Viscount Who Loved Me [Mass Market Paperback]

I really did not like this book. I am amazed at so many reviewers who thought this book was the best ever. It was sooooo formula driven. We have our hero, Anthony, who must marry before he is 39. He thinks he will die at 39, some family thing or another. He decides on the most beautiful girl in the ton, Kate. Kate, though, presents all her possible suitors to her homely, smart older sister, Edwina. Edwina, who rejects Anthony for her sister because he is a rake, ends up marrying him. Oh, they were compromised. Do romance authors feel that must amuse or sooth their readers by making plain women romantic leads? They are always too smart and clever and "pluky" for their own good. Why, in reality, would Edwina reject Anthony for her sister? He was the catch of the ton, good-looking, rich, a tad rakish, but every regency is happy to tell the reader that they make the best husbands. It was boring, boring, boring, boring...

Anthony, the viscount in the title, decides to marry and choses the beautiful Edwina. Her sister, Kate, is not pleased that her sister has come under the eye of the rake Anthony. Then...Anthony must have Kate, they are caught in a compromising position and must marry then...Anthony has this incredible fear of dying that interferes with his relationship with Kate. The man needed a shrink. I understand an author trying a new twist on really a very predictable story line. The dialogue between the two was not that interesting. Actually, the story bored me.

Now in London for the season, Kate is more determined to help her sister find a husband than to find one for herself. She doesn't believe than any man would find her attractive and demure enough to ever want her. But when she learns that Anthony Bridgerton has in mind to ask for her sister's hand, she's dead set against it. She believe Anthony is the worst sort of rake, and while love doesn't have to be present right off the bat, she doesn't want her sister in a loveless marriage where her heart would be broken by a faithless husband.

After her sister, Edwina, announces casually that she won't marry unless she has her sister's approval, things turn difficult. And Anthony will do what is necessary.

They find each other completely impossible to deal with, not wanting to like each other at all. Anthony believes that Edwina would be the perfect bride. Kate believes that Anthony is all wrong for her sister - and is determined to keep them separated at all costs.

What she didn't count on was her attraction to him, nor was she counting on falling in love with him. And that, to her, only makes matters worse, for Anthony refuses to fall in love, believing that he will die young and doesn't want to leave behind a family who loved him to no end, like his father before him. While Anthony was just eighteen when his father died at the age of thirty-four from an apparent bee sting, Anthony is terrified of the same thing - and of falling in love.

An incredibly beautiful story. I loved watching Kate and Anthony `duel' each other, words and actions. The way the author writes them with such conviction makes them very real with definite personalities that, while they don't like each other, they are similar in ways that warms a reader's heart. From one disaster to another, the attraction between the two grows and while neither wants to admit it, this reader was cheering happily with a `ha-ha, just you wait and see' laugh. I'd have to say my favourite scene is the Pall Mall game, in which Anthony gets a taste of his own medicine.

Ms. Quinn writes superbly, sucking you right into the story of lives all around, while the main characters are still the focus. Descriptions are beautifully done - you can see everything lively in your mind, to what the characters are wearing, their demeanors and their surroundings.

I can't wait to get my hands on the third installment of the series!