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A review by cdb393
How to School Your Scoundrel by Juliana Gray
2.0
I appreciate that Gray was trying give us a different, more complex hero than you usually see in romances. In this case, I never really liked Somerton. Occasionally, I found his situation sympathetic but I felt he caused it himself by his selfish actions. I know by the end we are supposed to believe that he's changed because of his love for Luisa but I never felt that. I never felt any sort of chemistry between Luisa and Somerton; their romance never felt believable to me.
I didn't really care for Luisa either. She didn't seem very proactive about trying to regain her throne. Her sisters, heroines in the previous books of the series, were always concerned about each other and how they were faring. Luisa didn't seem too concerned about them.
I also had a lot of problems with figuring out the timing of events in all three of the books. How the events that happened in the three books happened and when they happened just didn't seem to mesh together correctly. Plus, so many questions were raised but never really answered in this book. Did Somerton ever repair his relationship with his son from his first wife or did he just start over and leave him in the past? We get lip service that he wants to see him from time to time and we know the boy is his heir but we never see nor are we told he makes an effort to become a better father to his son. How did the fact that he had an affair with his now sister-in-law's husband's first wife that produced a child that his sister-in-law and her husband are now raising as their own work out? The whole family is present for the epilogue so obviously he has to have interaction with his daughter. Gray concocted some rather complex family dynamics then never gives them even a cursory resolution. I found this annoying.
Overall, I feel this was the weakest book of the series not only because it doesn't do what it needs to to conclude the series satisfactorily but also because the romance and plot line weren't developed well.
I didn't really care for Luisa either. She didn't seem very proactive about trying to regain her throne. Her sisters, heroines in the previous books of the series, were always concerned about each other and how they were faring. Luisa didn't seem too concerned about them.
I also had a lot of problems with figuring out the timing of events in all three of the books. How the events that happened in the three books happened and when they happened just didn't seem to mesh together correctly. Plus, so many questions were raised but never really answered in this book. Did Somerton ever repair his relationship with his son from his first wife or did he just start over and leave him in the past? We get lip service that he wants to see him from time to time and we know the boy is his heir but we never see nor are we told he makes an effort to become a better father to his son. How did the fact that he had an affair with his now sister-in-law's husband's first wife that produced a child that his sister-in-law and her husband are now raising as their own work out? The whole family is present for the epilogue so obviously he has to have interaction with his daughter. Gray concocted some rather complex family dynamics then never gives them even a cursory resolution. I found this annoying.
Overall, I feel this was the weakest book of the series not only because it doesn't do what it needs to to conclude the series satisfactorily but also because the romance and plot line weren't developed well.