I’m always looking for romances with positive portrayals of physical disabilities, so I was beyond thrilled to get a copy of A Scandal by Any Other Name for review. It’s the second book in Kimberly Bell’s A Tale of Two Sisters series, and is the story of a young woman with a mild form of spina bifida who yearns to experience true love. I hadn’t read the previous entry in the series, but this didn’t end up being a problem for me as the author has crafted a story that stands perfectly well on its own. Unfortunately, this is one of the few good things I can say about this book, which turned out to be far more of a disappointment than I could have imagined.

Julia Bishop is tired of living life on everyone else’s terms. She walks with a noticeable limp due to the spinal condition she was born with, and she’s always been told true love and acceptance exist only for others. But Julia’s not so sure that’s true. Surely a man exists who will fall madly in love with her despite her disability. All she has to do is find him.

To this end, she slips away from her father’s house and journeys to the country estate her recently married sister shares with her husband. She and Amelia have always been close, and if anyone can help her come up with a plan to find love, Julia’s sure it’ll be her sister. Unfortunately, Amelia and her husband Nicholas haven’t yet returned from their honeymoon, so Julia is on her own in the country for a couple of days.

Jasper DeVere lives only for pleasure. He refuses to deal with anything the least bit sad or uncomfortable, but the recent death of his beloved grandfather is forcing him to face all manner of unwanted emotions and responsibilities. On the day he is supposed to have an audience with Queen Victoria and assume the family title, Jasper flees to the country, hoping to seek solace with his long-time friend Nicholas. As he approaches the house, he comes upon a young woman riding alone in what he considers a very reckless fashion.

Julia is stunned to encounter Jasper on one of her afternoon rides and even more surprised to realize he doesn’t recognize her. They’ve met on a few prior occasions, and Julia has been harboring a bit of a crush on Jasper, a crush he obviously doesn’t reciprocate. So, when he grabs hold of her horse in an attempt to save her from a nasty fall, Julia plays the damsel in distress, never mind the fact that she’s quite an accomplished horsewoman and was never in any danger. She introduces herself as Juniper, a distant cousin of Amelia’s who has accidentally arrived early for a post-wedding visit. A part of her knows it’s wrong to lie to Jasper, but a bigger, more dominant part, tells her the only way she’ll ever have a chance with him is by casting off her identity as Amelia’s crippled sister.

Jasper is immediately captivated by Juniper, partly because of her beauty and obvious wit, and partly because he’s in desperate need of a distraction from the mess he’s left behind in London. A few days of harmless flirting have always done the trick before now and he sees no reason why this time should be any different, especially since Juniper seems more than willing to go along with it. He knows it’s improper for the two of them to be together unchaperoned, but Amelia and Nicholas are due back any day, and surely no harm will be done before they return. I found this way of thinking quite absurd, but I did my best to suspend my judgement for the sake of the story, a feat that proved ever more difficult the farther I read.

I have a really hard time with romances that center around deception. In order for me to go along with it at all, an author must create a very compelling reason for one principal to deceive the other, and Ms. Bell definitely doesn’t do that here. As someone with a disability, I understood Julia’s frustration with society’s inability to accept her, and I sympathized with her desire to be loved, but her decision to lie to Jasper rubbed me the wrong way. Plus, I was troubled by her ability to mask her physical issues from him. The author makes it clear that Julia’s disability is quite noticeable, so why doesn’t Jasper notice it? Is he that oblivious to what’s going on right in front of him, or are Julia’s limitations far less apparent than she believes? I couldn’t tell which of these things Ms. Bell expected readers to buy into, and it left a nasty taste in my mouth.

Eventually, Nicholas and Amelia return from their honeymoon and Jasper learns the truth about Julia’s identity. I found his reaction quite puzzling, because he isn’t the least bit upset. He just kind of laughs the whole thing off, and goes on with the business of flirting with Julia. The fact that she lied doesn’t seem to matter to him at all, and that just didn’t seem realistic to me.

Jasper is a very problematic hero. He’s weak and spineless, and I struggled to understand exactly what Julia saw in him. Sure, he knows how to have a good time, and he’s ready and willing to take her to bed at a moment’s notice, but those are the only slightly positive things I can say about him. Whenever things get tough, Jasper runs away and then spends huge amounts of time berating himself for his cowardice, and I didn’t find this at all attractive. I wanted him to stand up and take responsibility for the things he’d done wrong, but he never seems capable of that kind of personal growth.

In short, I was pleased to reach the end of A Scandal by Any Other Name. It’s a steamy enough story with some pretty good chemistry between the leads, but that’s not enough to make a believable romance. I expected more, and came away with a feeling of overall dissatisfaction.

Buy it at: A/BN/iB/K