The Lion's Daughter is one of my favorite reads so it's disappointing to have to decide that Chase's books are no longer of interest to me. :( Too much fluff, too little real plot or conflict. Think it's time for me to face facts and move on. ( )

While running away from an arranged marriage, Catherine is abducted, drugged, and ends up in a “bawdy house” in the worse section of London. Unbelievably, she wakes to find a drunk in her room who she manages to convince to help her get away instead of “ruining” her and turning her into a prostitute. He takes her to his sister, who happens to be married to a distant cousin of hers.

Lots of mishaps, balls, tutoring, miscommunication before the HEA. Fast read for a rainy day. ( )

excellent romance. ( )

Catherine ran away from home to avoid marriage with a sleazy jerk and after a lot of bad luck, accepts some tea for what she believes to be a kindly old lady. Only to have that kindly old lady slip a mickey into her tea while she’s not looking. Catherine then wakes up completely nude and in a whore house with her first customer on his way on up. After a minor freak out, Cat gets to work on running through her options of escape and can’t think of any that wouldn’t end her up in a worse position then she’s already in. Since she has no other options she decides to throw herself at the mercy of her first customer and hope like hell he believes her story.

Luckily for her, Cat’s first customer is Lord Rand who’s three sheets to the wind and decides that his she's kind of amusing so… what the hell! He’ll bust her out of here and take her home with him. After a minor squabble about clothes and fees on their way out, Rand takes Cat home to the ratty apartment he’s been staying at while he’s been out carousing for the past month or so. Since Rand’s living in a rat trap, Cat assumes he’s a commoner and has a bit of a surprise when she finds out he’s just been out gallivanting for a few months. After a bit of convincing Rand decides to take her home to his sister who pretty much recognizes her and takes her in as her ward.

Since Cat likes to handle her own life and her answer is usually to just run away, we get a lot of scenery changes in the story, which I really liked. We go from brothel, to upper class parties, back to the seedier parts of London, then back to upper class and so on. For me, that kept the story from getting stale and helped to hold my attention. Plus it introduced a couple more interesting characters.

I don’t think you’d necessarily have to read this story in order to read Devil’s Delilah like I was told, but eh why not. ( )

I adore Loretta Chase's books. However, I do not adore: stories set in India, stories set on the high seas, and stories where the mystery overshadows the romance. Consequently, I did not adore Viscount Vagabond. ( )