| Title | : | The Viscount Made Me Do It (Clandestine Affairs, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 006298683X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780062986832 |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published July 27, 2021 |
A seduction that could ruin everything...
Hanna Zaydan has fought to become London’s finest bonesetter, but her darkly appealing new patient threatens to destroy everything she’s worked so hard for. With each appointment, the daughter of foreign merchants is slowly seduced by the mysterious former soldier. She’s smart enough to know Griff is after more than he’ll reveal, but whatever it is, the bonesetter’s growing desire for the man just might tempt her to give it to him.
An attraction that cannot be denied...
Rumors that he killed his own parents have followed Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin, practically since he was a boy. More than a decade after the tragedy, Griff receives a tip about his parents’ killer... one that takes him straight to a beautiful bonesetter. Griff is convinced Hanna is a fraud, but she stirs genuine feelings in him that he thought had perished along with his family.
Hanna has a gift for fixing fractured people, but can she also mend a broken heart? More importantly, will Griff let her?
The Viscount Made Me Do It (Clandestine Affairs, #2) Reviews
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3.5 Stars
I absolutely loved book one in this series, so I had super high expectations going into this book. I loved Griff's character in the first book as the hero's friend, so I was excited to see him and uncover more about his tragic past and his parents' deaths.
What was most intriguing to me at the start of this book was Hanna and her profession. Hanna is a bonesetter and is not taken seriously by any medical professional at the time. Griff sees that she's wearing his mother's necklace that his mother had the day she died, so he immediately is suspicious of Hanna and wants to know how the got the necklace. To get closer to her, Griff asks Hanna to take a look at his arm, which has been painful ever since he injured it in the war two years ago. To Griff's surprise, he actually starts to like Hanna and she is able to fix his arm, something no doctor has ever been able to do. I enjoyed how Hanna and Griff started to like each other, but I wanted to feel more urgency regarding Griff's parents' murder. He had spent the last ten years having people think he killed his parents, yet when he's so close to figuring it out, he drags his feet and doesn't really want to find out. I get that he was scared of the truth, but it felt like he didn't really care and didn't want to find out right away. So much time passed in the book when he could have just followed clues much more quickly and figured things out on his own. I also wanted just a little more from the romance and just a little more about Hanna and her family. I know that Hanna is Arab and that she took over her father's bone setting business, but I would have liked to see her family just a little more to understand their dynamic and why she was so adamant she could never marry Griff and had to marry an Arab man. Sure we heard her say it over and over again, but I wanted to feel it from her family more too.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story, there were just components that were a bit lacking and I wanted a bit more from. The urgency of uncovering the murderer of Griff's parents, the romance, Hanna and her family...I wanted just a little more from everything. But overall it was a fun read! -
I became a big fan of Diana Quincy’s after reading the first book in the Clandestine Affairs series. I was looking forward to reading this sequel because I was intrigued by Griff’s character in book one, but the heroine ended up being my favorite thing about The Viscount Made Me Do It! I sadly didn’t love this sequel quite as much as the first book, but if you’re looking for a diverse historical romance with a slight mystery plot, this would be one to try.
Hanna is our bonesetter heroine whose Arabic background makes it hard for her business, but she does her best and doesn’t let any kind of discrimination stop her from helping those in physical pain. Her newest client is Griff, a Viscount with a war injury who has ulterior motives. He’s searching for his parents’ murderer and a clue has led him to Hanna. He never expects to fall for the intelligent, strong, capable woman after she helps heal his injuries.
I loved the beginning and setup of this book. I thought it was SO cool that Hanna is a bonesetter, which I’ve never read before. The romance started in a sweet way and had me invested… up to a point. Sadly, even though I liked Griff in book one, he didn’t really do much for me in his own book. His plot surrounding his parents’ murder was dragged out until the end when everything gets figured out and wrapped up too neatly in a bow. I was also disappointed when Griff decides to be honorable and offers to marry his childhood friend, who is NOT the heroine. Griff is “engaged” until almost the end of the book even as he’s falling in love with Hanna and it just left a sour taste while I was reading.
As much as I wanted to love this, I did have some hangups about the story. I still enjoyed the writing though and am definitely looking forward to more from Diana Quincy. -
Not even "hiding" this in a set-back
I'm all a tingle anticipation to read the desk scene! (There better be a desk scene)
#TeamDeskScene #SendThosePapersAndInkwellsFlying! -
I wanted to love this so much. It had a very strong start, a great mystery, and rich characters but... too drawn out, not romantic at all and way too conveniently wrapped up...
3.5 Stars
1.5 on the spice scale -
This historical romance was truly delightful! I loved the unique story and the Arab representation in Hannah and her family. This book follows Hannah, a female bone setter who is passionate about helping people with maladies that traditional doctors can not solve. However her career choice makes her seen as a money grabbing charlatan. Add to that the fact she is female and an Arab and the odds are stacked against her.
She meets Griff, the Viscount who visits her with an arm that he injured in the war and has lived with constant pain for two years. While she repairs his arm the attraction between them grows hotter and hotter, and Griff learns that there may be a connection between the murder of his parents and the beautiful bone setter he can not stop thinking about.
I loved the slow building chemistry between these two and the way that neither could deny the attraction they felt for the other. I also was really invested in the mystery of this one and could not wait to see how it was going to be solved.
A thoroughly enjoyable historical romance with a unique plot and swoony love story. -
A historical romance with a heroine of Arab descent who works as a bonesetter?! Sold! And indeed, what I loved about the book was Hanna Zaydan, our strong, smart, capable heroine and all the weaving through of Arabic language, food, and culture. Loved it and I'm thrilled that publishers are finally starting to do more than just white people in regency London. Because guess what? All that colonization make the UK a melting pot of people from all different cultures, backgrounds and races. Even among the ruling classes. And it's about time we start to see that!
The book begins when Griff (the eponymous Viscount) sees Hanna wearing a pendant that had gone missing from his mother's dead body years earlier. Griff has war injuries that have left him mostly unable to use one of his arms. His guardian is a respected doctor and has been unable to cure him. Bonesetters were looked down on as fraudulent but he decides to use his injury as an excuse to interrogate Hanna about the jewelry. Except it turns out he has dislocated joints and she's able to help him. Also they're super attracted to each other.
As I loved Hanna as the heroine and the premise of the story, the book overall was good but not great for me. It took awhile for me to like hero- he comes on pretty strong and arrogant at the beginning and I didn't know why the heroine was into him. (he initially thinks she's a prostitute using bonesetting as a cover. ughh) He did eventually grow on me and I thought the mystery of who murdered his parents was interesting, but the pacing could have been better. It takes forever for them to follow up on clues, and then at the end of the book everything wraps up very quickly and too neatly. Including the way it deals with Hanna's family not wanting her to marry a man who wasn't also Arab. It was made out to be this huge deal and then was resolved almost immediately.
So not a bad book, but not my favorite either. That said, I'm interested to read more from the author and hear that the first book in the series is very good. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. -
4.5 stars - thought this was really great. Was totally captivated by the bonesetter descriptions and a bit horrified that the doctors had no cure for things like a dislocated shoulder. The romance moved at a pace that worked well with these characters and I was satisfied with the resolutions. This deserves more review but I think that’s it for now. Oh I am totally jazzed for the next book. Love a reclusive mysterious hero, which is what is on deck.
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It’s so funny I loved book one when I first read it and then I just reread it and it was NOT my cup of tea and now I realize this one is actually the one I’d recommend. Oh how the turntables
✨It’s always spicy when society thinks you’re a murderer.✨
I really loved Her Night with the Duke, the first book in this Clandestine Affairs series, and I was highly anticipating the second go-about in the set. Where book one was the vivacious older sister, I’d say this book is the Mary Bennet type—a little more darkness, a little more mystery.
Her Night with the Duke was sexy from the start and the plot revolved almost entirely around the couple. The Viscount Made Me Do It is more reserved and slower to burn, with the plot divided between the romance and the conflicts of being a bonesetter and ya know, murder. Both however are scandalous and unique and highly addicting.
From the beginning, the bonesetting element was so cool and fascinating to read about. I found Hanna to be a very strong heroine with a very particular set of skills she was fabulous at using. The scene where she was first introduced was totally badass. I loved the Arab representation here (and book one) as well as how Hanna’s culture was such an integral part to her identity. Like book one, I learned so much—those type of moments are some of my favorites in historical romances! Griff’s whole backstory hooked me instantly and the way it combined that past with Hanna in the present was supremely dramatic and delicious.
