Vex me Viscount!

Title	Vexing the Viscount
Author	Emily Bryan
Series	How to #3
Release Date	February 13, 2009
Genre	Historical Romance
Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Heat Level	🌶️🌶️🌶️
Goodreads	View on Goodreads

The title of this book enticed me to take it off the shelf. The sexy story and totally compelling characters kept me glued to reading it in one night. Vexing the Viscount by Emily Bryan has made a new fan out of me. Now I am compelled to look for her other titles and read them too!

I am drawn to historical romance and I am drawn to bluestocking characters. Bryan has managed to take this and spin it in a whole new way that kept me turning pages in a marathon session to finish it despite the fact that I really needed the sleep. Her main character, Daisy Drake is adventurous and intelligent.

In fact, the premise begins that it is her thirst for adventure and current boredom that has her leaping for the opportunity to go on a treasure hunt with the enigmatic but somewhat impoverished Lucian Beaumont, the Viscount Rutland.

He at first dismisses Daisy as just a pesky woman. When he finally realizes that he had met her before when he was twelve, and she had not forgotten him, though he finds her attractive, bad blood between their families influences him to keep her at arm’s length. But Daisy’s thirst for adventure will throw them together in an unexpected way.

At a masquerade ball, Lucian meets a courtesan named Blanche La Tour. What Lucien does not know is that the seemingly experienced woman behind the mask is really just Daisy, acting out the persona of a real courtesan, whose journal she has been reading with the help of her Great-Aunt’s French maid.

When Lucian propositions her for “kissing lessons”, Blanche (aka Daisy) accepts, thinking that it will be an experience without complications.  Daisy doesn’t realize Lucian’s developing attraction and obsession with Blanche. And their attraction is HOT. The attraction Lucian has for Daisy is so palpable that I could feel the heat singe my page in an otherwise innocent encounter where she comes in from the rain and he “sees” her.  As their relationship progresses, the scene in the library is a personal favorite.

What I thought was interesting was how Bryan uses a back story to flesh out and explain not only the reasoning behind the location of the treasure they seek, but also to explain Lucian’s awakening as a man, and his desire for Daisy as herself, and as Blanche. Frankly, I thought it an ingenious method to not only explain the point of the treasure, but also the complexity of Daisy and Lucian’s relationship.

I will definitely be reading this book again.