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Diana Quincy’s The Viscount Made Me Do It boasts an interesting idea for a romance with a smart and strong heroine, a sense of drive and purpose, and an interesting mystery. But the suffers from some overheated prose and clunkiness, which means it misses the DIK shelf by a considerable margin. I would gladly read more of Quincy’s work, should she gain a little more grit and verve in her technique.
Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin (nicknamed Griff), has been haunted for years by rumors that he offed his parents to gain his inheritance when he was only a boy. No woman has ever been worth the risk of his heart since the rumors swirl about him like smoke and put a rather large damper on his prospects. He’s drinking coffee in a coffee shop when she (printed in italics in the text) walks in to set the wrist of someone who has fallen – and he is immediately intrigued. Unfortunately, the lady bonesetter is wearing the very same necklace which was stolen from his mother the night of her murder, which instantly makes him believe that she (my italics) is a giant fraud.
Hanna Zaydan is a bonesetter who is on her guard all the time. To be trained and accepted into the profession at all was a hard uphill battle for her, and she plans to open her own dispensary and continue the family profession. But racists and sexists do not make her life easy (Hanna is of Arabian descent). Yet battle on she does.
To get closer to Hanna, Thomas approaches her to have his arm treated. It’s basically been unusable since the war, and his one-time guardian has been unable to treat it, even though he’s a renowned doctor. In taking care of Griff, Hanna becomes closer to him – and manages to relocate his joints, ending years of pain for him. But can their cross-class romance work out? And who really killed Griff’s parents?
The big issue is not the plot of The Viscount Made Me Do It, which is decently twisty and filled with a good sense of the dramatic – it’s the writing. Quincy’s style is old-fashioned melodramatic, complete with (too many) italics and pounding hearts and tear-filled eyes. The reliance on clichés is irritating and unfortunate, because the characters are genuinely interesting.
I liked the way Quincy examines Hannah’s culture, and I really adored the details of her profession and the world in which she operates; I loved her family and her work life. I liked Hanna’s determination, and a starcrossed-by-class plot is always an interesting one. But the romance is weakened by the hero, who is much harder to like – far too high-handed and superior for far too much of the book. He does get it together but it takes forever for him to see Hannah as the jewel she is.
Overall, The Viscount Made Me Do It impresses on some levels and disappoints on others. It just needs more bang for its buck.
A final quibbly note: who the heck approved that title?
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Grade: C+
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 11/08/21
Publication Date: 07/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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Too bad. The plot sounds fantastic, but I don’t think I’d be able to slog through the old-fashioned romance writing style. I guess I’ll be skipping this one. Thanks for the review, Lisa.
I desperately wanted this one to be good. Oh well, you might like it better than me!
I read Quincy’s début and a couple of books after that (I might even have reviewed her here). I’m saying this often, but it bears repeating – I gave her low B/C grades several years ago… so shouldn’t she have improved since then? I mean, I can play the clarinet to a much higher standard now than I could when I started playing it, and I know I’ve got better at writing reviews over the decade or so that I’ve been doing it. By that token, shouldn’t someone who writes books AS THEIR JOB have improved over time?
You would think, but a consistently winning formula generally doesn’t incentivize writing improvement. If clichéd prose is earning her money, why risk experimentation? It’s like Ellen Finnigan’s cheeseburger theory of American writing. The average reader doesn’t want innovation or improvement but comforting sameness, just like a book version of a fast food hamburger.
On that note, I noticed The Vicar and the Rake hit several Top 100 subcategory spots on Amazon yesterday, including #4 in LGBTQ+ historical fiction. It also made the Top 100 for Regency and Victorian romances (can’t remember the ranks, and it’s obviously not a Victorian-era story). Now, with sales figures like that, why change something that’s obviously working for the market? It’s certainly too bad for those of us who know there’s lots of room for cultivation and improvement of the author’s writing and storytelling skills. But I think we’re in a distinct minority in that regard.
That’s just disappointing. I really liked the heroine and some of the ideas here, but the book caused me to yearn for her to Do Better.
I read the start and yes, the writing is overwrought. The heroine has “midnight eyes” (this is mentioned twice in the excerpt to make sure we get it) gleaming with a “keen intelligence” in her “astute gaze”. Characters affirm, respond, inquire, and implore their dialogue. Too bad, because the premise is intriguing and I like the heroine’s profession and ethnicity.
And as for the title, I agree. Shouldn’t that have been The Duke Made Me Do It? Whether or not the hero is actually a duke?
Yep, I was hit with a wall of purple the second I finished the first sentence.
HAH!