Review: In Scandal They Wed by Sophie Jordan

Title: In Scandal They Wed
Author: Sophie Jordan
Publication: Avon
Release Date: March 2010

In Scandal They Wed, the second in Sophie Jordan’s Penwich girl’s series finds Evelyn Cross with a baby to raise that is not her own. Indeed, the baby boy is her sister’s bastard child and to avoid any kind of scandal directed at her beloved sister or her unloving parents, she decides to take the child and raise him as her own. Life is as normal as could be until Spencer Lockhart shows up into her life claiming to heed his cousin’s dying wish that he would look after his paramour and their love child. But little does Spencer know that his cousin Ian’s love interest Linnie has died, never having fully recovered from her son’s birth leaving Evelyn to masquerade as her dead sister in order to raise Nicholas in solitude and normalcy.
But the years are increasing and Evelyn finds that Nicholas needs a father figure and so she has agreed to marry the local doctor who is nice and kind, but does not excite her. Not in the way Spencer’s unexpected arrival does.
Spencer Lockhart is newly the Viscount Lockhart, having his two oldest brothers die tragically. He is fresh off the war in Crimea and though right or wrong he feels he needs to carry out his cousin’s last dying wish, but he is pleasantly bowled over by the passion he feels towards who he thinks is Linnie, his cousin’s lover. Torn between an irrational jealousy towards his dead cousin and his consuming fondness towards Evelyn, Spencer is beset with jealousy over that fact that Ian had been the first to touch her intimately. But even that foolish notion pales in the face of their steadfast and heedless passion for each other. But can Evelyn with the help of the town’s mistress keep Spencer from finding out the truth? That she is not Linnie, the girl he thought he was marrying and actually her timid sister Evelyn?
In Scandal They Wed is a heartwarming and endearing read. The passion Evelyn and Spencer feel for each other is what kept me going until the very last page.