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The Scoundrel, by Lisa Plumley
Harlequin,
April 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0373293971
ISBN-10: 0373293976
Reviewed by Erin, August 2006
Marriage is the last thing on Daniel McCabe’s mind and it would take some pretty drastic event to convince him otherwise. He likes women, enjoys their pleasurable company but the second any of them get even the slightest bit more interested than he deems necessary, he’s long gone. All is going well in the tiny town of Morrow Creek in the Arizona Territory. He is the town blacksmith and he is living his life the way he wants. That is, until one night a scrawny clerk from the train station informs him that he has a very important delivery, one that must be picked up in person. As soon as Daniel arrives at the station he realizes something is terribly wrong. There is a mighty ruckus going on when he gets there and he soon realizes the one causing the ruckus is a small urchin-like child. Even worse the child is his delivery. Daniel does the only thing an honorable man can do and takes the child home. After looking after Eli for a couple of months he comes to one horrifying conclusion. He can’t take care of this child on his own. He needs a wife. Now!
Sarah Crabtree is the town spinster and the town schoolmarm. She has also loved Daniel McCabe since she could remember. Sarah knows Daniel better than anyone therefore has hidden her secret feelings under the guise of friendship for years. She knows if she ever decided to let her true feelings show, Daniel would be off like a shot so she has become adept at posing as his sister-like friend. But that is all about to change. After the fateful night when Daniel becomes a guardian to the little rapscallion he calls his nephew he suddenly comes up with a crazy plan. He needs to find a sensible woman, a woman adept at dealing with children and that is when Sarah realizes her dreams are about to come true. Well, sort of. She and Daniel are going to be married but not in the true sense of the word. She will simply be helping to raise Eli with Daniel. Not exactly the sort of relationship she had in mind but she is determined that when she is in such close proximity to Daniel on a daily basis, he will have nothing else to do but fall madly in love with her.
THE SCOUNDREL was one of the most diluted books I have ever read. I feel the author has potential but hasn’t quite reached it, yet. I found myself struggling through the book trying to get to the end but the author made no effort to propel the reader easily. I felt the writing was stilted, the character development incomplete and the storyline lacking. Nothing in this book enticed me therefore, I must award one heart.
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