6/11/2017

Ein Hauch Von Skandal by Sandra Brown

This book was originally published under the title Breath of Scandal and though the German cover isn´t quite that good, the fact alone, that Sandra Brown has written it, made me want it. So, when it got reissued, I went for it. I wrote for this title not only an English review but a guest review in the German language as well. So, if you want to see what my German guest review looks like, go over to FiktiveWelten. If you don´t, I am more than happy to see you staying and keep reading. 

Ein Hauch Von Skandal*

by Sandra Brown
Original Title Breath Of Scandal
Publisher Blanvalet on April 17, 2017
Genre Novel
Pages 603
Format Paperback
Source Publisher

Goodreads

✶✶✶✶½

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 a 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, exact a just revenge – and free herself from fear, and the powerful family that could destroy her.

Story

Jade can´t get touched by any man since that awful night back home. Not even by Hank, who wants nothing more but to make her more than just a friend. So, Jade keeps studying, getting every knowledge and practice she can within the textile industry, and starts making a career at GSS. Years later, her plans to take revenge, to let her punishers pay for what they did to her and to free the people of the town from that one wealthy family, become more than just a dream. They become a reality.

Style

Sandra Brown shows in this novel the style she became famous for in her thrillers. The tone is blunt, direct, even obscene and her writing style shows the life in a small southern town where the whim and will of one single man are everything that counts. With her style, the author makes you actually see the landscape of the South, you can smell the rain, the mud, and the damp heat on a hot and sunny afternoon in the summer. Though I sometimes had the feeling that I somehow would know that book already, it was never boring and I really enjoyed every minute of it. 

Two lines of action, one with Jade, the other with Dillon, show their way, their suffering, and what brought them to the point where they finally met and the two lines of action become one. From there the story goes back to the small town where Jade went through her darkest hours and a new chapter in both their lives start.

Characters

A mother who never could accept her daughter, and therefore makes her responsible for everything bad that has happened to her ever since giving birth to her only child. A rich man who raises his only son in a way that makes it quite clear that the law is for all the others, but not for them. And a young couple who wants to make it out of the city, to learn and grow and later to come back and start making changes for the better. All destroyed in one single night when one man can´t control himself anymore.

Jade is a strong, young woman, who loves her little family dearly and who does everything to protect her. She is a great boss, knows how to stand her ground and what it takes to make dreams become reality. Not only those of her boss but her own as well. But she still can´t stand the touch of a man. Her trauma is still real though she does everything to deny it. Oh yes, she is honest with every man who wants more. But she is not honest with herself when it comes to the reason why. And going to a shrink? No chance.

Conclusion

A Dixieland drama with two great main figures and the beautiful landscape of South Carolina wrapped up in a great Oscar-worthy novel about passion, hate, revenge, and a life-changing moment. This book spans over almost fifteen years showing the moral and faith of the men and women back in the early seventies.  

Happy reading

*This book was kindly provided to me by Blanvalet in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review.

This book was published Breath of Scandal by Grand Central Publishing on March 31, 2015. 

Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of 63 New York Times bestsellers. 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 thirty-four languages. A lifelong Texan, Sandra Brown was born in Waco, grew up in Fort Worth and attended Texas Christian University, majoring in English. She is much in demand as a speaker and guest television hostess. Her episode on truTV´s Murder by the Book premiered the series in 2008. She appeared in 2010 on Investigation Discovery´s new series, Hardcover Mysteries. 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 holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University where she and her husband Michael Brown, have instituted the ELF, a scholarship annually awarded to a student pursuing a fiction-writing career. In 2008, she was named Thriller Master, 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. In 2011, she and four colleagues went on a week-long USO tour to Afghanistan, meeting with service members on numerous bases. Sandra is the past president of the Mystery Writers of America in 2012. She lives in Arlington, Texas, with her husband, Michael Brown.

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