A Viscount's Proposal

I enjoyed the banter between the main characters. Dickerson does a great job of seeing inside the characters...their feelings, thoughts, judgments, and eventually their regret and enlightenment in misunderstanding their hearts. I love the references to God and Scripture. This was a fun read.

Adventerous and romantic, A Viscount's Proposal totally swept me away. Right from the beginning, Leorah is entertaining with the way she speaks her mind, and the chemistry between her and Edward is electric. Gossips, murder attempts, and scandals all mix with genuine care, compassion, and chivalry. The story of Leorah and Edward has so many twists and turns that the interest in their story is never lost. The book is reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice with the cold, rich man who argues with the feisty, beautiful woman, how their opinion of each other changes as they show their true character, and the man rescuing someone the lady cares about from a bad situation. Obviously not all of the parallels are drawn but just enough to make a fond connection. For a series called The Regency Spies of London, I was expecting more spying incorporated in the story. There is definitely a wonderful mystery around who is continually attempting to murder the Viscount, but Leorah has little to do with the solving of the mystery or anything related to spying. She certainly helps out in multiple perilous situations and happens to overhear one conversation. You just come to expect a certain amount of secret conversations, crown involvement, and sneaking around when you hear the word "spies" in the title of the series. Then when it doesn't appear throughout the story it makes you wonder why that title seemed like the best for the series as a whole. This has no reflection on how good the book was by itself. It is an excellent stand-alone novel especially if you love historical fiction and romance. You just notice the absence of spying when the word is printed on the cover. Overall, it is another wonderful story from Melanie Dickerson.

This was the second story in Melanie Dickerson’s Regency Spies series and it was so great. I haven’t read many regency novels. In fact I didn’t even know what the regency time period was until Melanie’s first regency novel “A Spy’s Devotion” came out. Then I realized it is the Jane Austen time period and everything began to click. I have never actually read a Jane Austen novel, but I do confess I have seen the movie adaptations of most of her books and have loved them. However, I know that when Jane Austen was writing her novels they were “contemporary” at the time and Melanie’s novels are historical fiction. So I do not expect Melanie’s telling of things in that time period to sound like Jane Austen by any means. That being said, Melanie does a fantastic job with her research and does a fabulous job of making you feel like you are in the regency time period. She is true to the style of speech and to the mannerisms of people who lived in that era. I was highly impressed by the authenticity I could feel in this story. I loved the story of Leorah Langdon. She is so spunky and forthright. I sometimes wished I could be as outspoken as she was. Although her outspoken nature often got her into trouble. She wanted nothing more than to be loved and to love in return. So I can understand her hesitancy to go through with anything less than that for herself. I will say that the Viscount of Withinghall at times reminded me of Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. His very manner and arrogance at times made me as irritated at him as I was with Mr. Darcy. But in the end, I fell in love with Lord Withinghall, much as I fell in love with Mr. Darcy. He was not the proud and arrogant person he seemed to be in the beginning and you can see why he was the way he was. I did love this story and will be excited to see what happens in the next book in this series. I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and was not required to provide a review.

The first book of this series was not exactly my favorite of Melanie's books, but I knew that would probably be a one time event and the next book would be amazing just like all her others. And it was. These characters have great chemistry, it's a very real progression of their relationship, at first they have no interest in being anywhere near each other, but then under the circumstances in which they end up, get to know each other better. The conflict of the story was good, better I think than the one from the first book, it fit better with the story. The background characters were fun and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the next book. Overall this is a wonderful read if you're looking for a clean regency romance, and I continue to love Melanie's books, I always look forward to reading more of her books when they come out and I completely recommend them.

This may be a better read for someone who does not LOVE Austen novels..It is a nice story definitely..But, so many things of Pride and Prejudice are in here and at times it made me cringe..It was not smooth flowing at the efforts to put those scenes/words in the novel..It took away from the overall story which could have been a very good stand alone novel..without Austen in there..This author needs just to write and leave the fairy tales or in this case novels and just write.She IS good..but could be better without this framework she is doing...Peace.

This is a great sequel in this series, and I really enjoyed it. The characters are well developed, the book moves at a really nice pace, the plot is well done. Simply put it's a very well written story. I love this time period, and I really liked the main characters in this read. The way the main characters view each other reminded me a bit if pride and prejudice. It shows how important it can be to not make judgments about people before we know them. The faith and forgiveness theme was strong and rounded out a wonderful read. Leorah is a great lead character, and her stubbornness and personality really make this a strong rather fun novel! She is definitely a character with whom I'd love to spend time! This was an enjoyable read and one I recommend, I plan on buying the paper version to put on my forever shelves. " I would never shun you. God loves us all. We are all frail creatures with no right to condemn anyone." I received this book from the author. The opinions are my own.

Feisty, unconventional Leorah finds herself at odds with the uptight and outdated Viscount Withinghall until an unfortunate accident places them in a compromising situation where they have to work together to overcome a scandal. Leorah reminded me of a few of my favorite Jane Austin character's: Marianne Dashwood and Elizabeth Bennet. With Leorah's lively disregard of foolish social mores matched with an outspoken sensibility and unwavering faith, Leorah's personality gives her a vivacity that captures the attention as her character virtually steps off the page. Edward Withinghall has a bit of Mr. Darcy and Edward Ferrars, being both rigid and prideful, yet attentive to the less fortunate. He has no time for what he perceives is the foolish, scandalous Leorah until he realizes her character may be more noble than his own. I very much enjoyed the combination of personalities and conversation reminiscent of my favorite Jane Austin novels. There is even a bit of Ms. Austen's Emma in the story when Viscount Withinghall asks Felicity Mayson to dance after she is rudely slighted by a couple of arrogant noblemen. Ms. Dickerson is hitting her stride in sweet Regency romance, and weaves a delightful story that engages you from the very beginning and holds your attention to the very end. Clean, inspirational romance that would be well suited to young adults as well as adults who are romantic at heart!

I was very surprised to see the lower rating that this novel normally received, due to the fact that I found it quite pleasurable and well thought out. When you read the title of this novel, you think quick action with a touch of romance; however, that does not even begin to describe this novel. It was longer, very complex, and not rush as many books tend to be. The love story between the hero and heroine was truly enduring. It was not a match that was thrown together, but one that we were able to see come too over time together. I am very pleased with the ending, even though many times throughout the story I had thought: if it just ends here, I will be so pleased; however the author knew better than I and kept writing to produce an amazing piece of literature. I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter.