Review: Sixteen Scandals

Sixteen Scandals by Sophie Jordan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am not quite sure how to review this book. It definitely had its flaws, but I have read way too many books like this that were just so awful I couldn't finish them. But... I didn't feel that way about this book. As I read, I felt like I had gone back in time and was reading one of the light, quick, fun Regency Romance books I used to read in the mid-90's while I was in high school. There was very little angst or darkness and the characters were young and fun and, dare I say, simple. And that's not a bad thing! I felt like it was aimed at young teenagers and did a fairly good job at reaching that audience and speaking to their mentality.
However, once I got about 1/3 of the way in, I found myself getting a bit frustrated. So many times, when the main character was asked a question, or faced with a decision, or must take some kind of action, she would spend 3 to 5 paragraphs in inner dialogue pondering what she should do or say--often going over something that had happened in the past that really had no bearing at all on the present situation. It got very tiring. The author could have really slimmed these passages down by not including unnecessary "backstory," or by cutting them down to two or three sentences.
There wasn't a lot of character development, and all of the problems were solved at the end in perhaps an overly simplistic "happily ever after" manner.
All that being said, despite some faults, I really can see some good things in this book. It was not an earth-changing novel. But it would be so great for young teenagers who want to delve into the romance genre without having to worry about too much content that is not age-appropriate.

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