The Viscount and the Vixen

The Viscount and the Vixen by Ava Devlin 2019 Regency

Rose d’Aubrey has been engaged twice with both future husbands dying before the wedding day and she is now heading for spinsterhood in her fourth season where she is companion to her cousin, Gloriana Blakely, who is hysterical her father has agreed to a betrothal to Viscount Gideon Somers.

Rose knew Gideon from her first season but he was shy and reserved and still is. He is in need of a respectable bride because his sister, Heloise, is pregnant and about to disgrace the family name, something his father already has done. What she doesn’t know is that Gideon has always been in love with her but his father’s death and her other suitors prevented him from declaring his intent to marry her.

Gloriana begs Rose to help her prevent Gideon from proposing so she can enjoy her first season to the fullest. Rose meets with Gideon at Gloriana’s first ball and agrees to elope with him. They travel to Scotland to wed and then onto Somers’ estate where Heloise and Gideon’s brother, Alex, are waiting to solve the problem of Heloise’s pregnancy.

In the past a romance began with boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy finds girl and they live happily ever after. This is a different plot of boy and girl meet, they are promised to others or there is a family problem but they get together about half way through the story. The rest of the story is about them overcoming difference and solving the initial problem introduced at the beginning of the story and ends with them declaring their love.

It is also a series and the minor characters are left with unfinished business in this story which will likely be resolved in future books.

I enjoyed the shy hero and the determined heroine, but I think they were up to more challenges. I didn’t get to spend enough time with them.