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It’s the 20th Anniversary of Lord of Scoundrels!

AAR feels old! We can’t believe many of us first read Loretta Chase’s classic romance Lord of Scoundrels 20 years ago! We first reviewed the historical romance in 1997. The review was written by a reader who gave the book an A. In the review, she wrote:

One of the greatest thrills about reading, for me, is to begin a new book and within the first few pages realize that it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. I get a shiver and I breathe a sigh of contentment and just fall into state of near total euphoria. This book will reside on my bedside table for months or longer, so I’ll have it near to reread a favorite bit of dialogue, a particularly wonderful scene or simply experience the same heartfelt emotion it evokes in me one more time. I cherish these books. I live for these books. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase is one of these books.

A staff member reviewed the book again in 2009 and wasn’t quite as charmed. That time, the book got a B-. Our reviewer wrote:

Ultimately, what brings the grade down to a B- for me is the feeling that Jessica has a lot of very unromantic work in front of her to ease both Dominick and Dain’s transition into emotional maturity. Clearly, many, many AAR readers would disagree with my assessment, but in my humble opinion Lord of Scoundrels simply attempts too much.

Many of our readers do disagree. The novel has been chosen as the #1 romance in our top 100 poll four out of the five polls. It won the RITA for best Short Historical Romance and has been translated into at least fifteen languages including Turkish and Vietnamese.

I asked AAR staffers what they thought of the book. Several adored it. Several did not. Most had read it–many consider it part of the mythical romance novel canon.

What do you think of Lord of Scoundrels? Do you love Jessica? (I do.) Think Dain is a dreamboat (or a douche)? Are there scenes that make you sigh with joy whenever you read them? (For me, it’s the meet over the pornographic watch that gets me every time.) Are there things in the book that make you want to hurl the tome against the nearest wall? Have you never read and never will or do you read it again and again?

We want to know your thoughts/feelings about Lord of Scoundrels. And, thanks to our generous friends at Avon, we’ve got gifts for some lucky commenters. We’ll be giving away two signed copies of Lord of Scoundrels as well as a selection of Ms. Chase’s prodigious backlist. In addition, for those on Twitter today, Avon is asking readers to share their thoughts on the book, memories about reading it for the first time, favorite scenes, favorite lines, anything! They will be giving away signed copies of the book randomly to folks using the hashtag #LOSlove.

So, dish away!

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