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SIXTEEN SCANDALS by Sophie Jordan

SIXTEEN SCANDALS

by Sophie Jordan

Pub Date: May 25th, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-20621-7
Publisher: HMH Books

A young woman in Regency London finds her place in society through a chance encounter.

It’s 1821, and Primrose Ainsworth has just turned 16, but her prospects of improving her boring life are dim. As the youngest of four sisters in a modestly comfortable family, pale, freckled, redhead Prim is in turn reviled and ignored by her siblings and her ambitious mother, whose one desire is to marry off her daughters to rich suitors. Prim is abandoned at home on her birthday when her mother and sisters venture to Bond Street for an expensive shopping trip. One benefit of this situation is that Prim is left to her own devices—so when she chooses to join light-brown–skinned, black-haired Olympia Zaher, her sophisticated, glamorous friend, on a nocturnal adventure to that den of iniquity Vauxhall Gardens, no one is watching. Prim’s mother disapproves of the Zahers, mother and daughter, whom she regards with suspicion as foreigners from Andalusia. Armed with masks for disguise and adventurous attitudes, the two girls head for the forbidden playground. Exciting chases and near misses abound as Prim is dramatically rescued from several scrapes by a mysterious and exceedingly handsome stranger. Prim’s feminist spirit and determination to rise above her station will resonate with modern readers who feel trapped in difficult family situations.

“Cinderella” meets Pride and Prejudice, and the result is a delight.

(Historical romance. 14-18)