In The Importance of Being Scandalous by Kimberly Bell, Amelia and her childhood friend Nicholas team up to break her unwanted engagement. Their wild antics and blossoming romance make this a sweet, funny historical romp!

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How do you get rid of an unwanted fiancée? Being rude to his family members isn’t working, wearing trousers and racing in the park isn’t working, even spending the night dressed scandalously in a gaming hell isn’t working. Amelia Bishop is running out of ways to chase off her unwanted fiancée after he shows his true feelings about her disabled and beloved younger sister. No matter what she does he’s determined to have her for his wife…even if he has to blackmail her. As a last resort Amelia turns to her childhood friend Nicholas Wakefield, between them they must be able to cause an engagement-ending scandal.

Ignore my terrible blurb! Have you ever watched the film “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”? This reminded me of the historical romance version of that, only instead of falling in love with Matthew McConaughey, she falls for her best-friend, who has been in love with her for years, and together they try and get rid of the odious fiancée after said fiancée threatens her family. Okay, maybe it’s nothing like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”… Anyway, don’t let my bad book descriptions put you off, ignore them and go out and read this book,  I highly recommend it. It managed to be sweet, touching and funny all at once.

What stole the show for me though wasn’t the main characters and their romance, although it was adorable. It wasn’t even the heroines shenanigans, which were hilarious, have you read Sarah Macleans Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake? It reminded me a little of that. For me, it was Julia, Amelia’s vivacious, disabled, slightly younger sister, and Jasper, Nicholas’ exuberant and rakeish best friend that stole the show. Amelia and Nicholas were cute, but they were fairly sensible characters so having Jasper and Julia in the background really added the book some much needed humour and irreverence.

This was a great historical romance and my first book by Kimberly Bell, I’m feeling very pleased with myself that I decided to take a chance and give this book a try. I am now impatiently waiting the next book in the series which will be about my favourite characters Julia and Jasper.

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