A Long Weekend with Loretta Chase: Book Review – Your Scandalous Ways

Title: Your Scandalous Ways

Author: Loretta Chase

Review number: 62

Genre: Historical Romance

Stand Alone/ Series: Stand Alone

Summary: James Cordier is all blue blood and entirely dangerous. He’s a master of disguise, a brilliant thief, a first-class lover—all for King and Country—and, by gad, he’s so weary of it. His last mission is to “acquire” a packet of incriminating letters from one notorious woman. Then he can return to London and meet sweet-natured heiresses—not adventuresses and fallen women.

Francesca Bonnard has weathered heartbreak, scorn, and scandal. She’s independent, happy, and definitely fallen; and she’s learned that “gentlemen” are more trouble than they’re worth. She can also see that her wildly attractive new neighbor is bad news.

But as bad as James is, there are others far worse also searching for Francesca’s letters. And suddenly nothing is simple—especially the nearly incendiary chemistry between the two most jaded, sinful souls in Europe. And just as suddenly, risking everything may be worth the prize.

Why did I read the book: Because it says “Loretta Chase” right there in the cover. I need no other incentive.

Review:

To open a new Loretta Chase book is a momentous occasion in the life of this reader.

To me, she is one of them: along with Julia Quinn, Neil Gaiman and more recently, Meljean Brook, they form the group of writers whose books I look forward to, delve into as soon as I get them- and truth be told, I would probably read their groceries lists if they were ever published. It borders on obsession but let’s not go there.

So yes, to open a new Loretta Chase is as close a sensation to going on a date with the guy you have been dreaming about for a long time. I prepare myself, I clear my schedule from any interruptions; I put on nice comfy clothes and sit down with a glass of wine. Because it doesn’t matter what she is writing about or who the couple du jour are, I know I am in for a treat.

And it is purely as a reader that I now write my thoughts on Your Scandalous Ways. As a reviewer I feel the need to talk about what I like and what I don’t like but on this occasion, be warned the dislikes will not be mentioned. They are too few and too unimportant (to me) to be granted room in what will most likely be, an Ode to Loretta Chase rather than a proper review.

What a great choice of setting: not only one of the most romantic places in the world but also the appropriate refuge for our heroine Francesca Bonnard. A fallen woman back in England, divorced in a major scandal created by her husband when he discovered she was having an affair – an affair she was having out of spite, in a desperate attempt to get her husband’s attention. A husband whom she loved dearly and who broke her heart with the numerous affairs he had. Her plan backfired and he was disgusted rather than jealous and being a man, he of course, has two weights and two measures: what is fine for a man is a sin for a woman. And the scandal is set; no one comes to her rescue, her friends turn their backs. She is left with nothing, and with her reputation in tatters, what is she to do? Her husband fully expects her to lie and die, but Francesca has other plans. Her ruin is to be complete! She leaves but not before stealing some damning letters written by her husband that proves he is a traitor to the country. It is not the time to use them, for no one will believe her, but she keeps them for the future.

She goes to Paris to learn the arts of love and sex and becomes a highly praised courtesan. And ends up in Venice – a place where divorced woman are not pariahs, where scandals do not follow, and where L’amour (or Il Amore) pursued in any form is not frowned upon. Yes, Venice is the perfect place for Francesca, and where she becomes the greatest courtesan of Italy, perhaps even the Continent : one that only very rich men can afford to keep and whose attractions include a perfect body, a magical laugh, and an incredible wit. And she is happy. And with plenty of beautiful expensive jewellery to show for it. And so is life for Francesca…until she meets James Cordier. But I am way ahead of myself here – for we don’t learn about any of this until later.

We don’t get to see the interaction between Francesca and James, right away. The first few chapters are clearly the setting of the stage for the play Loretta Chase wants us to watch. Or should I say, the setting of the board and the introductions of the players for the Game she wants us to follow? I obey, don my mask and sit idly by to watch the match, silently as to not interrupt the concentration of the contenders.

He only has one last mission to accomplish. He must get the letters Francesca has so that the English government can prosecute Francesca’s ex. His strategy: to go to Venice, get the letters in a matter of days and go to England. Easy peasy, how difficult could that be, right? Furious at such a ridiculous assignment to a man such as he and furious at having to be in decadent Venice, he is so not prepared for what is about to hit him. Hurricane Francesca. The most impossible, infuriating woman he has ever known.

Player number two is of course, our Francesca Bonnard, who we already know, is the famous, or infamous courtesan. Introduction to her shows how settled in her ways she is, how she enjoys life in Venice, with her lovers, her jewelry. She is pretty happy with the way things are and with her life that she has, and I quote, “chosen to become accustomed to”. This is very telling: she chooses who she wants to be with, and they will only be the best. In her introduction we also meet her best friend Giulietta, another courtesan and to watch their interactions is like watching Sex in the City in 19th century Italy. Their conversation upon ogling James, who Francesca first sees disguised as a servant (part of his strategy is to study the target) is a perfect re-enactment of a Samantha-Carrie conversation:

“Why is it the aristocrats never look like that?” said Giuletta.
“Because the aristocrats don’t exercise their muscles with hard work” , Francesca said.
“I would let him exercise his muscles on me” said Giuletta. “To keep them from going soft, you know. “
Francesca’s mind produced an image of naked masculine limbs tangled with hers. Heat swarmed over her skin. “You are the soul of kindness” , she said fanning herself. “Your heart is so charitable, you should have been a nun”
“I should have been a nun”, said Giuletta, “but the habit is so unbecoming. And all the praying is bad for the knees. No, no it would not suit me. I was born to be a slut.”
“As was I”.