The spice was definitely there and they did some WORK at a desk (*winks in blinking neon lights*). Also her doing actual work on his injuries was just as hot and swoony. However, I felt like the steam took a backseat to the rest of the plot. Like the desk scene was hot but I think that even could’ve been taken up a notch further. The epilogue gave a little to me but it also tooketh away—I think as a society, we deserve explicit sex in epilogues. We ride at dawn.
As for the mystery element, I was reading to find out the whodunnit or perhaps the whydunnit because I knew The Who from pretty early on but not The Why. I think a red herring could have been thrown in a little bit earlier to mess with the reader and to really commit to the mystery (since other plots were pushed aside for it to take up a good chunk of space). I wanted a bit more drama or a plot twist or something to really jazz it up. We flashmob at dawn.
Overall, this was such a quick and enjoyable read. Hanna and Griff fell hard and it was so sweet how she was able to help him. The pace kept me engaged and the plot kept me entertained. I really like Diana’s writing style—it’s modern but still feels like a historical piece. This is also an Own Voices book and I’ve learned a lot about Arab culture and practices of the time. I’m very happy I found this series because it just feels so fresh.
There were a few directions I thought the couple for book three was going to go and I was pleasantly surprised when I read the summary! I love me a brooding type.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5 🌶🌶🌶.5/5
Q: What is this 🦴?
A: A historical bone-r 😌 -
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Just a touch
(These are personal preference on a scale of 1-5, except the steam scale. These will probably vary for you according to what you like in romance!)
Should I Read in Order?
There’s a small bit of character crossover here – Leela and Hunt do make some brief appearances (the main characters from book 1). I really loved book 1, so yeah, read it :P
Basic Plot:
Hanna has been trained by her father to be a bonesetter and is determined to independently run her own dispensary. She’s faced skepticism, racism, sexism and judgment from many of society’s members, and hopes eventually her skill will shine through and people will trust her to heal them. Griff is one of the skeptics, especially having a renown doctor as a guardian. But when he sees Hanna wearing his dead mother’s missing necklace, he knows he must solve the mystery of how she came across it.
Give this book a try if you want:
- Some wonderful character arcs for both main characters. They both have baggage and struggles to work through, including family and career trials and neither felt two dimensional to me.
- Lower to mid steam – this ranks a 2 on our steam scale but it definitely feels like a slow burn
- Ex-soldier hero recovering from war wounds and bonesetter heroine
- Lots of lovely diversity sprinkled in from the heroine’s Arab family – food, culture, and language
- Class differences trope – hero is a Viscount and heroine is a working class member of the Arab community
- Forbidden love trope – heroine faces being secluded from her family if she marries outside her Arab community
- Regency time period – this one takes place in 1816
- You’re okay with a bit of other man/other woman drama (OM/OW)
- You like a busy plot with plenty of things external to the couple happening
- You love your consent firmly acknowledged – Griff is very in tune with what Hanna wants and if she shows any hesitation, he would pause and check in
My Thoughts:
A lot about this book I think will be great for most people. I just struggled with it a bit. Individually, I think Hanna and Griff had good character arcs. They both had a lot of depth and things to work through. For me, personally the romance was just lost in this one :(
I adored that Hanna was a bonesetter. I really enjoyed the scenes of her work and found it really fascinating. I was eager to see time with her patients. I think she had a bit more character depth than Griff. Her family really did brighten the pages and I loved the food descriptions and the phrases in her native language we were able to hear. Griff had some family issues to work through, including the murder of his parents and his distance from his siblings.
For me, I think there was just too much ‘other stuff’ going on in this book. Combined with such a slow burn romance, I just didn’t feel the tension between the characters much at all. The beginning half was hard for me how Hanna would open herself briefly and then try to distance herself again and be cold/formal. I do understand her struggle, but for me it just went on a bit long. I usually enjoy jealousy in books, but this one, it was just one other thing that was hindering Hanna and Griff from being together and loving each other. The fact that there was both a man Griff was jealous of and a woman Hannah was jealous of, combined with the fact I didn’t really feel their relationship growing yet, I just got frustrated.
