The Scoundrel Falls Hard by Sophie Jordan : All About Romance

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Historical Romance

The Scoundrel Falls Hard

By Sophie Jordan

Grade : D

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Sophie Jordan’s The Scoundrel Falls Hard is the third title in her The Duke Hunt series, and although it references characters from the previous two books it can be read as a standalone. It features Gwen Cully, a down on her luck village blacksmith, and Kellan Fox, the son of a con artist whom Gwen saves from a hanging. In the process of saving him, Gwen lies to everyone in the village by telling them she loves him. Suddenly, the pair find themselves fake-engaged.

This story open with Kellan hiding in Gwen’s forge from a mob of very angry people who have discovered that his father is NOT, in fact, the long-lost duke he has been pretending to be, and that Kellan and his father have been conning them. His father makes an escape, completely abandoning Kellan to whatever fate may befall him. The villagers find Kellan and string him up to be hanged. Gwen arrives and convinces the villagers, just in the nick of time, that the two of them are in love and engage to be married. That is, at least, until another villager, Gwen’s rival blacksmith, once again convinces the rest to continue with Kellan’s hanging. The real duke joins the crowd and persuades them not to hang Kellan so long as he marries Gwen within three weeks. Gwen and Kellan agree and go back to her home.

Once there, Gwen begins trying to talk Kellan into making their marriage real, albeit in name only, for one year before going their separate ways. She is no longer the only village blacksmith, after all, and after taking time off to care for her sick (and now deceased) uncle, she is hopelessly behind with her work. With Kellan’s help, she knows she can get caught up on her orders and, hopefully, lure back some of the customers she lost to her rival, Meyer. This same rival is also continually pressuring Gwen to marry one of his sons and was the most outspoken against her marriage to Kellan. Kellan takes care of Gwen’s other chores during the day so she can catch up, and as the two of them start building a life together, they slowly begin to realize they might need each other more than they thought.

This story started off so well but could not hold its momentum past the twenty percent mark, which is when Gwen is finally successful in saving Kellan and they begin living together. Without the threat of death hanging over the hero’s head, there is not much action to be found. Gwen’s rescue of Kellan spans the first four chapters, and then nothing else overly exciting really happens. I was hoping for some scenes with Gwen teaching him her trade, but that doesn’t happen either. There honestly seem to be no reason for Gwen to be a blacksmith or Kellan to be a con man except to make them unique. It is such a letdown because the book opens with such a bang, drawing the reader in only to have it quickly fizzle out.

The momentum doesn’t even come back when the quasi-villains come back into the picture, which brings up one of the most frustrating things about this novel (and a lot of PC romance in general these days): no one receives any real comeuppance. Not a single person. Not Kellan, who went along with his father’s schemes even though he’s far past the age of knowing what they were doing was wrong. He just sort of shrugs it off with ‘he’s my father’, like it is no big deal. Not Meyer, who oversteps his bounds and bullies Gwen relentlessly. And, most irritatingly, not Kellan’s father, a man who has screwed over everyone in his life - including his son - for years. He apologizes to Kellan near the end, and all is just forgiven. It is not very realistic and left me feeling aggravated.

I normally really enjoy Sophie Jordan’s titles, but The Scoundrel Falls Hard is a miss. With little plot, lackluster main characters, and no justice against the villains, this is not a book I can recommend.