Get The Viscount's Wager Penned By Elizabeth Barron Issued As Version

wish I could remember who recommended this book to me, so I could punch them in the face,

The general concept has been done well before, so that wasn't a warning sign upon picking up the book.
Katrina is being housed by her loving drunk uncle, her bitchy aunt, and her flighty and selfish cousin, We quickly learn that she is like Cinderella, scrubbing floors with sand and not being allowed a fire because she has to earn her keep.
This is pretty much never mentioned again, but I guess the author assumes this will have us sympathizing with the heroine so it doesn't matter how stupid she acts later.
She is forced to go to a ball in a whore dress, and instantly trusts a man, Viscount Danville, who is kind of nice to her and then asks her to walk on the deserted terrace with him.
She is an idiot, so she agrees, then promptly gives him a tldr version of her life, She speaks deeply about visiting her father in debtors prison before he died, but really focuses on the fact that she got lice and had to cut her hair.
They make out, and there is too much description about how hard her nipples got,

Later, at the ball,

she hears everyone talk about how the Viscount won a wager by spending half an hour in her company, but refused to win more money by kissing her in public, since even he has standards.
Bitch Aunt is furious and leaves without Katrina, so that she vows to walk across London by herself in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, the inevitable "old friends of your dad" show up and chat with her and Katy says she wants to be a governess and will you please look out for a post for me"

Katy gets her post immediately after having one advertisement in the paper, and OH SNAP it is at a clergyman's house, the clergyman in DANVILLE.
No worries, Danville is almost never at Danville, BUT THEN HE IS!!!!!!! A whole bunch of wishy washy bullsht later, Katy is hardcore in love with him and he is kissing her all the time and she doesn't think anything of it.
She also screams at him constantly and he takes it,

Blah blah blah, boring music nonsense, Katy assuming people are in love with her only to later find out they are in love with her maid,

REVELATION! Katy got raped in debtors prison and her dad attacked the rapist and that is how he died! That's why she doesn't consider herself fit for marriage.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE, that rapist is Danville's land manager! Of course he would have to be, There's a bunch of blackmail and Katy makes bad decisions and the Viscount is a jealous dick and the rapist tries raping more girls hide yo' kids, hide yo' maids and there is a fire and Katy screams at more people who have been nothing but wonderful to her, and finally the Viscount basically attempts to rape her and despite the fact that she has been raped in the past and this should be traumatizing as all get out, she sort of gets over it as soon as he stops and initiates some real intimacy, and they are totally getting it on, but then he drunkenly falls asleep on her chest.
The next morning he is all herp derp did we do it and she jokes YES and freaks him out and then says nope you slept and then EVERYBODY LAUGHS they use the denouement to rehash stuff the reader already knows and doesn't care about AND SCENE.


Both the hero and the heroine are too stupid to live at some points and the heroine is so speshul and perfect that I hated her.
Also, there was way too much about her nipples, Everyone loved her or was jealous of her and her delightful nipples, including her childhood sonofaduke friend who apparently she couldn't turn to during ANY of her troubles and is just used as a tool to show how jealous the viscount gets.
We're supposed to believe that the Viscount fell in love with Katy immediately after he held her hand and she spilled out her life story in that really awkward way, but the reader sees nothing of that in him, nor do we see any growth whatsoever.
Other characters describe his mistresses, all of his wagers, everything wild he does, and we don't see any of that either.


Lastly, it came off so odd to me to have an almost sex scene described where the hero falls asleep before penetration but then not have any sort of real sex scene after, not even fade to black.
I love sweet regencies and all sorts of romances with no sex at all, it just seems like such a discordant note to have an aborted sex scene described without a successful one.
I second the other review of this book, The main character Katrina is a walking disaster and no amount of Cinderella plot points could save this plot from being a shambling wreck.
The only highlight of the whole book for me was when someone described seeing Mozart before the composer died, If only the rest of the book could have been as insightful as that, Katrina swore she would never forgive him, At a ton ball, the handsome Viscount Danville had openly courted her, gained her love, and even stolen a kiss from the lovely young girl.
. . all to win a frivolous wager of his peers, Her reputation shattered beyond repair, her situation as down at the heels as ever, Katrina thought herself lucky to find a position as a lady's companion deep in the countryside.
There, she would build a lifeand try to forget the man with the cool gray eyes to whom she had surrendered so easily.
What Katrina could never have guessed was the the lord of her new home was none other than "Devil" Danville himselfand that while winning his bet, he had irredeemably lost his heart!.