the book down just to dissolve into giggles. I will also never be able to look at the eggplant and peach emojis in the same way ever again.

Not only did the narration crack me up, the dialogue, particularly between our protagonists Piers and Charlotte, had me in stitches repeatedly. They play wonderfully off each other.

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On a slightly more serious note, I found the general plot of the book (aside from Piers and Charlotte falling in love) actually quite engaging. The setup is that at a house party, Piers and Charlotte are mistaken for having a romantic interlude in the library. Such an interlude basically requires them to get married, but they now have two weeks to discover the actual tuppers and clear Charlotte’s reputation.

Never mind that Piers happens to be a spy and thus has some excellent investigative skills. In fact, he turns out to be a pretty good romantic hero, too. Of course he has a bit of a brooding issue because of his Dark Past, but I don’t mind that sort of trope when it’s actually done well. However, Dare’s writing plays with this trope, including a line where Piers actually says he has to admit to having emotions.

I was already sold on this book before that, but at that point, I simply put it down and had to have another laugh.

The Not-So-Good

This section will be extremely short. Dare doesn’t avoid the standard romantic novel procedure. I’m talking, of course, the hero and heroine coming so close to an idyllic happy-ever-after but then having a conflict that could tear them apart. That may bother some readers. For me, though, it actually felt believable instead of a way for an author to tack on an extra 50 pages.

Nor does she avoid the use of fragments in narration. I have noticed, though, that she tends to keep it to specific situations instead of having one on every two pages, so that’s honestly a tiny nitpick.

The Recommendation

In conclusion, I cannot help but heartily recommend that you read Do You Want to Start a Scandal. Though it does connect two series, Spindle Cove and Castles Ever After, you do not necessarily need to read previous books in either series to get the gist of the story. However, you will probably find yourself wanting to read them, as Dare does allude to previous events. Characters from earlier books in both series also appear. (On a side note, yours truly can personally recommend all of them as well.)

Next: Review: Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

As I said earlier, though, this book may have finally taken the place of When a Scot Ties the Knot as my personal favorite Tessa Dare novel.

You can find Do You Want to Start a Scandal at your favorite book retailer.

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