Another thing I felt was this book just felt a bit on the heavy side? So perhaps it was my mood at the time of reading this.
I actually loved that the title is a line from the book. So many titles just seem random words with duke, rake, or rogue in them and it doesn’t even seem to fit the character.
There was just too much drama keeping them apart:
A part I did love:
Griff stepped between them. “Mind your manners.”
“And if I don’t?” Mansfield’s disdainful gaze dropped to the sling cradling Griff’s elbow. “What will you do about it?”
Griff’s good hand whipped out, grabbing Mansfield by the throat, forcing him to stumble backwards until Griff had him up against a wall. “I will break your neck, you insolent little puppy.”
Mansfield gagged. “Now see here -”
“Apologize” Griff tightened his grip.
And this part was really sweet too
Griff surprised her by laughing out loud. “I’m afraid to ask what you call me when you are angry at me.”
She didn’t dare tell him the words that came to her mind whenever she thought of him.
Hayati. My life.
Elbee. My heart.
Rohee. My soul.
Content warnings:
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes -
2.5⭐️ After reading the first book in the series I was looking forward to Griff’s story, but this did not work for me. Around 50% Hanna said, “I don’t have the energy to argue with you.” That pretty much sums up the way I feel about writing this review. I don’t have the energy, but here’s a quick rundown. High level: The icky mystery, predictable villain, the disappointingly dim yet politically correct Griff, and a couple of Wait. What? moments. Granular: The usage of “bonesetter” and “bonesetting” 156 times, including Hanna’s pet phrase, “I am a bonesetter,” which reminded me of “I am Groot,” without any sign of the devilish cuteness.
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Rumors that he killed his own parents have followed Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin, for most of his life. A tip about the killer leads him to Arab beauty Hanna Zayden, London’s finest bonesetter. Griff is convinced Hanna is a fraud, but she just might be the person to mend both his injured arm and his broken heart.
This is the second book in the Clandestine Affairs series. This book can stand alone. Hanna is cousin to the first heroine, who makes an appearance.
I thought this story was fantastic! In this time period, people were very leery of bonesetters because the medical community painted them as charlatans. When Griff first encounters Hanna, he spies her wearing his mother's stolen necklace. He uses a war injury as an excuse to get close to her, never dreaming that she could actually heal his constant pain. They had a slow-burn chemistry that was believable and engrossing. The romance and the unfolding events from Griff's past were well balanced.
I also loved the inclusion of Hanna's Arabic heritage, which was weaved in beautifully. There were so many elements of family that I connected to my own Latina culture. Hanna's grandmother was a welcome addition...when she cursed the hero in Arabic, I nearly spit my drink. (4.5 stars rounded to 5)
Tropes: Class Difference, Culture Clash, Working Heroine
Steam Rating: 2
* I received an ARC and this is my honest review. #TheViscountMadeMeDoIt #NetGalley -
same issues as with book one...
lack of my caring about the characters leads to zooming out of it which is always unfortunate
I hope book three will be a success.. -
I was really excited to read this book even though the first one was just okay for me. An Arab heroine who is also a bonesetter? Gimme!
Hanna is a spinster who is determined to open a dispensary to continue the practice she learned from her father. The obstacles are many and she's not undaunted until Viscount Griffin enters the picture. Griff lives in constant pain from a war injury. He's also the main suspect in his parent's murders. When he witnesses a beautiful woman dislocating the wrist of an obnoxious aristocrat he's fascinated by her and then suspicious when he recognizes the necklace she's wearing is the same one his mother was wearing when she was murdered.
This book started with a bang. Hanna strolls into a tavern-like a boss and upon finding out idiot regency frat boy was just messing with her, she angrily grabs his hand and dislocates his wrist. Then she strolls right back out. I wish I could say the rest of the book is this exciting but alas!
