If a man does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps in a life of politics, what do you do? You need an affair that is Simply Scandalous to end his father’s dreams for his son.

Simply Scandalous is the second novel in Carly Phillips’ “Simply” trilogy. The “Simply” trilogy consists of the following three novels (in order) : Simply Sinful, Simply Scandalous, and Simply Sensual.

This trilogy is for romance lovers. The titles that Phillips gave her novels surely can indicate this.

I previously reviewed Simply Sinful, the first novel of the trilogy. This review can be found at http://www.epinions.com/content_137678196356 if you are interested.

The Story:

Simply Scandalous is the story of Catherine Luck (Cat) and Logan Montgomery.

Logan’s father is a judge in the small community of Hampshire. The judge (as he is called by his children) has never shown “love” for his children. He uses them for show to support his image to the public. Logan Montgomery has tried various ways to end his father’s control. When Logan finished law school, his father called in favors and got Logan a job at a prestigious law firm. Logan said NO! He now works for the public defender’s office. The judge offered him a new home. Logan said NO! He bought a small cottage that he loved with his earnings. Logan has never touched the trust fund his parents started for him.

Despite Logan’s attempts to show his father he is his own man, the Judge is unrelenting. Unbeknownst to Logan, his father has been telling everyone his son will be running for Mayor.

Enter Emma Montgomery. Emma is Logan’s grandmother, the woman who essentially raised Logan and his sister Grace. Emma has a plan. If she can create a scandal for Logan, his father will surely give up.

Enter Catherine Luck. Cat and her sister Kayla were accused about a year ago of running an escort business. (This was the premise for the first novel Simply Sinful.) Cat and Kayla now run a catering business, Pot Luck. Emma has purposely sought the business of Pot Luck so that she may introduce Cat and Logan. Emma feels that Cat would give her grandson the scandal that he needs to end his father’s dreams for his son.

And here begins the story….

I can’t divulge any further details or I will ramble and end up telling you the entire story.

My Thoughts:
Catherine was my favorite character from the Simply Sinful novel. However, in this novel, her character showed only slight signs of being the same character. She was no longer the feisty woman. The only indicator of her being the same person was her banter with her brother-in-law Kane. She showed little sign of being the feisty, fiery woman with Logan Montgomery. She spoke up once for herself in the novel and that was to Logan’s father.

I also had a problem with the basis of the story. Set two people up to cause a scandal for one. The other person would know nothing about the set-up. It didn’t exactly end up this way, and maybe that is why it wasn’t concentrated on. Emma set them up for a scandal. Logan knew his grandmother’s plans to an extent. Catherine knew nothing about it. After reading the novel, it’s almost as if she never found out the real reason for their love affair. Naturally, this frustrated me as a reader. If she knew, would things have ended the same way? Could their love have prevailed? Or would she have just felt used and left?

Considering I am a fan of mystery novels, maybe I was just waiting for a good fight to spice this novel up.

If you love romance novels, you would like this. If you are the occasional reader of romance novels, as I am, maybe you could pass over this one. I did finish the novel. I wasn’t overly upset with it to just put it down. Besides, the third and final novel was next to being read. I didn’t want to miss anything…my natural nosiness, I guess.

I feel the need to warn you that this novel is graphic on the sexual details.

I received this novel as a Christmas gift from my fiancée. The normal cost is $6.50. Epinions lists the lowest price of $3.00. If you can get it for $3.00, go for it. Knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn’t pay more than that for the novel.




Recommended: No