Customer Reviews

Desperate Viscount (Signet Regency Romance)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is my second Gayle Buck novel and I thoroughly disliked the first book so I approached this one with caution and low expectations. I am very pleased to say that it was an absorbing, well written book. I appreciated the fact that it did not follow formula. Lord St. John and the circumstances which make him the desperate Viscount take up the major portion of this book. We are given every opportunity to get to know him, his circumstances, his prospects, his habits, his temper and his friends. The heroine is not even mentioned until Chapter 6 where her situation and character are very quickly established through an evening spent talking to her father beside the fire. St. John and Mary do not meet until page 66 and then it is only for him to help her during an emergency with her father. The encounter lasted mere minutes.

When St. John admits that the only way out of his hellish prediciment is to marry into "trade" his friends come up with a list of five suitable candidates. Mary Pepperidge is the third name on the list and St. John chooses her because he remembers her name from their previous meeting. Yes, it was done in just that callous manner. He really did not care. If he had to get married it might as well be her. I read with astonishment that the couple never met again before they arrived at the church to marry. Wow!

I would have liked to see more conversation between these two once they married. I felt that the ending was rushed quite a bit. Also, Mary really was made to get into too many scrapes in a very short time. Could the author not have indulged our soft hearts and shown more interaction between Mary and St. John when all turned out well in the end? These may sound like criticisms but they are actually not, just observations to show what would have made this a 5 star book for me. I liked this book, I will keep it and most assuredly read it again in the future.

This is one of the better regency romances that I've read. Though I felt that the story dragged some first. I think more emphasis should have been placed on the "Ton's" reaction after Sinjin and Mary got the last laugh.

The 1 star is due to the way this book is packaged rather than written. At the 50% mark, the lead Sinjin, has just grudgingly decided to pursue Mary, female lead. Before this, the leads meet briefly with no sparks or fanfare then go their separate ways. The entire first half is devoted to describing the life and desperation of Sinjin who would rather marry a rich woman from the trades than be bailed out of trouble by close friends. We get the point... My problem with the book is that I expected a fluid, somewhat lively interaction btw lead characters, which might happen if I force myself to read the last half. If you like the style of Pride and Prejudice (which I do), you will like this. Just be prepared for it.

Our hero, Sinjin, is a massive ball of anger: "he laughs sardonically", "he grimaced', he displays "thunderous expressions" and "twisted smiles", "[he] was in a wild black temper" and so on and so forth. It's a miracle he did not die young given his propensity to challenge people to duels for the smallest insult. I get it that he had a crappy parent, and a sad childhood but even so...Our heroine on the other hand is a low-born saint who gives her husband her wealth and gets very little in return, at least in the beginning, other than the title.

However, despite all that, the dialogue is very appropriate and the story is interesting. The denouement is predictable, but also very sweet. This is a clean romance with much to recommend it (with the exception of the aforementioned viscount in a state of perpetual anger).

Lord St. John was going to be a duke that is until his uncle decided to marry and have an heir. He counted on that wealth from his dukedom to pay his debts and so he must find a weathly bride. Slightly shunned from the ton, he finds a trademan's daugher to marry. Miss Mary Pepperidge, 21, accepts his marriage proposal.

I read this book because of the high ratings but I couldn't give it more than 4 Stars.
For a married couple there wasn't very much interaction, like there was in Mutual Consent.
The end was rushed which was a pity because I think if the author expanded a little more on their true feelings for each other it would have been better. Miss Pepperidge's character wasn't developed very well as Lord St. John is. (I prefer to read Mutual Consent which also deals with an earl marrying a trademan's daughter)

Clean romance, talented author understands the Regency period and dialogue quite well
3 1/2 Stars