Besides Hanna's heritage and skill set, I found very little else to like about this book. The romantic tension is non-existent as the entire story is driven by the mystery plot which anyone can guess who the culprit is as soon as he walks onto the page. The hero is as exciting as a bowl of day-old oatmeal. He does absolutely nothing even remotely romantic. He proposes to another woman to save her honor and this drags on until almost the very end. What about Hanna? Well, when she needs him, he literally rubs his forehead and mutters the equivalent of "oh, dear". This reader needs a hero who is going to turn the world inside out for the woman he loves. Not one who shuffles his feet and whines about how difficult everything is 🙄
Griff was a cardboard cutout compared to Hanna. While I did like her and she was the saving grace for me, I lost respect for her when suddenly her character decided that putting her career and reputation on the line was okay as long as she gets to make out with the hot Viscount. The choice to have sexual relations with Griff in her damn place of work, a place she fought so hard to get and keep open, was so out of character and so out of the blue that if this had not been an ARC I would have closed the book right then and there. It was ridiculous and reversed everything she said and did up to that point. I skimmed over the love scene because I was not invested in the relationship. The mystery gets solved, Griff makes some completely unoriginal declarations. The end. 2 1/2 stars for Hanna the rest gets the side eye from me.
⭐⭐.5 /5
🔥/5
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy. -
this was my first diana quincy romance and won’t be my last! diana is a palestinian author and her stories feature palestinian characters set in england in the early 1800s. this was a beautiful romance with a sprinkle of murder mystery that our main characters set out to solve. the spice in this was delectable!
also the grandmother in this story reminded me so much of my own which made me love her even more. how was she similar to my grandmother? she was constantly disappointed that her granddaughter wasn’t married yet and wanted to focus on her career instead😭😂 -
DNFing this for now NOT BC THE BOOK IS BAD but bc the audiobook is EGREGIOUS. anyone who hires non-Arabs to narrate Arabic… my wrath upon you
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I loved the heroine, she is of Arab descent and a bonesetter! Her job was just so cool and unique to hear about in this historical setting. The hero’s parents were killed in the past and rumors have always swirled that he was involved in their deaths/killed them. So when something comes to light about the killer, Griff sets out to find everything he can, which leads him to Hanna. The romance kind of took a back seat to the mystery element in the plot. And while I was intrigued by that storyline, I also wanted more of the romance. I wished we had more time with the romance for this couple because I really enjoyed what we did get from both of these characters.
“Truly respecting me means acknowledging that I am a grown woman who knows what she wants. And at the moment, I want you.” -
Hanna Zaydan works hard for every scrap of respect she’s offered as a skilled bonesetter, but her attraction to her newest patient threatens to derail everything she’s worked to build. As she treats his injuries, she finds herself increasingly drawn to the former soldier even though she knows she should stay away. She can tell that Griff has secrets, but she can also see that he desires her too and she may just be willing to give in.
Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin, has been plagued by awful rumors that he murdered his own parents even since their tragic deaths when he was just 13. Now, more than ten years later, Griff finds a clue that could lead him to his parents’ killer, and which brings him into the orbit of the lovely bonesetter. Influenced by his cousin and former guardian, Dr. Pratt, Griff fully believes Hanna to be a fraud, but she awakens feelings he thought long dead. When her treatment is truly effective, it seems like she could mend more than just Griff’s broken body, if he’ll let her.
This has to be a five-star read for me, hands down. There’s relatively low angst, especially given the premise of the plot. We have engrossing intrigue, MCs who are adults and openly communicate as such without playing games. It was a bit low on steam, but I loved these two so much that I didn’t even mind, in fact, I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t really notice their lack of alone time together all that much. We have both an unconventional hero and an unconventional heroine and a mystery for them to solve together. Of course, they fall in love along the way, face adversity and fight to be together, and heal each other as they go. I couldn’t not love this book. Griff was such a genuinely good man who had been hurt so badly by others and just needed some love in his life. Hanna was the perfect match for him, no matter how reluctant she was at first, and she needed someone to believe in her as Griff did, even if she didn’t realize it. It was great to see Hanna get some support to realize her dreams and to see Griff take his life back and finally heal from the grief and guilt he lived with for so long. I loved this book and it left me so satisfied and full of warm fuzzies that I wasn’t even bothered by wrong forms of address, which are usually a huge pet peeve of mine. I enjoyed this book much more than the first book in the series and I’m looking forward to what’s next and especially hoping we find out what’s going on between Selina and Rafi.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Blog link:
https://mustreadalltheromance.blogspo... -
The Viscount Made Me Do It By author Diana Quincy is not your typical historical romance. Set in the early 1800’s in London the two MCs are from completely different worlds, Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin, is a haunted man who has not dealt with the horrific loss of his parents. Hanna Zaydan is a bone setter, she learned the skill from her father and since his death she has taken over his practice. When Thomas first sees Hanna he notices she is wearing his deceased mothers unique necklace, he wants to know how she came into possession of the necklace that was stolen when his mom was murdered. He has the perfect excuse to go to Hanna - a 3-year old injury that has never healed.
