Vying for the Viscount

3.5 stars
A light-hearted historical romance with a light smattering of Christian faith. I loved all the horse details but did not love the dashes of “romantic heat” that popped up in the story. I did appreciate that it's a lot lower level of “heat” than a number of Hunter's other books! I'd give an average appropriate age rating of 16-18+ on this one.

Bianca and Hudson have a pretty quick bond as he finds her in his stables giving his horses exercise. Then she teaches him a few things to survive in a polite drawing room, especially how to dance. Since Hudson has been in India all his life, he doesn't know about many of society's little things; she starts it out, but other friends have to go through with things like teaching him popular card games. (I'm glad to see that one of his friends, Aaron, will star in the next book.)

The overall tone of the story is a light, humorous one. I would have liked to see the secondary characters a little better developed, because many of them seemed more wooden than anything, but that didn't keep me from liking the leads. There were several characters mentioned from other Hunter novels, but an error hopped out at me: Trent and Adelaide are said to have “married for love” but an entire novel was previously devoted to their marriage of convenience and their awkward attempts to find love. Also a couple anachronistic words like “dad” hopped out at me. Otherwise I like the story and the historical feel of it.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.