“I don’t think anything inspired me except the necessity of coming up with a story so that I could fulfill my obligation to a contract I had agreed to! I had to dream up a story, and this one popped into my head.” Mary Balogh in the interview following A Matter of Class. Nonetheless, as an experienced, and clearly honest, professional writer, she delivered a sincerely charming historical romance novella. Reggie and Annabelle are lifelong neighbours divided by a waterway as well as the barriers […]
Not an Affair to Remember
Born a commoner, Hannah Reid has been Duchess of Dunbarton since she was nineteen years old. Now her husband is dead and, more beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover—and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable. So this book bored me to tears. I know that Mary Balogh is a beloved author, with a […]
Then Comes *snore*
Oh my goodness. So it seems Ms. Balogh has at least one a series that leaves me wanted to stab someone in the eye from either boredom or annoyance or the case of this one, both! Katherine is the youngest sister of the Huxtable clan. She is beautiful and proper and new to society. Jasper, Baron Montford, is a man’s man, ladies man, man about town. They meet because Jasper agrees to a wager for fun to seduce Katherine within two weeks. They meet at […]
First Comes a Solid, if Bland Romance
So in my further exploration into Mary Balogh’s back catalog I started a bunch of her series at once. As they come in at the library I shall give them a try, and keep reading at random. It’s making for a lot of similar stories, but sometimes one just needs a whole lot of happy mindless-ness. This is the start of the Huxtable Quintet. It begins with Elliott, Viscount Lyndgate and heir to a dukedom, arriving in the middle of nowhere searching for the Huxtable […]
Slightly Serious, but Still O So Good
As a Christmas Book Exchange gift from my Romance Twin, Mrs. Julien, sent me this one. I knew it would be read quickly. It’s the last in the Bedwyn Saga by Mary Balogh, but I don’t think I was really missing out having not read the previous entries. And I plan to get to them at some point in this coming year. But for now it was the perfect little read over the holidays with a serious, eldest sibling hero and the spirited heroine who […]
Convenient Exoticism and a Wedding Night Without Central Heating
This first book in Mary Balogh’s new Regency romance Westcott series got off to a good start with a great heroine, a play on a familiar romance plot, and a somewhat inscrutable hero. About halfway through, the story lost steam and fell prey to a trope whose day has past. Once again, a toad of an aristocrat has had the temerity to die and leave his estate in disarray as he failed to disclose a rightful heir to his fortune and rendered his own children […]