I received a copy of this title to read & review for Wicked Reads 
 5 Holy Chemistry, Batman Stars 
 I read The Scandal of It All as a standalone without any confusion. However, I do plan on going back & reading the first in the series, & am highly anticipating the upcoming installments. 
 There is a heavy taboo theme weaving through the novel, lending a yummy, decadent quality. A guilty pleasure read I couldn't put down. 
 As a widow, who pretended she had a happy marriage to her much older husband, Ele played pretend for her daughter, stepson, & her husband's illegitimate older son. With the death of her friend, she decides she needs more out of life after being an innocent widow for over a decade. She ventures to Sodom with another of her widowed friends, a den of hedomism... 
 The heat, tension, & angst brought during her escapede was explosive. 
 To hide from her stepson, Colin comes to the rescue. Naughty, because older widows do not bed their stepson's best friends, in a culture where Colin ought to be with someone a decade younger, innocence intact, without nearly grown childen- a woman in her prime who can birth many heirs. 
 Amongst the angsty yumminess is medical and social ignorance, along with a stepdaughter who wants the object of her stepmother's affections & a stepson who isn't taking any of this lightly, with a grandmother who wants many male heirs from a much younger bride. 
 The epilogue instantly made me wish I had the next in the series, and many more after that. I read the entirety of the novel with heated cheeks and a smile on my face, sometimes squirming in my seat, and other times white-knuckling my Kindle.