The Desperate Viscount [Hardcover]

Gayle Buck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003

When his plans for becoming a wealthy duke are destroyed by his elderly uncle's marriage and fatherhood, Sinjin St. John, desperate for money, sets out to marry Mary Pepperidge, a shy, seemingly biddable tradesman's daughter.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Five Star (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786256192
• ISBN-13: 978-0786256198
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,132,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marriage of Convenience with A Twist, June 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Desperate Viscount (Signet Regency Romance) (Paperback)

As my title states this is a marriage of convenience plot, but the marriage does not come at the beginning of the story. The first part features a well-drawn portrait of Viscount Weemswood's trials in the ton as his fortunes fall. His best friends are well drawn and supportive. His arrogance, his wild temper and his fierce pride pique our interest. Then, he meets Mary Pepperidge by accident. When he finally admits to himself his only recourse is marriage in the trades, his pride is sadly shaken, but he selects Miss Pepperidge from his friend's list. Mary is intelligent, calm and wise beyond her years. In the end her rash "lord and master" finds himself married to his equal, a woman who loves and understands him. How the lady appeals to his better half and how the two finally come together is a great story.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read - a real Oldie But Goodie, August 7, 2008

By 

Susan Smith (A small rural village in the English Midlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Desperate Viscount (Hardcover)

I've only previously read Gayle Buck in anthologies and can't quite remember what led me to this book. I also have "Mutual Consent" waiting in the TBR pile. This is an oldie but goodie from 1993 and a classic "Marriage of Convenience" story.

First of all, I liked this book very much but it does have a couple of glaring errors that really annoyed me. The author gets the titles of the main characters wrong over and over and over again. The forename "St John" is, indeed, pronounced "Sinjin" but NEVER written that way - I have a close friend with this interesting forename and I know this to be the case. However, the hero is Viscount Weemswood and NOT Lord St John and neither is our heroine Lady St John. The author refers to the hero as "Sinjin" when calling him by his first name and "St John" when incorrectly referring to his title. Various other aristocrats get their titles muddled as well. Also, it's not clear to me how Weemswood would inherit the Dukedom of Alton from his (very nasty)uncle either as presumably this is a maternal and not paternal uncle. Two brothers very, very rarely each have an independent, completely separate title and Weemswood is not a courtesy title; a nephew in line to a title does not have one - only direct issue do. Anyway, so much for my personal rant.

Weemswood is an interesting, classically tortured hero: almost unlikeable at times, he is angry, reckless, cranky, temperamental, rude, volatile and even violent, and appears almost totally uncaring of how he treats Mary, his wife in a marriage of convenience. He does appear to be somewhat manic depressive and even displays some autistic characteristics in his inability to empathise with others and understand the effect his behaviour has on others. We know he had a troubled and sad childhood but we could have done with more information about it. What we do know is that he believes he does not deserve personal happiness and when it is put in front of him, he shoves it away. Although perhaps unrealistic or over-done in another character, with Weemswood it seems likely and quite believable; terribly sad and lots of ramifications arise in the story as a result.

Mary Pepperidge is the daughter of a rich (though not flashy) merchant. Mary is even-tempered, intelligent, sympathetic, intuitive and demure although she does have a mind of her own - bravo for slapping not just the villain of the piece but St John as well - he more than deserved it by the time she did it. She also has The Sister From Hell who has some wonderfully comic scenes with various nasty ladies of the ton who set out to demoralise St John and undermine Mary.

I recommend this book because it's well written and gives a good flavour of the nastiness and bitchiness of Regency society. If it were not for the absurd errors I would say it's a 100% 5 star effort. Although it probably deserves 4 stars, I am going to give it 5 because it's been so refreshing to find (for me) a new author who exceeded the efforts of too many indifferent Regency historicals that have come on the market since Signet gave up its imprint.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely story with truly interesting characters, March 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Desperate Viscount (Signet Regency Romance) (Paperback)

This was a very well crafted story that kept me totally engaged beginning to end. I don't usually like the initial meeting between the hero and heroine to occur well into the book. But it was necessary here for the excellent storyline set up and for the character development. You really understand the H/H's motivations and mutual attraction and the importance of the hero's friends. Have to say the hero was the tortured type but I have a weakness for them so no complaints from me. Heroine was very likeable for every type of reader. It was hard to say good-bye at the end of the book. An excellent example of Regency writing. This is for the keeper shelf.