review || BREATH OF SCANDAL

Breath of Scandal by Sandra Brown

Publisher: Grand Central (2/26/2013)
Genres: Adult, Suspense, Thriller

Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Purchase links || amazon | bn | kobo | itunes || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★★★1/2

On a rainy Southern night, Jade Sperry endured a young woman’s worst nightmare at the hands of three local hell-raisers. Robbed of her youthful ideals and at the center of scandal and tragedy, Jade ran as far and as fast as she could. But she never forgot the sleepy “company town” where every man, woman, and child was dependent on one wealthy family. And she never forgot their spoiled son, who with his two friends changed her life forever. Someday, somehow, she’d return . . . exacting a just revenge, freeing herself from her enemies’ grasp, and, perhaps, fulfilling a lost promise of love.

about Sandra || Sandra Brown is the author of more than sixty New York Times bestsellers, including DEADLINE(2013), LOW PRESSURE (2012), LETHAL (2011), TOUGH CUSTOMER (2010), SMASH CUT (2009), SMOKE SCREEN (2008), PLAY DIRTY (2007), RICOCHET (2006), CHILL FACTOR (2005), WHITE HOT (2004), & HELLO, DARKNESS (2003).

Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.

A lifelong Texan, Sandra Brown was born in Waco, grew up in Fort Worth and attended Texas Christian University, majoring in English. Before embarking on her writing career, she worked as a model at the Dallas Apparel Mart, and in television, including weathercasting for WFAA-TV in Dallas, and feature reporting on the nationally syndicated program “PM Magazine.”

In 2009 Brown detoured from her thrillers to write, Rainwater, a much acclaimed, powerfully moving story about honor and sacrifice during the Great Depression.

Brown recently was given an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University. She was named Thriller Master for 2008, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

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{ review } .

This book was originally written in 1991; I think that that is something one needs to have in mind when reading. Things were different in the early 90s -- and it was more than clothes and poofy ponytails (my mother used to wrap my fluffed up ponytail in a rolled bandanna. I was one stylin' four year old).

But also, when you pick up a book originally written in '91, there's a really good chance you've read the book already... At least, there's a great chance that I've read the book already; heck, that I own it already.

I went into this not realizing it was a re-issue.

But it was a great revisit!

Right away in the first few paragraphs, the entire story flooded back at me. Now, I didn't read this when it was originally published -- at four, I was more interested in GREEN EGGS AND HAM, after all. I probably own the 2001 edition (I'd have to go through large containers to be sure) and have read it two or three times, but it's been a minute since I've read it last.

I have to say, I love old-school Sandra Brown. The TEXAS! series, loved. SUNNY CHANDLER, ADAM'S FALL, MIRROR IMAGE.... I love a lot of her 'newer' titles too, but I always know when I pick up a late-80s, early-90s title, that I will love it.

In BREATH OF SCANDAL, we have two lead characters who have pretty sordid pasts -- not necessarily by fault of their own, but pasts that certainly shaped them in who they are in present day.

Jade had been in love with Gary, and one afternoon everything changed. After being gang-raped by three no-good classmates of her, she was ignored and forced to change her story to accuse a black man. The boys all walked away without a slap on the wrist (aside from the ones their fathers gave them -- because the truth was the truth regardless), Jade's best friend went along with the falsified story, her rape kit was 'lost', and her beloved Gary -- who she walked away from initially, due to embarrasment -- hanged himself.

Beyond that... She became pregnant.

Now, after years away, she's going back to correct the mistrial.

Then there's Dillon. He had a rough childhood; beyond that, his first forray into the sexual world were granted to him from the neighbor lady at the ripe old age of thirteen. He learned a lot that summer, but the fact remains he was thirteen to her... adult.

As Dillon grew older, you see the myriad of emotions that he goes through -- he's a man of strength, but he also is hardheaded, hot-tempered... but he loves wholeheartedly. The problem with that, though, is he is convinced that anything that loves him will die, a point that is proven to him time and time again.

When they meet, it's his toughness and ability to speak the unpopular truth that makes he want to hire him as general contractor on a project that will bring her back home -- to a town that doesn't want her. And when Dillon starts to hear the hatred in the towns' voices, he starts to wonder what exactly he got involved with. But his ability to help her through her nightmares and slowly get her answers out, was sweet. The last thing he wants is to get close to someone (heck, he didn't even want to get close to the dog) but Jade and her son weasle their way into his heart.

Throughout this entire story, we go on a trip from the time Jade's raped, to the time she finally gets justice in a town that broke her down. This is a full book -- it's certainly long, but it covers a lot of ground and many years. It's one of my favorite Sandra Brown books.

 

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