Bone setters can be thought of as very early chiropractor’s . Like the medical society of today’s time believe chiropractor’s are not reliable healthcare providers, back in the 1800’s bone setters were considered swindlers and frauds. So, when Viscount Griffin comes under Hanna’s care, for an injury that no previous physician could fix [even his guardian], it is not long before trouble comes knocking. Meanwhile Hanna & Thomas are growing closer - she knows he sought her out originally due to the necklace— yet, the sizzle between them continues to grow.
As Hanna braces for backlash from London’s medical society Thomas is still trying to figure out how this alluring woman originally obtained his mom’s necklace.
This is an intriguing story with many layers. There is the one expected society standards of who should be in a relationship, the standards of women providing medical care when society still believes women should not even work, the standards of acceptable medical care, and the mystery of who killed Viscount Griffin’s parents. The author masterfully wove these layers together to produce a story that captures your attention and doesn’t let go! I really enjoyed this story especially with my medical background and found myself researching bone setters. This is my first book by this author and it won’t be my last.
Check this story out if you are looking for a great historical romance with an added mystery!!
5 Stars ⭐️ | 2 Flames -
I thought this was overall a very enjoyable book. Hanna Zayden is a bonesetter. I found her profession really interesting and very different to what you would usually see in Historical Romance. She is also Arab and that too is not the norm for HR. Both of those things really caught my interest.
Griff is a Viscount and he comes to see her under the pretense of wanting her to help him with his injured arm. He is really there because she is in possession of his murdered mother's necklace.
I felt like the book was focused more on the murder mystery involving Griff's parents than the romance. That didn't really bother me because the story was good.
I'm looking forward to book 3 immensely. The glimpses of the Marquis of Brandon during the first two books have made me want to learn more about him. His introduction was probably my favorite scene in the book. I can't wait for more of him. -
It was a slow-burn romance, which I’m not a fan of. I guessed whodunnit early in the book; I just didn’t know the motive.
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you know when you see someone and just IMMEDIATELY fall so hard for them?? and like, they’re so gorgeous, so smart, everything they do is so amazing & you just wanna ✨bask✨ in the glory that they emanate? Yeah, so that’s how I felt about Miss Hanna Zaydan in Diana Quincy’s latest book The Viscount Made Me Do It🥰
tbh I just— like I wanna be her??? From the moment she steps on page, Hanna is extremely self assured, commanding the space with her skill and her intelligence. She’s passionate (and ~very~ skilled) when it comes to her work, and tirelessly serves the people in her community despite receiving prejudice because of her identity as an Arabic woman and her occupation as a bonesetter. There was so much of this book that I enjoyed, but Hanna was just knocked me ~right~ off my feet! I loved her fierce independence, her sharp with, her relationship with her family—her brother in particular, when do we get Ravi and Selina’s book👀— and like not to dwell too much on her work as a bonesetter, but talk about COMPETENCE PORN!!
the flip side of the whole "OMG Hanna is amazing" was that she was the best part of the book. I loved that Griff was into her from day one (obvi like he's no dummy) but I didn't find him particularly compelling as a character. I also felt like sometimes Hanna's personal arc and the murder mystery sometimes drove the story more than the romance did. However they also kept up momentum, and I liked that there was more external plot happening (in comparison to book one)
I vacillated between 3.5/4 stars on this one, but Hanna was just so great I'm going with 4🙌🏻 The Viscount Made Me Do It dropped this Tuesday, and if you haven’t read Diana Quincy I'd recommend starting with this one! Looking forward to her next book👌🏻 Also I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review, thank you to Avon and Netgalley
Content/Trigger Warnings: xenophobia, misogeny, parental murder, familial estrangement,
Content Notes: Hanna is a straight Arabic woman in her late 20's, and Griff is a straight white man in his early 30s. -
I love the Heroine of this novel and the uniqueness of her career, it was so fascinating and wonderful to see a heroine with a strong passion and purpose. I also love the Arab representation we get with the heroine and her family, it is wonderful to see a wider understanding of the world and diversity within it at all moments in history. The writing is engaging and well paced, overall a really enjoyable story.
