In Scandal They Wed
Penwich School for Virtuous Girls’ Alumni Regency Series

By Sophie Jordan

        Always the good girl, Evelyn Cross (an alumnus of the Penwich School for Virtuous Girls) sacrifices her own future marriage plans when she adopts her younger half-sister’s out-of-wedlock newborn son and pretends that he is her own child. Without the stigma of having an illegitimate baby, her sister goes on to marry, but dies soon afterward. Even without the support of her sister, her weak-willed father, or her selfish stepmother, Evie (pretending to be a widow) continues raising the little boy, despite her status as a poor, but loving, single mother.
 
When Spencer Lockhart, a cousin of the child’s late father, arrives unexpectedly to see the boy, Evie pretends to be her sister. Having long ago fallen in love with the stories and descriptions of the sister, Spencer transfers all of that affection onto Evie, whom he believes to be the true mother of the child. In an effort to make things right, he proposes marriage to Evie to provide the boy with wealthy accommodations and to satisfy his need to have his cousin’s love interest for his own.

This complicated story of changed names and switched identities comes with a few problems that the book fails to satisfactorily solve. For example, it should strike Spencer as odd that a woman known all her life as Linnie would suddenly decide to be called Evie, despite the cover of using Evelyn as a formal name. Evie’s claim to being the widow Mrs. Cross seems a little too convenient as no one ever asks about her deceased husband, and she is never required to prove that he ever existed.
 
In addition, even if Evie marries Spencer, the child was still born out of wedlock, which would taint him during that time period. Words can lie, but bodies can’t: Evie is a virgin pretending to be a sexually experienced woman who has given birth to a child. Finally, and most importantly, although Spencer has some kind, gentle moments in the book, he also cruelly taunts Evie with her supposed promiscuity (actually her sister’s indiscretion), bullies her to get his way, and uses sex as a weapon to dominate and humiliate her. Taken altogether, he’s often not a heroic hero.
 
Readers of Sophie Jordan’s far superior Sins of a Wicked Duke (also from the Penwich School for Virtuous Girls series) may find themselves somewhat disappointed with Evie and Spencer’s story. Purists who want to enjoy the entire series about how the alumni find love after graduation should include In Scandal They Wed on their reading list, but come prepared with the knowledge that some marriage matches are better than others.