Two eccentric orphans bring together a grumpy viscount and the free-spirited heroine who steals his heart in the first novel in Eloisa James’s new Accidental Brides series, in which haughty aristocrats find themselves married to the wrong women.
VISCOUNT IN LOVE by ELOISA JAMES
Series: Accidental Brides #1
Publication date: July 23, 2024
Published by: Avon
Genre: historical romance
SYNOPSIS
He wants a nanny, not a bride…
Suddenly guardian to twins, Viscount Dominic Kelbourne is luckily betrothed to a suitable lady—until she elopes. With no time to woo, Dominic decides to marry his fiancée’s unconventional sister. Torie isn’t perfect, but their kisses are so passionate that society thinks he’s actually chosen her.
She wants to marry for love…
Torie has never been able to make sense of words on a page, so she has turned her talents to art. She longs for a man who values her as she is… but marries for the sake of the twins. She doubts Dominic is capable of love, let alone respect, but as their heated debates turn into something more, Torie begins to imagine a life as a wife, not a nanny.
But when the arrogant viscount finds that his viscountess has stolen his heart, he’ll have to give all he has to win her love.
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Praise for Eloisa James:
“Eloisa James writes with a captivating blend of charm, style, and grace that never fails to leave the reader sighing and smiling and falling in love. Her style is exquisite, her prose pure magic. Nothing gets me to a bookstore faster than a new novel by Eloisa James.” — Julia Quinn
“Bestseller James’s fun third Would-Be Wallflowers historical romance (after The Reluctant Countess) sets itself apart in the depth of its interpersonal complexities. Lovers of historical romance will delight in these well-rounded, flawed characters learning to live their best lives.” — Publishers Weekly on Not That Duke
“The third smartly sexy and sharply witty addition to James’ Would Be Wallflowers series offers everything fans could hope for and expect from this romance genre luminary.” — Booklist on Not That Duke
“This enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance uses humor to show how a match that looks perfect on paper may be no match at all when it comes to chemistry… a compelling and delightful read. Enjoy this light and humorous historical romance.” — Library Journal on Not that Duke
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James writes historical romances for HarperCollins Publishers. Her novels have been published to great acclaim. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of Eloisa's very first book that she "found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar"; later People Magazine raved that "romance writing does not get much better than this." Her novels have repeatedly received starred reviews from Publishers' Weekly and Library Journal and regularly appear on the best-seller lists.
After graduating from Harvard University, Eloisa got an M.Phil. from Oxford University, a Ph.D. from Yale and eventually became a Shakespeare professor, publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press. Currently she is an associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University in New York City. Her "double life" is a source of fascination to the media and her readers. In her professorial guise, she's written a New York Times op-ed defending romance, as well as articles published everywhere from women's magazines such as More to writers' journals such as the Romance Writers' Report.
Eloisa...on her double life:
When I'm not writing novels, I'm a Shakespeare professor. It's rather like having two lives. The other day I bought a delicious pink suit to tape a television segment on romance; I'll never wear that suit to teach in, nor even to give a paper at the Shakespeare Association of America conference. It's like being Superman, with power suits for both lives. Yet the literature professor in me certainly plays into my romances. The Taming of the Duke (April 2006) has obvious Shakespearean resonances, as do many of my novels. I often weave early modern poetry into my work; the same novel might contain bits of Catullus, Shakespeare and anonymous bawdy ballads from the 16th century.
When I rip off my power suit, whether it's academic or romantic, underneath is the rather tired, chocolate-stained sweatshirt of a mom. Just as I use Shakespeare in my romances, I almost always employ my experiences as a mother. When I wrote about a miscarriage in Midnight Pleasures, I used my own fears of premature birth; when the little girl in Fool For Love threw up and threw up, I described my own daughter, who had that unsavory habit for well over her first year of life.
So I'm a writer, a professor, a mother - and a wife. My husband Alessandro is Italian, born in Florence. We spend the lazy summer months with his mother and sister in Italy. It always strikes me as a huge irony that as a romance writer I find myself married to a knight, a cavaliere, as you say in Italian.
One more thing...I'm a friend. I have girlfriends who are writers and girlfriends who are Shakespeare professors. And I have girlfriends who are romance readers. In fact, we have something of a community going on my website. Please stop by and join the conversation on my readers' pages.
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REVIEW
Viscount in Love by Eloisa JamesMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have quite a few Eloisa James books under my belt at this point, some have been enthusiastic five star reads, some have been just middle of the road. Despite not knowing which way things will fall each time I pick up a new book by this author, I keep coming back for more. Typically she pays meticulous attention to historical detail. Her cast of characters in each series are ones that I'm eager to revisit to watch find their personal HEAs. The dialogue is witty, and the backstories typically well fleshed out.