Francesca is unique in the world of Romance because she is an unrepentant whore – she is what she is, who she chose to be. Not because she needed to feed a family, or because she was thrust into it by the Villain or for any such underlying feeling of goodness. What drove her was first and foremost the need to laugh at her husband’s face, and her own needs for security.

There will be another meeting with James in disguise (this time as Spaniard Don Carlo) before they get to meet for real: but the third time (the one where James is James) is also a time of peril, where Francesca is endangered and James saves her. It is this gallant gesture that sets Francesca off balance in relation to James from the start: no one has ever stood up to her. No MAN has ever defended her. “WHO is he? WHAT is he”, she asks.

The attack has been engineered by players 3 and 4: Francesca’s ex husband, Lord Elphick, who is sitting in his lair back in England plotting to become a powerful man in England and to whom Francesca has become a problem with the letters that she holds; and Marta Fazi, one of his lovers and the one with orders to get the letters from Francesca.

And so the board is set and the game begins.

Il Amore

So here we have James and Francesca. Two people who are powerful, manipulative, smart. Also, they are very jaded and masters in playing games. James is ready to play his game of deceit, Francesca is to be a means to an end as usual. After the two encounters he has with her in disguise, he stipulates that he must play hard to get so as to draw her attention and use it to gain access to the letters he needs.

Francesca is also ready to play her games of seduction with James, whom she is instantly attracted to. It is a game of lust to start with but of course, the Gods of Romance have decreed that lust is to turn into love.

They are both caught unawares by the feelings that surface along with the lust. It is ever more endearing to read about them because they could not be more distant from what they perceive as perfect. For James, Francesca is as far as it can be from the English rose he dreams about whereas for Francesca, James is a younger son who could never ever afford her.

But how could they fight if every time he sees her he hears the call of the Siren and his inner dialogue keeps repeating “tie me to the mast” and do whatever you want to do.

Halfway through the book they are still fighting it though, still playing their games…but then we have the One Scene to Change it All.

The Campanile Scene

This is, my opinion the best scene in the book, possibly one of the best scenes I read this year. It has all of the usual brilliantly written loretachasess.

They are at St Mark’s Square inside Café Florian and it’s 3am in the morning. James is there, pretending not to pay attention to Francesca, still bent on his “hard to get” strategy. Francesca is having a good time with her friend Giulietta and with Prince Lurenze – one of Francesca’s pursuers and the guy Giulietta would like to have as her lover. They leave the café and Giulietta seizes the moment to trick Lurenze into pursuing her leaving Francesca and James, who had followed them (ha, so much for hard to get) alone. They have some fantastic banter and he invites her to climb the Campanile tower.

It starts then, with a simple gesture. He takes her hand – her hand. And she remembers how she felt when her husband used to take her hand and how much she loved him. She feels long dormant emotions coming alive in her chest and as they climb they both feel something. They talk about her smell, her scent of jasmine that drives him mad and she tells him that every whore has her own distinctive smell. And they quip about how she is an industrious businesswoman and how she is one day going to write her memoirs. They are still climbing the steps and they still feel like it’s only lust and he asks if he is going to be in her memoirs and she says:

“Probably not”, she said. “ I plan to forget about you by tomorrow”

To which he replies “in that case, I’d better make the most of today” and it is the perfect introduction to a most romantic moment in the lives of two most unromantic people.

They get to the top and Francesca tells him he is infatuated with her. He denies. She asks him to stop talking and drink in the view:

“The sky was showing the first signs of lightening but stars still hung in the heavens. Below, the city was a dark fairyland dotted with faintly twinkling lights. She moved along the balustrade, enchanted, as she gazed at the world below her and beyond. The lagoon twinkled, too, reflecting the fading starlight and the lights of the boats, and perhaps the sun as well, still lurking below the horizon. “This is the way deities see the world,” she said softly. “we’re merely specks to them”.

And Francesca being a woman, knows what she feels but also knows how to treat a threat to herself and so she retorts:

Voila. The beginning of the end for both of them. She leaves, dreading that he will follow yet hoping that he will. He doesn’t but he wants to.

We are almost there.

Oh Francesca, I heart thee. What is it with Loretta Chase and her great heroines? How can she write a jaded, cynical unrepentant whore who is believable whilst at the same time granting her a past and a heart that resurfaces when she least needs? Because after that scene when they meet again and they let the feelings flow, her heart is right there in her eyes. And when she looks at James like that, he can see the woman that she was, and he can see the ghost of the girl still in her. And that dooms him.