Skandal by Lindsay Smith Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“My past cannot hurt me now. My future cannot stop me now. All I have is now.”- Skandal, Lindsay Smith

My mind is mine alone.

Life in Washington, D.C., is not the safe haven Yulia hoped for when she risked everything to flee communist Russia. Her father is reckless and aloof, and Valentin is distant and haunted by his past. Her mother is being targeted by the CIA and the US government is suspicious of Yulia's allegiance. And when super-psychics start turning up in the US capitol, it seems that even Rostov is still a threat. Ultimately, Yulia must keep control of her own mind to save the people she loves and avoid an international Skandal.

If you'll recall, I quite liked Sekret. It was fun and action packed and helped me with my minor reading slump. I confess, though, I knew I wouldn't like this book as much as I liked the first. I wasn't looking forward to picking it up, but I decided to anyway because I didn't know what else to read and I figured this would be fun and action packed enough. 

This month I've been trying to read fun things to make up for last month. I've also been super busy, so don't expect much from me. 

However, Skandal didn't grab me the same way Sekret did. Maybe it's because I thought (and honestly still think) that Sekret didn't really need a second book. It was just fine on its own. It was just kind of the first book but taking place in America instead of the Soviet Union.

I did, however, enjoy the writing. I particularly liked Smith's descriptions, they were pretty and set the scene up nicely. Sure, the way the characters spoke seemed like it was right out of a 60s noir movie, but I managed to let myself enjoy it, even if it was a bit painful. 

Yulia was still the same okay main character. I still cared little for her and Valentin. The other characters didn't really interest me much and didn't do anything surprising to me. I just excused this as being a fun book and not one that was meant to be a literary masterpiece.

I do think that Smith went with the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to historical fiction that I talked about in my A Death-Struck Year review. She threw in basically everything that people think of when they think of the 60s, and even a few of the 50s. Greasers, beatniks, Vietnam, Kennedy's assassination, the Cold War, mod clothing, the Beatles, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis- whether it actually fit or not it was going in. Frankly, she should just have focused on the Cold War or maybe Vietnam or Cuba, to make for a more centered story. While I did like that scene in the jazz club, it felt a bit forced and not natural with the storyline.

The jazz club thing also fit into my other (nitpicky) complaint, which was what the hell where beatniks doing in 64? I know the Beat Generation was technically until the mid 60s, but by then it wasn't really relevant anymore, and the mod and Warhol's factory movements kind of took over the headlines. The true Beat Generation was in the 50s. Not to mention that beatniks and greasers didn't really party together. I was also a bit confused by how mod clothing was treated as this alien thing, when it was embraced by the youth in both America, Europe, and, yes, the Soviet Union in the 60s. Mod clothing wasn't some strange new thing. 

I also didn't like how Yulia's accent was mentioned every five lines. Yes, we get it, you're Russian, move on.

Overall I preferred the first book. I'm happy Smith didn't feel the need to drag it out any longer than two books, though, and I still want to read her other serial, but this book unfortunately kind of brought down the whole duology for me. I don't know if I'll write a series thoughts for this, but if I do, it will be up tomorrow. Hopefully. If I don't get distracted by Twin Peaks.

6.5 out of 10