The Duchess Society: Book # 5
Publication Date: April 10, 2023
Step into a world of scandal, romance, and unexpected love! With witty banter, sizzling love scenes, and a twist on the classic marriage of convenience theme, Two Scandals and a Scot is a must-read for fans of the Duchess Society series by USA Today bestselling author Tracy Sumner!
Scandal number one. A runaway bride. Scandal number two. The kiss. When Theodosia Astley’s shocking engagement ball sets society ablaze, she finds herself in need of a hero. Can she help it if her savior comes in the form of her intrepid former student, Dash Campbell, a captivating gambler with a heart of gold? The carriage was empty. And parked in her brother’s drive. She had no idea it was his.
With a bookish wallflower’s assistance, Scottish ruffian Dash wrote a novel that made him famous. When he finds himself presented with the opportunity to pay his erstwhile teacher back, how can he refuse? Even if Theo’s sharp wit fearfully fascinates him. It’s a dangerous wager for a Scottish gutter rat to think of falling for the sheltered sister of a duke. When Dash proposes marriage to salvage her reputation, Theo suggests her own twist on the age-old agreement. They marry—but remain friends who do not fall in love. What could go wrong?
Set against a backdrop of faithful wagers and sizzling desire, Two Scandals and a Scot is a thrilling tale of forbidden romance, with affection and passion pitted against societal expectations and personal demons. Follow Dash and Theo as they navigate their way through the high stakes world of love as they discover whether theirs can withstand the tests of time and circumstance.
I’ve read all of the previous books in The Duchess Society series and was excited to finally get Theo and Dash’s story, as they’ve been secondary characters all along. What I expected and what I got weren’t in sync, and I ended up feeling a little cheated by Two Scandals and a Scot by Tracy Sumner.
Throughout the series, Dash has been this mysterious figure. Common born, yet always in the company of a couple of dukes and an earl, I couldn’t wait to get more of his backstory.
A couple of tidbits are dropped during the story, but a lot is left to the imagination, which isn’t good. I never felt like I got to know and understand Dash, and therefore, to me, the character development for Dash was quite lacking. That said, I did like him as a character, and there was some growth as he fell in love with Theo and came to terms with their marriage.
I had a harder time liking Theo. She’s a bluestocking and doesn’t really fit into society. And she ultimately doesn’t want to, but since her half-sister is married to a duke, she’s thrown into it. I love that she was super bright and wanted to be something more than just a wife and mother. But again, the author skims out on Theo’s backstory, and most of what I got was the pieces shared in the series’ previous books.
My biggest problem with Theo was her insecurities about her relationship with Dash. I understand he had a pretty roguish past, which she knew about. But she goes completely off the rails after a piece of gossip that reaches her and doesn’t let Dash explain or even go to her friends and family to ask about it. With the group being so close, that doesn’t make sense other than to be the point of conflict in their relationship. It was just too weak and felt out of character. If there had been more explanation from her past that made her feel this way, I might’ve taken it better and not felt so let down.
I liked revisiting all the past characters and mostly enjoyed Theo’s and Dash’s romance. I wish it hadn’t been quite so focused on the bedroom, but there were moments when the romance was developed and wasn’t based on sex. There were a lot of tender moments that just sucked me into the story, and I could look past all my concerns about a lack of real history.
Two Scandals and a Scot had promise but fell a little short for me. I still enjoyed the story, but I needed more history for Theo and Dash to understand their actions and make this a must-read. If you’ve read other books in the series, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well. However, I wouldn’t start the series with this book as there are too many connections to prior characters and events that a new reader might be a little lost.
Award-winning author Tracy Sumner’s storytelling career began when she picked up a historical romance on a college beach trip, and she fondly blames LaVyrle Spencer for her obsession with the genre. She’s a recipient of the National Reader’s Choice, and her novels have been translated into Dutch, German, Portuguese and Spanish. She lived in New York, Paris and Taipei before finding her way back to the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
When not writing sizzling love stories about feisty heroines and their temperamental-but-entirely-lovable heroes, Tracy enjoys reading, snowboarding, college football (Go Tigers!), yoga, and travel. She loves to hear from romance readers!
