Mary’s Musings...IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A VISCOUNT by Kieran Kramer!

I have promised myself (and my followers) to not ramble when I am excited about a book, but dang that is difficult.  I really liked IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A VISCOUNT for so many reasons but the main one being Daisy.  She has lost so much and with the possibility of losing it all she never gives up hope or lets it get her down, she figures out how to work with it and around it.  Her life is one challenge after another but regardless of what comes at her she is going to protect what she loves with everything she has.

I did look up Kieran Kramer and found some of my very favorite things - Unusual Facts and went further than her discussion about the CIA but really that was all I cared about.  Come on do you know anyone at the CIA?

SHE WORKED FOR THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (CIA) in her two years there as an analyst, editor, and member of the fast-track management Career Trainee class of 1986, with whom she underwent paramilitary operations training at the legendary Farm. Among her classmates was Valerie Plame of Plamegate fame. (AWESOME)

WINNER ON THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FAMILY FEUD.

SCOOPED The New York Times from her computer at home as a freelance journalist for The Charlotte Observer by accidentally inciting a feud between John Rosemond, family psychologist and parenting expert, and the renowned pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, over the topic of potty training; the story was picked up by The New York Times and Dr. Dean Edell of talk radio fame.

SPENT HER JUNIOR YEAR IN COLLEGE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE IN GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, where she dated a man in a kilt, pulled pints of ale as barmaid at the university pub, and listened to bagpipes a LOT from her dorm window.

GREW UP ONE OF SEVEN KIDS ON JOHNS ISLAND, a rural sea island near Charleston, SC, and helped build her family’s log home. She also played in the pluff mud, sat on docks daydreaming, rode below the bowsprit on her dad’s sailboat and watched dolphins swim mere feet away, and in general, lived an idyllic Lowcountry life.

MARRIED FOR TWENTY-ONE YEARS TO A great guy named Chuck, a COMMANDER IN THE US NAVY RESERVES, and they have three kind, musically-inclined kids, all of whom have been brought up on the Beatles as the family’s go-to band.

I am proud to let you know that I received a copy of IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A VISCOUNT from St. Martin’s Press to be given away.  To be eligible to win please leave a comment on  “what to you is worth fighting regardless of the obstacles?” then come back on Sunday – December 2^nd to see if you have won.  Please remember if you do not come back, you will not know if you won, because I am going to need your address. 

As always I wish you happy reading, encourage you to celebrate your Little Victories, and come back to see what book I am reviewing and offering up for a giveaway.  Do not forget to cast your positive votes for me on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  Your vote matters!

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REVIEW from Mary Gramlich "The Reading Reviewer"

IF YOU GIVE A GIRL A VISCOUNT by Kieran Kramer

11/11 - St. Martin's Press - Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages

Has my life turned out the way I expected it would?

Daisy Montgomery has a huge problem that needs someone to show up and rescue her white horse and all.  Daisy’s nightmare of a step family has decided to use the secrets they know about her to steal her holdings, and keep her working as a servant not the mistress of the manor.  What her family does not know is Daisy will not be kept down and will save her family home by contacting the best reinforcements she has her godmother to help her out.

Instead of the person Daisy expected, Charles Thorpe, Viscount Lumley shows up.  Charlie is her godmother’s grandson who apparently has come to help her on a bet which so far has turned into a nightmare he did not expect.  The man has no money nor any ideas on how to help her do anything especially keep the property and get rid of the step-monsters.  The upside is he wants to try and Daisy is desperate enough to drag him into her plans which seem far fetched but something is better than nothing.  The two toss around ideas, plot aggressive tactics, and dance around an attraction that is growing more intense every moment they are together.  The question for Daisy is why is Charlie so willing to help, Daisy has nothing to offer but he certainly seems willing to be part of her aggressive tactics.  If she were a betting woman she might think there were alternative motives, but whatever could they be since his goal is to get back to London as soon as possible.

Daisy and Charlie are a creative and inventive team of creative with the ability to make something out of nothing.  They learn to trust each other to venture past the line of appropriate society in their bid to save Daisy’s home and preserve her virtue with one being a tad more difficult than the other.  As time progresses and they are drawn more into each other arms they know that trust is not the issue, but letting go of past pain is.  When you have made mistakes it is difficult to know who you can lean on and be the person that you should not let get away.

This fourth book in The Impossible Bachelors series with its enchanting characters and whimsical touches of romance is a great way to wrap up the series.  I have a weakness for female characters named Daisy as they are always strong, smart and know what they want.  Combine that with Charlie and you have a match made of legendary proportion.