Viscount Vagabond

In a nutshell: Miss Catherine Pelliston runs away from an unpalatable betrothal and finds herself in a brothel begging a half-naked man for help. He, although being quite drunk and not believing her story, extracts her from the sticky situation she'd managed to land herself in and takes her to his lodgings, later learning of her parentage and offering her marriage to save her reputation. Characters: Sheesh, Lord Rand made me laugh repeatedly. He was just coming off a 6-month dissipation binge when he met Catherine. For anyone familiar with Chase's Lord of Scoundrels, think Lord Dain but toned-down for a traditionally "sweet" Regency. (Please note, it has been a while since I read LOS, but I remember finding Dain's off-the-wall attitude amusing at times.) Catherine Pelliston was polar opposite. Cursed with an overactive conscience, she was quite preachy at times. A believable personality, I think. Together, these two were hilarious. When Catherine preached, Rand always had some, odd, quirky response that made me laugh more than once. I have to wonder if two such characters could actually find happiness together, but it is a nice fantasy. :o) Storyline: The storyline was rather typical, ie, hero proposes to save heroine's reputation, heroine refuses, hero gets to know her better and tries to not fall in love, Happily-Ever-After. The difference is Chase's ability to take this run-of-the-mill storyline and throw in several endearing--and not so endearing--characters with an excellent dose of comedy. A very enjoyable, lighthearted read. Overall: 4.8 stars

Catherine Pelliston, escaping from what would be a forced marriage to an obnoxious friend of her father's, finds that she has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire when she ends up in a brothel. And not only a prisoner in said brothel, but with a man in her room, about to have sex with her!Max, otherwise known as Viscount Vagabond, doesn't know what to make of the whore's protestations, but is drunk enough to agree to taking her home with him; he buys her freedom and takes her back to his temporary, and very shabby, rooms. In the morning, he realises that he believes her story, and sets about trying to help her - which includes taking her to his sister's house so that she can look after Catherine and provide cover for her whereabouts since Catherine's departure from her father's home. It seems that Catherine is a distant relation of Max's brother-in-law, which makes things easier.Until Catherine's would-be fiance arrives in London, desperate to force her to accept his suit, and also very keen to find out where she was for that first night. In the meantime, Catherine and Max strike sparks off one another, which leads Max's sister to have interesting thoughts about Max's intentions towards Catherine. Until Catherine turns Max down, and he gets engaged to someone else...And then the cat is among the pigeons, and we need all Chase's creative talents to untangle this tangled web of confused relationships!

Miss Catherine Pelliston wakes up to find a large, drunk man about to take her virtue. Max, "Viscount Vagabond," is puzzled when his fancy piece begins to sermonize to him about his evil ways. He decides to take her home with him to take full responsibility of her and thus begins this wonderful comedy of errors. It seems that Catherine cannot stay in one place and Max cannot keep his mind off his lovely guest. Amid evil former suitors and the riotous events of the Season, Max and Catherine realize they are perfect for each other.This book is wonderful. The writing is forward moving and incredibly clever/wry. Chase proves her mastery of the language and Regency era. The characters are fun and likeable, especially the servants and Jemmy, the boy Catherine befriends. Chase does a wonderful job showing the progressing romance to prove how these opposites can believably attract.If you can find a copy of this book, grab it and read it right away. You will not find many Regency books better than this one.