Unfortunately a lot of the things I usually love were missing in this new release and I felt the absence of that magic to the point that I almost DNFd. With the exception of Torie's best friend and Dom's 11 year-old wards, every single character is infuriating and unbearable. The romance was frustratingly inconsistent, lacked any true chemistry, build, or anticipation. As well, the reader is left in the dark about the hero's internal conflict until late in the book leading you to almost despise him at points due to not understanding what drives his thoughts and intentions. The heroine is similarly not fully shown to her full potential until the end and I don't understand why this was done.
I read this title because I was intrigued with the heroine's learning disability and how it would affect her life in the 19th century. Torie has dyslexia in the year 1800 and I was excited to read this fresh plot point going in. It's obvious that a woman would face prejudice about the inability to read as part of the upper class. That is certainly a realistic representation, but the verbal abuse was constant from everyone around Tory in almost every conversation. Little jabs about her being "addled" with pitying looks and disparaging comments about her worth. At one point her father compared her to livestock. It felt very overdone to have the prejudice that constant and extreme when she is clearly a well-spoken woman perfectly capable of carrying on a well-informed conversation. She has a strong vocabulary, an eidetic memory, and she's a gifted painter. She just learns through experience or verbally rather than textually. Yet she's treated as if she's a babbling loony without a thought in her head at all times. It could have been shown without beating us over the head with it.
Why shouldn’t a lady be frivolous? Why shoulda woman read or write? It’s like asking a pig tosing opera.” Torie didn’t flinch. It wasn’t as ifshe hadn’t been compared to livestock before.
She is so used to the verbal abuse from everyone around her that she lets it roll right off her back and ignores it. Her sister and father make these humiliating comments in front of other people and she never gets angry or upset. That's just the tip of the iceburg of what her father does to her.
Dominic's character was so incoherent. In the beginning of the book he is portrayed as a very serious sort with no sense of humor to speak of. He's described as intimidating to others due to his temper in the House of Lords, but we aren't really shown that-it's more that he's stern and emotionless. When he's engaged to Leonora, he has no passion or affection for her. He simply chose her based on her perceived intelligence and refinement. He goes from very little personality or emotion at all to flirting with sexual innuendos once he's jilted and sets his sights on Torie. How does he go from one extreme to the other literally overnight? He goes from seeing Torie as silly and shallow with a lack of intelligence (and ZERO sexual attraction after three years) to lusting over her and getting offended at people's rude comments towards her in one day. I found his outrage so hypocritical due to his own insulting internal dialogue about her.
It had taken him several months to find a ladywho could be a true partner and offer an intelligentassessment of current events. Most ladies fell intoTorie’s camp. Granted, she kept the nurserylaughing with her wry observations aboutOdysseus’s adventures, but that wasn’tthe same as sharing lucid analysis.
Torie was charming, fresh, andfunny. Useless, perhaps, but enchanting.
True, he had hoped to marry a woman whowould challenge him intellectually,but he could reconcile himself.
These are the thoughts of someone with honor? He jumps from cold to flirty and back again without the reader having a deeper understanding of why. On top of that, he had fully intended to keep his mistress when he was engaged to Leonora and was outraged when confronted by Torie about it days before their wedding. He literally got angry when she demanded that he be monogamous because he doesn't like being told what to do. I wanted to drop kick him so hard I almost rage quit. It isn't until MUCH later that he finally explains himself over this and a certain humiliating situation that occurred two days before they married. Even though it did ease my anger some, he still acted clueless and insensitive towards his wife. When an 11 year-old child is more insightful and intuitive about your wife than you...you have a problem. He doesn't start to genuinely see his wife for the brilliant, talented woman she is until after 80% in the book. *sigh*
The sexual scenes didn't work for me because we are led to believe they have instant chemistry overnight after completely platonic interactions and thoughts for three years. It just comes over them like an epiphany that she is a "buxom" beautiful woman, and he is her preferred buff, bulky, muscular body type. It was like flicking a switch with them. The dirty talk and spice comes off as very artificial when they consummate their marriage one day after the wedding. Not to mention, Torie is supposed to be a virgin whose only knowledge of sex is having seen rabbits copulate and yet she jumps on him with no timidness or lack of skill. She does things that she wouldn't even know existed in bed. We are just told that she may be incapable of the written word, but when it comes to this, she's a "natural." It doesn't work that way! It made everything so unrealistic and unbelievable.
This book was a little under 400 pages and it was really noticeable. The page really dragged, especially in the middle of the book. I kept checking the percentage constantly only to see that barely any progress had been made. I think the lack of connection to the couple and the two MCs separately made a big contribution to that. Their communication issues over important matters and very little time spent understanding each other outside of bed caused their relationship to feel very superficial to me. Dominic did redeem himself late in the book a little bit, but overall the characters were just messy and unsatisfying. Unfortunately, this one was a miss, but I have faith that others in this new series may win me over.
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