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Essa autora não é pra mim. Pouca safadeza
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If you haven’t read Diana Quincy’s “Her Night With the Duke” book #1 in this Clandestine Affairs series, I highly recommend you do. I loved it—a five star for me.
Now for my thoughts on book #2 The Viscount Made Me Do It——It’s a tale of two people finding love under unusual circumstances. Their journey leads to solving a murder mystery and finding acceptance and respect that is well-deserved.
We have two main characters: an Arab bonesetter who followed in her fathers footsteps and is family to foreign merchants, and the English Viscount who seduces and falls-fast to make her his.
Our hero, Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin, is at an ancient coffeehouse when he sees his mother’s sapphire pendant hanging on the neck of a woman, the bonesetter. His chest is in a pain of hurt, as he remembers it was stolen 14 years ago—his mother wearing it the night she was murdered, along with his father.
To find answers, Griff makes a plan. He goes to see the bonesetter, requiring her services.
Our heroine is the bonesetter, Hannah Zayden.
He doubts Hannah’s abilities, but as a rouse to get info about his mother’s pendant, he asks her to repair the arm he injured fighting in the war two years before. It causes unbearable pain that no doctor has been able to help. While in her care, there’s a growing attraction and smoldering chemistry between them. Both are consequential in helping each other through painful and difficult times. The mystery behind Griff’s parents deaths, and Hannah’s fine-tuned art of bone setting being accepted by the medical community.
I enjoyed it, and found the occupation of a bonesetter interesting and unique to the storyline. The enormity of feelings between Griff and Hannah rested just below the surface, both agreeing they were friends, nothing more.. but try as they might, the desire between them was more than either could control. I enjoyed the romance, the murder mystery, and absolutely loved how this woman controlled her own future (unheard of back in the day.) She’s very outspoken, wouldn’t allow men to put her in her place, and most definitely didn’t cower to them. I adored her confidence and boldness!! 4.5 stars -
The best thing about this book was our amazing heroine, Hannah. She is Arab, and a bone setter. She truly was such a joy to read about.
Our hero, Griff however, was very hard to love. I enjoyed him in the first book, but honestly, he was such a prick to the heroine, that it really turned me off to him pretty hard. I did come around to him by the end, but it was a struggle.
I went in with middle of the road expectations. Those expectations were met. -
Good read.
I really like this author.
I have been reading more books lately that are less "tonish" and have a little more intrigue and suspense. It's been fun reading something different.
You will enjoy this read. -
Reread update: ofc i loved it just as much as the first time, it’s Diana Quincy 👏
Ok LOVED the plot in this one. There is a mystery they need to solve, and combined with the forbidden romance aspect of this made it SO FUN. I’m genuinely shocked every book of Diana’s I’ve read so far has been 5 stars for me. I’m eating these up!
Spice: -
Fourteen years after the murder of his parents, Thomas “Griff” Ellis, the Viscount Griffin receives a package with a ring belonging to his late mother, a ring that was stolen the night she was killed. In an effort to track down the sender, he visits the post office, hoping for a lead, but is sent away empty-handed. He visits a nearby coffeehouse and is shocked when he sees a lovely woman enter, wearing his mother’s necklace. The woman stops at the table of some young noblemen who apparently requested her services as a bonesetter to mock her. Angry, the woman dislocates the man’s wrist, telling him to visit her office to get it fixed, and storms out.
Griff learns her name and due to a war injury, has an excuse to visit her offices, even though he doesn’t believe she will be able to help him, since his former guardian is a respected doctor and wasn’t able to alleviate his pain, nor had any of the specialists he has seen. So he is shocked when her treatments work. They form a friendship and he confesses his true reason for seeking her out and she offers to help any way she can.
