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Title: Some Like it Scandalous
Author: Maya Rodale
Sub-genre: Historical
Trope(s): Fake engagement
Guuuuyyys. We’re back in my favorite time period. I am obsessed with Gilded Age New York, so I was super stoked to dive into the second book in Maya Rodale’s Gilded Age Girls’ Club series. I loved Duchess by Design (it might have actually been the first GA book I read), and I was hoping this one would be just as good. And it was!
Daisy Swann is the daughter of a high society New York family, dead set on becoming a spinster so she can open her own business, selling a face moisturizer she has perfected through her studies in chemistry. When her mother tells her she must marry and marry well due to an impending family scandal, she is not having it. Theodore Prescott the Third is the city’s most scandalous rogue, and the only way to get himself out of his latest predicament is to become engaged to a respectable lady. Neither Daisy nor Theo has any desire to be married, but to placate their families, they pretend to be engaged to buy themselves some time. They also happen to buy themselves the perfect business partnership, Theo shining where Daisy struggles, and vice versa. But as their relationship deepens, the secrets and scandals threaten to tear them apart. But of course, they are able to work it all out and live happily ever after.
This book was a lot of fun. In case I haven’t said it enough, I love this time period and I love any story that takes me into this world. What I love about this series in particular, is that Maya bases her characters on real life women. Women that were breaking into new industries and overcoming challenges and supporting other women. Daisy eventually expands her business from selling face cream to cosmetics, which was basically unheard of at the time (only sex workers and actresses wore makeup). It was really cool to see the burgeoning industry and how Daisy and Theo went about making it more acceptable for women to wear cosmetics in their everyday lives.
The chemistry was also super hot, and I loved Daisy and Theo’s relationship. In a lot of ways, it felt like a swap of traditional gender roles, as Daisy is the inventor and Theo does the packaging and graphic design and makes their store look pretty. I loved that aspect of the story as well. And I’m a sucker for a fake dating/engagement trope, so this one really couldn’t go wrong for me. I can’t wait for the next one!
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars