Once a Scoundrel [Mass Market Paperback]

Anthony Morehouse is a typical gentleman of the ton: he spends his time drinking and gambling with his friends, and gadding about from one social do to another. So that when he wins the ownership of a ladies' magazine at the gambling tables, he's not too sure what to do about it. A visit to the editor's home gives him the first of many shocks: 1) the magazine he now owns is not some ladies' fashion concern but actually one that writes on political issues, reforms as well as matters about fashion and housekeeping; and 2) the magazine's editor just happens to be Miss Edwina Parrish, his childhood nemesis, who bested him in everything. Suddenly, the opportunity to pay Edwina for all those years of humiliation has been presented to him on a silver platter, and in the mood of mischief, Anthony wagers Edwina that if she can double the subscription level in two months, he will sign the magazine over to her. And in the meantime, Anthony has every intention of spending as much time as possible with Edwina, who has grown up to become a rather delectable young lady...

Edwina has spent the last few years making the magazine over into something that she's rather proud of, only to discover that the ownership of her magazine has changed hands. Edwina's is afraid that the new owner (Anthony) might want to take a more active role at running the magazine, and discover how she has been using the profits from the magazine to run certain charities. Now Anthony has challenged her to a wager for the ownership of the magazine. Should she accept this mad wager? For while she has every intention of wining the wager, working under Anthony's close scrutiny could mean the discovery of all her secrets. And then there is that rather unnerving manner in which Anthony looks at her that's awakening all sorts of feeling that she'd thought she had buried...

I truly enjoyed the manner in which Candice Hern allowed for Edwina's character to blossom from a serious minded editor and reformer to a young woman ready to let a little bit of fun and frivolity into her life. Also well done was the manner in which the authour fleshed out the secondary characters in the novel -- from Prudence, Edwina's mousy assistant editor who happens to have a severe crush on Edwina's brother (I do hope that there's a novel that features Prudence as heroine at some point), to Flora, a woman with a scandalous past whom Anthony and Edwina hire to be the fashion editor, to Anthony raffish friends -- these characters added colour and depth to this otherwise rather ordinary story. Where the novel failed to raise itself above the expected level was in the predictable storyline -- you could almost predict the exact chapter in which Edwina and Anthony would first indulge in a bit of dalliance, to the chapter in they would fall out because of Edwina's political sympathies. I was also disappointed that Anthony's growth as a character was not as detailed as Edwina's was -- we're told about his growth, but not shown. On the other hand, the novel did unfold smoothly and at an even pace.

On the whole though "Once a Scoundrel" was a pleasant enough read, even if the storyline and the hero & heroine were pretty much run of the mill.