Hanna Zaydan is the daughter of immigrants from the Levant, most of her family is involved in the cotton trade, but her father was a bonesetter and taught her the art, much to the dismay of her mother and grandmother, who hoped she would marry a nice Arab man and start a family. Hanna truly has a gift for bonesetting and will not give up her practice, therefore she believes marriage and a family are not a part of her future. Her attraction to Griff is inconvenient and impossible, even if he wanted to marry her, her family would never approve. But that doesn’t stop her from helping him solve the mystery of who murdered his parents and why.
Almost as soon as they start digging into the past, ugly truths begin to emerge and everything Griff has been told seems to be lies. Add to this, his former guardian seeming to have a vendetta against Hanna, and a secret he has kept for years coming out and forcing him to offer marriage to save a friend’s honor. All of these combined seem to ensure that there is no possibility for a HEA with the woman he has come to love.
This was a well-written, fast-paced story with wonderful characters and a fresh and original plot. The book is filled with secrets, lies, betrayal, murder, interesting facts on bonesetting, class/station differences, prejudice, warm love scenes, help from unexpected sources, and finally a HEA that seemed impossible. This book achieved the perfect balance of mystery and romance, with neither aspect overpowering or detracting from the other, resulting in a well-balanced and gripping read. There were some typos and title errors, but this was an uncorrected proof, so those errors may be corrected before publication. This is the second book in the series, but it can be read as a standalone title with no problems.
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.* -
Always appreciate a romance where the characters are horny for each other from the start but also end up horny for each other's competence (in this case, hers) and strength of character (his). Unfortunately I did wince at Quincy's frequent stops to explain minutiae of Arab culture — not because I didn't want to know but because the manner of delivery, especially the italicization of Arabic words or phrases, felt performative in a way that seemed unnecessary and maybe even self-marginalizing. It's ok to leave context clues! To trust the reader to put together that a character is eating a kind of soup or saying something scathing to someone who doesn't speak Arabic! Also perfectly fine to leave some things opaque to people outside of the culture, in my opinion.
The end of act two and the climax of the story felt clumsily assembled to me, complete with a big villain speech in which all crimes are admitted and an act of heroism that tidily sweeps away the biggest cultural complications keeping the leads from being wed. The nefarious scheming is just not that complicated, and the subsequent detective work to unravel it isn't either. I'm of the opinion that Quincy could probably have focused in more on the romance given how tepidly I felt about the central mystery in comparison, but it's fine. Didn't hate it, didn't love it; it was just there.
I did however love learning about bonesetting as practice, about which I knew nothing prior to this book, and I think the setup and execution of the main ship was otherwise enjoyable. It's refreshing when two leads are open about how much they want one another, as well as the reasons they can't or shouldn't be together. The sense of to hell with it, we'll do it anyway can be thrilling, and there are certainly moments of that here. I'd probably give another of Quincy's books a shot.
CW for murder, past parental death (not depicted but discussed and somewhat described), some anti-Arab racism -
n The Viscount Made Me Do It, Thomas Ellis, Viscount Griffin is in a tea shop after unsuccessfully determining who sent his dead mother’s ring to him from the local post. As he is sipping his tea in walks Hanna Zaydan wearing his mother’s necklace. When she walks directly to the table behind him, he realizes Hanna is a bonesetter. This gives him an idea. Using his war injury he visits the bonesetter and the tale that unfolds was delightful.
First, I found the tidbits and story surrounding bonesetters fascinating. I loved that this was a skill Hanna learned from her father and he his. Of course, the medical profession, consisting mostly of men during this time period, believed bone setters were charlatans.
Hanna lives in a mostly Arabic community in London and her grandmother and brothers are upset that she isn’t seeking a husband. Hanna dreams of opening her on clinics and is determined. Griffin thinks she is a charlatan too, but Hanna soon proves him wrong.
The mystery surrounding the necklace and ring brought suspense, danger, and allowed the romance to develop. The story was well-paced. Despite, the chemistry between them, the romance was delivered as a slow burn until it sizzled.
The Viscount Made Me Do It delivered all the elements I enjoy Diana Quincy’s historical fiction laced with romance and suspense. Her stories make the perfect book to curl up with. I look forward to the next book in the series. You can grab the first one, Her Night With A Duke at retailers everywhere. Each book has its own romance and will stand on its own.
This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer
