Dear Ms. Balogh,

A Promise of Spring, now being reprinted in a 2-in-1 volume with The Temporary Wife, has a gripping opening. The residents of Abbotsford, a village in Hampshire, are trying to decide what is to be done about Grace Howard. Grace is the spinster older sister of their rector, Reverend Paul Howard, who recently died saving a small child from being gored by an enraged bull.

Grace had been living in the rectory with Paul and doing her brother’s housekeeping. The people of Abbotsford believe her to be destitute and without family, and since she is respected there and they feel deeply indebted to her deceased brother, none of them can bear to see her without means. While several of the Abbotsford residents try to figure out what should be done, Sir Peregrine Lampman visits Miss Howard and asks her to marry him.

Sir Peregrine – Perry to friends – is a sunny natured and gregarious man in his mid-twenties with whom ladies, young and old, love to flirt. He was a close friend of the intellectual rector with whom he shared interests in wide ranging subjects. Although he doesn’t know Grace well, Perry admires her dignity, her self-containment and the beautiful environment she created for Paul with her embroidery and gardening.

While paying his respects to the grieving sister of his friend, Perry realizes that he wishes that he knew Grace better. Rather than letting her disappear from his life, Perry impulsively proposes marriage. Grace refuses Perry on the basis that she is ten years older than he, but he asks her to reconsider.

They go back and forth a bit and finally she gives him a stronger reason not to marry her. Grace grew up with Gareth, a neighbor and playmate whom she loved. When Gareth decided to fight in the war, she gave herself to him. Gareth died, she tells Perry, and left her with her son, Jeremy.

Because Jeremy was a bastard, he was considered inferior to his legitimate cousins and did not receive enough attention from the governess who watched the children swim. Jeremy drowned, and Grace was told that since he was a bastard, it was for the best. Paul, she tells Perry, was the only one to show her sympathy and compassion after her son’s death, even quarreling with their father, taking Grace with him and cutting off the family.

After hearing the whole story, Perry again asks Grace to marry him. Feeling too vulnerable to do the right thing and refuse once more, Grace accepts.

Perry and Grace marry. The residents of Abbotsford think theirs is a mismatch and will not work out well, but against the odds, their marriage thrives. Grace is surprised by her enjoyment of the marriage bed, and Perry learns that there is pleasure to be had in gardening. They find they enjoy each other’s company even when he is reading and she is embroidering silently beside him.

But Grace is afraid that happiness will not last. Eventually Peregrine will tire of his much older wife and realize that he made a mistake. Even though she has begun to come alive again, she resolves to keep a part of herself dead, so as not to suffer more when Perry realizes he should not have married her.

This state of affairs is disrupted when Grace receives a letter from her estranged sister-in-law, Ethel. Grace had written her family to inform them of Paul’s death and Ethel’s reply is a subdued invitation to come home for a visit and bring her new husband.

Grace is torn – she realizes that her younger, proud and willful self also played a role in her estrangement from her family, but it is difficult for her to forgive them their treatment of Jeremy. Yet she also wants to visit her son’s grave, and to see her aging father again before he dies. In the end, she and Perry decide in favor of going.

Grace and Perry arrive at her father’s home, Pangam Manor, and are greeted with politeness by Ethel and by Grace’s brother Martin. Grace’s niece, Priscilla, is glad to see Grace again, while Grace’s father, Lord Pawley, is stiff in his manner. Still, if the family is surprised by Perry’s youth, they don’t show it, and they don’t make Grace feel unwelcome.

The family relationships begin to thaw and just when Grace’s wounds start to heal, an invitation to a dinner party from Viscount Sandersford arrives. Grace remembers how Gareth’s father ignored her and the illegitimate grandson she had given him. Ethel suggests that they refuse the invitation, but Grace feels it is time to make peace, so the family attends.

At the dinner, Grace is shocked to realize that Gareth’s father isn’t Viscount Sandersford any longer. Gareth’s father passed away, and the new viscount is Gareth, the father of her child — the same Gareth she had told Perry was dead. Gareth, very much alive, is now intent on pursuing Grace. He tells her that he realizes that he made a huge mistake and insists that she cannot ignore the passion that has always been between them.

And he goes further than that: after Grace and Perry depart Pagnam Manor, Gareth follows them to London. He refuses to take no for an answer and will not stop pursuing Grace until she admits that her love for him has never died.

There were many reasons I wanted to love this novel. First, the beginning was so wonderful that I spent the first fifth or so convinced that I was reading a gem. Perry’s total acceptance of Grace, his lack of condemnation of her past, and his eagerness to marry her even after learning about it, as well as given that she was thirty-five to his twenty-five, made me love him.

Grace’s vulnerability, the loss and suffering in her past, and the way she kept her emotions bottled up really got to me. I was rooting for her and for Perry from the beginning and I couldn’t wait to see their marriage blossom.

And blossom it did. I loved the way they slowly and quietly came to love each other, without fanfare or fireworks. As much as I enjoy more combustible pairings, I also love a subtle, unexpected, quiet romance. Also, the older woman-younger man is a trope I’m fond of and I enjoyed that aspect of the story. I did wish that Grace was a little less insecure about her age but I suppose that was natural in her circumstances.

I also loved the contrast between the soft-spoken, non-threatening Perry and the dashing, older, handsomer and better titled Gareth. In another book Gareth would have been the hero and Perry the second fiddle whose love for Grace went unrequited so I *loved* that here this dynamic was reversed.

Unfortunately, the strengths I loved were offset by weaknesses. A Promise of Spring suffers from kitchen sink plotting as well as multiple contrivances. I’ll start with the former.

There is Perry and Grace’s age difference and the ways it affects their confidence in their marriage, Grace’s estrangement from her family over her son’s birth and death, the lie Grace tells Perry about the very-much-alive Gareth being dead, Gareth’s dogged pursuit of the married Grace, and finally…

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

A couple of these conflicts would have been enough to fill a short book like this, and because there are so many, most of them get short shrift and are resolved in ways that feel unconvincing.

The conflict between Grace and her family dissolves away very quickly. We never learn which of them it was who said that it was fortunate Jeremy died because he was a bastard, but that issue, a major one to my thinking, isn’t explicitly hashed out between Grace and her relatives. Instead everyone turns out to have admired or loved Grace all along, feelings of competition or rebellion are admitted, and the cruelty to Jeremy and even the possible responsibility for his neglect at the time of his death are glossed over.

Other conflicts also resolve too easily. Perry realizes on his own that Grace didn’t intend to lie about Gareth and never confronts her about it. Gareth goes away after it’s been implied that he is dangerous and after, as Grace prepares to give him the final brush-off, Ethel warns her of him:

“Oh, be careful.” Ethel looked troubled. “Do be careful, Grace. That man frightens me.”

Because of that buildup I was expecting Gareth to either try to rape Grace or to run off with Priscilla, Grace’s niece, in retaliation, but instead he just abruptly accepts his loss with good grace and slinks off into the sunset.

Then there are the contrivances. First, Grace tells Perry that Gareth is dead. This is explained as something that didn’t seem like a lie to Grace at the time because Gareth was dead to her after his refusal to marry her. I was fine with that until she did it again: when Perry asks if Gareth was a friend of her lover’s, she inadvertently confirms Perry’s statement. It no longer felt like a one off to me after that, but the deception was still portrayed as unintentional on Grace’s part. By the second time she bungles communicating the truth, this feels contrived to keep Perry in ignorance of just exactly who Gareth was.

Second, Grace and Perry don’t discuss their problems with Gareth much even when they both know Gareth is pursuing her. And this goes on and on. And on. They also each fear the other doesn’t love them and may come to regret the marriage or even take up with someone else, but neither confronts the other with their fear. Even when Grace attempts to include Perry in her concerns about their relationship by showing him a letter Gareth sent her in secret, Perry doesn’t destroy it or read it with her and his actions and words encourage her to read it alone.

I can believe that insecurities would keep them from communicating to some degree, but this went on so long that it started to feel like a contrivance rather than a natural pattern of behavior for the characters.

Third, Perry doesn’t interfere in Gareth’s pursuit of Grace. This is said to be because he wants Grace to resolve her feelings for Gareth and make a free choice between them, but it starts to feel like a convenient device after a while because even when Gareth pulls Grace for a moonlit walk Perry allows it despite the fact that Grace’s refusal to fall into Gareth’s arms angers Gareth.

I would say that it doesn’t seem to occur to Perry that Gareth could harm Grace, except that’s evidently not true because immediately after the walk, Perry tells Gareth that he won’t ever call him out unless Gareth forces himself on Grace. If Perry feels Gareth is capable of rape, why permit him to take walk with Grace alone in a dark garden where they can argue out of hearshot? The contrivance here makes the otherwise loving and intelligent Perry seem either borderline TSTL or an inconsistently drawn character.

Fourth, Grace’s backstory also seems doubtful. She had Jeremy at age twenty-one and never had a London season. Why did her family never try to take her to London before then? Why did they not insist Gareth marry her? Why didn’t they try to marry her to someone else when Gareth refused? Why didn’t they try to get her to give Jeremy up for adoption or else send her away when she gave birth and then maintained her pride in her son? I could accept one or two of these unanswered questions about Grace’s past, but this many makes it difficult to suspend disbelief.

Fifth, I thought it was passing strange that no one outside of Grace’s family and Gareth seemed to know that Grace had borne Gareth a child. Jeremy lived for four years and his existence doesn’t seem to have been hidden, so one would expect there would be rumors about Grace, a baron’s daughter who had a child out of wedlock. But instead only her family seems to have noticed this event. No one gossips about her in London, Leicestershire or Hampshire.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

To its credit, A Promise of Spring absorbed me while I was reading it, and I really wanted to love it. When I finished it, I felt dissatisfied despite the fact that the book sucked me in. I knew my dissatisfaction had to do with the kitchen sink plotting but as I thought about the reasons more, I also started seeing contrivances, plot holes and slapdash conflict resolutions. I have enjoyed many of your trad regencies, but (to make what I know is a horrible pun) this is one that did not deliver on its promise. C-.

Sincerely,

Janine

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Related posts:

1. JOINT REVIEW: A Christmas Promise by Mary Balogh
2. REVIEW: A Chance Encounter by Mary Balogh
3. REVIEW: The Trysting Place by Mary Balogh

I first read The Temporary Wife, one of your most beloved trad regencies, several years ago. At the time, I liked it but was distracted by an initial similarity to another of your regencies, The Ideal Wife, which I had read first and liked even better.

The opening premises of the two books are very much alike, but they shoot off in very different directions soon after that. Still, the similarity in how they begin makes it difficult not to compare them and choose a favorite. I suspect that in many cases, whichever of these two books a reader reads second will feel somewhat less original to that reader as a result of having read the other first.

Now that The Temporary Wife is finally being reprinted in a 2-in-1 edition along with A Promise of Spring, I was curious to revisit it and see how I would like it since it’s now been over a decade since I read The Ideal Wife and that book has faded from my memory. Happily, this time I enjoyed The Temporary Wife even more.

The Temporary Wife begins with the following sentence:

It not being quite the thing to advertise in the London papers for a wife, Anthony Earheart, Marquess of Stuanton, eldest son and heir of the Duke of Withingsby, advertised instead for a governess.

Anthony omits his title from the advertisement, which entertains his friends no end. They tease him mercilessly about his apparent need for a governess, when he has no children. It’s only later that he explains his purpose to one of them, Lord Rowling. He requires a wife, one who is a gentlewoman, but at the same time “impoverished, plain, demure, very ordinary, perhaps even prim,” with “all the personality of a—a quiet mouse.”

Lord Rowling asks if Anthony feels a strong need to dominate his future wife, and the marquess replies that his father the duke has summoned him home to marry a seventeen year old girl. Although the duke is ill and Anthony is his heir, they had a bad falling out eight years earlier and have not seen each other since. The family, under the duke’s influence, has remained in the country in all these years (something I found unlikely) while Anthony has lived in London, establishing a reputation as a rake.

To Rowling’s protestation that “you cannot marry the dullest creature you can find merely to annoy your father,” Lord Staunton replies “Why not?” He explains that has no intention of spending his life with the woman he marries. She will be pensioned off to the country. His brother will serve as an heir. The woman he chooses will only remain with him for the length of his visit to Enfield, his father’s ducal mansion. She will be a temporary wife.

After interviewing five unsuitable applicants, Staunton finds his dull mouse in Miss Charity Duncan, whose self-effacing mien is matched by her drab and brown clothing. Miss Duncan keeps her eyes downcast and her voice is soft.

Her face looked pale and ordinary in the shadows. The brown of her hair blended so totally with the brown of her bonnet that it was difficult to know where the one ended and the other began. Her garments were decent and drab. He was given the impression that they were not quite shabby but very soon would be. They were shabby-genteel.

She was perfect. His father would be incensed.

What Anthony doesn’t know is that Charity is less timid than she looks. In fact, she was dismissed from her previous position as a governess for reporting to the mother of her charges that their father molested a maid.

But Charity needs employment badly. Due to a debt her father left behind after his death, her family is impoverished. Her brother has had to find work as a clerk and she insisted that she could also seek employment to help support their younger siblings. Charity dreams of finding a get rich quick scheme that would actually work, but since such a thing isn’t possible, she is resigned to doing whatever she can to find another position, even if that includes keep her eyes lowered and her voice quiet.

Of course, when Anthony offers Charity five thousand pounds a year for the rest of her life if she marries him and accompanies him on his visit to Enfield for a few weeks, Charity accepts. Charity finds the dour and businesslike Anthony unlikable, but to support her family so well, she is willing to marry him. She doesn’t realize until after they marry that Anthony is not just wealthy, but also a marquess.

Anthony and Charity journey to Enfield together (Charity having told her brother that she got the position, but not what the position was). They stop to spend the night in an inn where only one room is available and there they share a bed. At first, all they intend to do is sleep, but Charity can’t fall asleep and Anthony gets the idea that sex could solve that problem. It is their wedding night after all. Charity wants to experience sex and knows she may never get another opportunity. And so, they go for it.

The sex is spectacular, but the next morning Anthony kicks himself for having suggested it. He noticed Charity’s blue eyes and lovely hair in the process and now he can’t think of her as a drab mouse any longer – and yet that is what he needs her to be when they reach Enfield. Charity, for her part, cannot believe that Anthony is just as dour and abrupt with her as he was the day before.

But once they arrive in Enfield, Charity is in for worse shocks. The house is palatial and imposing. The housekeeper takes in Charity’s clothing and mistakes her for a servant. But worst of all, the family members are toplofty and cold. Charity immediately senses undercurrents of anger and resentment in the way they treat her husband, and being a kind-hearted meddler, she decides to try and heal this breach.

But can there be mutual forgiveness between Anthony and his siblings? Will Anthony make peace with his ill father before the duke dies? And will he realize what a gem he has in his wife before their temporary marriage comes to an end?

I enjoyed The Temporary Wife immensely though for me at least, this is a book that reflects fantasy at least as much as reality. The premise of a duke’s heir advertising for a wife is quite far-fetched. This was probably the biggest hump I had to get over in the book, but it was not the only one. Still, I can usually go with the flow if something unbelievable is presented from the beginning as the premise of a story.

Doing so wasn’t easy in this case, but after I got over it, I found a thoroughly rewarding emotional journey for the main characters. Charity, although courageous to begin with, comes into a family alienated from its eldest son. Not only does she have to close that rift, she first has to get to know them despite their standoffish exteriors. In the process she discovers that the man she married does have a heart, and that he was badly hurt when the falling out took place. She also, very gradually, falls in love with Anthony.

As for Anthony, while he is a less overtly sympathetic character than Charity, he is fascinating. His expression is often described as “shuttered” and his is the journey of a closed man gradually opening up. He doesn’t believe he needs love, but of course he does need it, and he very gradually allows himself to be convinced of this. His love for Charity also grows in slow steps but once he falls for her, he is head over heels in love, which is all the more satisfying since he began the book pretending (and even convincing himself of) complete indifference to love.

As readers of this review may be able to tell from the above two paragraphs, the growth of the romantic relationship is thoroughly blended with the family’s healing, to a point where it is hard to separate the two. I think the first time I read the book, I wasn’t expecting this and therefore felt it took something away from the romance, but this time I loved this aspect of the book.

Besides the premise, a couple of other things also struck me as difficult to buy. I thought Charity’s boldness in calling the duke “father” rather than “your grace” and interfering in the affairs of such a forbidding and high-in-the-instep family was unlikely given that she came from such a different background, but I was able to suspend disbelief because courage and meddling were presented as integral aspects of her personality.

The other instance involves a spoiler:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Finally, one of the biggest pleasures of this book is the writing, which is sharply observant and true to the characters. In this regard, as well as in the transformation of Anthony and his family from joylessness to joy, I feel that this book is one of your strongest. Despite its imperfections, The Temporary Wife is now among my favorites of your books. B+/A-.

Sincerely,

Janine

PS The Temporary Wife has been reprinted in a 2-in-1 edition with A Promise of Spring. While The Temporary Wife is a DA Recommended Read, A Promise of Spring is not.

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Related posts:

1. REVIEW: The Famous Heroine by Mary Balogh
2. REVIEW: The Plumed Bonnet by Mary Balogh
3. REVIEW: A Masked Deception by Mary Balogh

When I reviewed The Nonesuch a few months ago during Sourcebooks’ summer Heyer sale, I mentioned in passing that I really wanted to review Sprig Muslin, but it hadn’t been digitized yet. Now it is, so as promised, here’s a review.

This book wasn’t in my Top 10 Heyer Regencies during the first decade or so that I read her (that would be my teens and early twenties). It was too slow and too rural, and the hero and heroine weren’t exciting enough. I was totally a These Old Shades, Devil’s Cub, and Frederica kind of girl. But as I reread it in later years, I grew to appreciate the quiet humor. I especially came to love Lady Hester, the plain spinster heroine, and it’s become one of my very favorite Heyers.

Sprig Muslin chronicles the romance of Lady Hester Theale, the aging, on-the-shelf daughter of a gaming-mad Earl, and Sir Gareth Ludlow, one of Heyer’s patented top-of-the-trees, Corinthian heroes. Having reached his mid-thirties and lost his only brother at Salamanca, Sir Gareth accepts that he has to marry and produce heirs. But since losing his beautiful and much beloved fiancée in a riding accident a decade agp, he believes he is unable to offer a wife love. He chooses Hester, an old friend, over younger and more beautiful candidates because he thinks that marriage to him will be better for her than her current life as a general dogsbody for her father and her siblings’ families. But Hester shocks everyone, not least Sir Gareth, when she turns him down:

“I can offer you a position of the first consequence. You would be at no one’s beck and call, you would be your own mistress—with a husband who, I promise you, would not make unreasonable demands of you. You may be sure that I should always attend to your wishes, and hold you in respect as well as affection. Would that not mean a happier life than the one you now lead?”

Her face was very white; she pulled her hand away, saying in a stifled voice: “No—anguish!”

This seemed so strange a thing for her to have said that he thought he could not have heard her aright. “I beg your pardon?” he said blankly.

She had moved away from him in some agitation, and said now, with her back turned to him: “I didn’t mean it— don’t heed it! I say such foolish things! Pray forgive me! I am so deeply grateful to you! Your wife will be the happiest of females, unless she is a monster, and I do hope you won’t marry a monster! If only I could find my handkerchief!”

Gareth’s proposal visit to Brancaster is complicated by his meeting with Amanda, a lovely sixteen-year-old who has run away from home in order to compel her grandfather to agree to her marriage to a serving officer who is a younger son. She refuses to tell Gareth her name or address, and he cannot leave her on her own, so he takes her with him, to the consternation of Hester’s family (but not Hester). When Amanda runs away, Gareth must postpone any attempt to persuade Hester to change her mind and go after her. In the meantime Amanda has found a younger and more credulous knight-errant, and an accident occurs when Gareth catches up to them. When they can’t think of anyone else to turn to, the panicked and guilt-stricken pair beseech Hester to come and nurse Gareth until he recovers.

Gareth can’t be moved, so the four wind up in an inn in a tiny village, isolated from their families and friends and with their whereabouts unknown. This suits Amanda perfectly, because her grandfather won’t be able to find her and thus will submit to her ultimatum. Hester has her hands full caring for Gareth, and she isn’t averse to being cut off from her usual life for a while. As Gareth recovers, he sees a different side to Hester, and his feelings of friendship deepen into something else:

Lady Hester emerged from her hiding-place, her cap now wildly askew. Sir Gareth lay back against his pillows, watching her, a question behind the brimming laughter in his eyes.

“Gareth!” said Hester, in an awed voice. “You must own that Amanda is wonderful! I should never have thought of saying I was your natural sister!”

He was shaking with laughter, his hand pressed instinctively to his hurt shoulder. “No? Nor I, my dear!”

Suddenly she began to laugh too. “Oh, dear, of all the absurd situations—! I was just thinking how W—Widmore would l—look if he knew!”

The thought was too much for her. She sat down in the Windsor chair, and laughed till she cried. Mopping her streaming eyes at last, she said: “I don’t think I have ever laughed so much in all my life. But I must say, Gareth, there is one thing about this new story of Amanda’s which I cannot like!”

“Oh, no, is there?” he said unsteadily.

“Yes,” she said, sober again. “It was not well done of Amanda to make up such a tale about your father. For he was a most excellent person, and it seems quite dreadful to be slandering him! Really, Gareth, you should have denied it!”

“I assure you, he would have delighted in the story, for he was blessed with a lively sense of humour,” Sir Gareth replied. He looked at her, a glimmer in his eyes, and a smile quivering on his lips. “Do you know, Hester, in all these years I have held you in esteem and regard, yet I never knew you until we were pitchforked into this fantastic imbroglio? Certainly Amanda is wonderful! I must be eternally grateful to her!”

There’s not a lot of plot to this story. Gareth offers for Hester and is turned down; Amanda runs away to force her grandfather to bend to her will; Gareth is injured and must be nursed back to health. Amanda’s knight-errant, Hildebrand, stays a friend because Amanda is unshakeably devoted to her Brigade-Major.

But what the novel lacks in plot it makes up for in characterizations. Amanda could have been intensely annoying, but her determination and her commitment are admirable. Hildebrand, Hester’s family, and the innkeeper and his sister are portrayed with Heyer’s usual deft touch. The book is chock full of sparkling dialogue, and it is relatively free of the cant that Heyer loved so much.

Best of all, though, is the way the romance unfolds. There is nothing external (apart from Gareth’s injury) that drives the couple together or apart. Hester is truly a plain-Jane, downtrodden spinster when we meet her, but she blossoms away from her family. Heyer shows us her wit, humor, and intelligence, all of which Hester has suppressed during years of living with her unsympathetic, uninterested, unimaginative family. In the end, she gets Gareth on her terms, not his.

Gareth is saved from being unbearably arrogant at the beginning of the novel by his innate decency; his assumption that the best Hester can do is a loveless marriage is harsh but probably true, and he genuinely believes that his ability to fall in love died with his fiancée.

By the end of the story, Heyer convinces us not only that the handsome and sought-after Gareth can fall in love with someone like Hester, but that she is the ideal person for him at this point in his life. And she does this not by turning Hester into a different woman or by demonizing his late fiancée but by revealing to us and to Gareth the wonderful woman who has been trapped under that spinster exterior.

Grade: A-

~ Sunita

Note: this book is currently $1.99 at Amazon

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo

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2. REVIEW: Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
3. REVIEW: Sylvester by Georgette Heyer

 During the nine-week holiday period ending December 31, 2011, NOOK unit sales, including NOOK Simple Touch(TM), NOOK Color(TM) and the new NOOK Tablet(TM), increased 70% over the same period last year. Sales of NOOK Tablet exceeded expectations, while sales of NOOK Simple Touch lagged expectations, indicating a stronger customer preference for color devices.

Digital content sales also grew briskly during the same nine-week period, increasing 113% on a comparable basis. Content sales are defined to include digital books, digital newsstand, and the rapidly growing apps business.

…..

In order to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK digital business, and its favorable leadership position in the expanding market for digital content, the Company has decided to pursue strategic exploratory work to separate the NOOK business.

Kobo sold to Ratuken for $315 million on much lower sales:

Kobo’s sales were C$40.9m in the 13 weeks to 1st October, leading to a loss of $10.8m, compared with sales of C$13m and a loss of C$6.8m. In the half-year to 1st October 2011, Kobo had sales of C€58m leading to a loss of C$23.4m.

I’m not sure what the assets are of a physical component of BN.  The leases?   The spin off and ultimate sale may make the most financial sense to the shareholders of BN, primarily the Riggio family.  I thought this article about how BN is the Best Buy of retail book sales was really illuminating.

I’m not convinced that the Barnes & Noble stores are a net asset. They currently operate near breakeven or a little below. Is it going to get any easier to make money in book retail in the next few years in a soft economy? I just don’t see it.

*****

BN needs to move internationally sooner than later. According to The Gadget Website, over a million ereaders were sold in the UK over the holidays, with 92% of them being Amazon.

*****

Hachette announced that digital sales for James Patterson grew by 2 million in the past seven months versus 4.7 million for print sales.

*****

Brilliance Audio, owned by Amazon, is pulling its digital titles out of the library lending market.  Privately, I heard that agents of popular authors are pushing for this (as well as DRM).

ffective January 31, 2012, as instructed by the publisher, BrillianceAudio will suspend the availability of all download audiobook titles for library purchase across all vendors. This change does not affect any titles currently in your library’s catalog. You will not, however, be able to add any additional copies.

*****

This is a strangely documented account of an interview with Kelly Gallagher of Bowker.  Essentially, Nook is growing in market share over Kindle and print still dominates with over 86% of all sold titles in print. Gallagher said that the publishers hopes are that lower prices equal more purchases but they aren’t seeing it yet (I guess for hardcovers) :

And the bet that retail and publishing are taking is that … people ultimately will buy more. At this point, we see it as more units, but because of (e-books’) lower price point and not significantly more units, we see more cannibalization going on, or substitution purchasing, vs. them suddenly now buying twice as much as they used to buy in print.

*****

Price is a big deal for readers, both digital and print. As a reader, it’s easier to pay print prices because the print book has utility beyond the read. You can resell, trade it, share it, or even give it away.  It has some shelf value as well.  Digital books with their limitations on sharing, trading, resale, and the like, have much less utility and there is no palpable extra utility thus digital books valued lower by readers.  This lower value expectation has been driving the price of books down.  The question I have (and to which I don’t have the answer to) is whether sub $4 prices (which is where I think consumer expectations will settle) is sustainable. Valve co founder Gabe Newell sat down to talk about Steam, the cloud based video gaming platform.  Newell argues that piracy is not a pricing issue but a service issue:

One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates. For example, Russia. You say, oh, we’re going to enter Russia, people say, you’re doomed, they’ll pirate everything in Russia. Russia now outside of Germany is our largest continental European market.

Steam has also done a ton of pricing experiments from which they’ve derived some interesting data (discounted promotions do better than free promotions which I’ve wondered about before).

Promotions on the digital channel increased sales at retail at the same time, and increased sales after the sale was finished, which falsified the temporal shifting and channel cannibalization arguments. Essentially, your audience, the people who bought the game, were more effective than traditional promotional tools.

His conclusion is that they aren’t sure of anything yet but that they will keep experimenting.  This is really a must read article.

*****

Deals

Nicole from BlogHappy alerted me to the fact that a number of traditional regency authors are republishing their backlists digitally. The following is a small selection of them priced at $.99.

• A Gamble on Love by Blair Bancroft * 0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Lady Silence by Blair Bancroft * 0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• The Temporary Earl by Blair Bancroft * 0.99 * A | BN | K | S
• Scandalous Virtue by Brenda Hiatt * 0.99 * A | BN | K | S
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Recently The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet were rereleased together in a 2-in-1 edition after many years out of print, and I reviewed and recommended The Famous Heroine. That book left me wanting to know more about Alistair, Duke of Bridgewater, one of the hero’s friends.

In The Famous Heroine Alistair, having seen three of his friends trapped into marriage or married under false pretenses, determines to avoid the parson’s mousetrap. The Plumed Bonnet begins several years later, and Alistair is on his way to London for the season.

Along the road Alistair spies a “bird of paradise” in a fuchsia cloak and a plumed pink bonnet. The lady, who is surely no lady, begs for a ride atop the carriage with the groom and coachman. She is trying to reach Hampshire on foot. Alistair, bored with his mistresses and with his loveless life, decides that she might as well ride inside the carriage and entertain him.

And indeed the tall tale she feeds him is immensely amusing. According to the brightly plumed bird, her name is Stephanie Gray and she is a governess who recently came into a considerable fortune. Sindon Park, the estate that belonged to her grandfather, was left to Stephanie though she and her parents were estranged from the rest of the family. The will stipulates that Stephanie must marry within four months to a man of whom the solicitor and her grandfather’s nephew approve, or lose Sindon Park.

Since her employers were unkind and she could not have borne for them to turn obsequious, Stephanie left her workplace early one morning without giving notice in order to make her way to Hampshire and claim her inheritance. On Stephanie’s way there her valise was stolen, and unfortunately most of her money was in it. Now Stephanie is penniless and at Alistair’s mercy, as well as grateful for his kindness. If only she could repay him!

Alistair, who introduces himself only as Alistair Munro and allows Stephanie to assume he is a mere mister, is thoroughly entertained and strangely attracted to the woman whose tale he cannot swallow. He can think of a way that she can repay him, and resolves to take her all the way to Hampshire, providing her with food and shelter along the way, in order to see her squirm when her lies are disproved. Afterward, he will take her to London and set her up as his mistress.

But Stephanie’s outlandish tale happens to be true. She came by the cloak and bonnet from a troupe of actors traveling in the opposite direction, and took them because she had no other bonnet and cloak – hers had been stolen along with her valise and money. Stephanie has just one coin left and Hampshire is distant. She is hungry, cold, and after spending the night out of doors she knows she will not survive without a ride.

Stephanie is beyond grateful to Alistair, the only person who has treated her with kindness and respect, rather than leering or revulsion. When they reach Hampshire, she tells him that if it comes out that she spent days in his company unchaperoned, she will surely be considered compromised. She asks him to set her down to walk to Sindon Park, so that he will not be trapped into marrying her, but Alistair insists that for her own safety, he must see her to the door.

Of course, once there, Alistair realizes that Stephanie is exactly what she said she was and he has sprung the parson’s mousetrap on himself. He is not required to marry her, but she will likely be ruined unless he does. Honor dictates he offer himself, and reveal that he is really a duke….

The Plumed Bonnet is a story of misleading appearances, personal insecurities, and misunderstandings. Even after the initial misapprehension caused by the plumed bonnet is cleared up, there are others to sort out. Stephanie and Alistair are at first unsure that their betrothal isn’t a mistake, that Stephanie is cut out for the role of duchess, and most importantly, what it is they want from a spouse.

Part of the problem is that Stephanie, who would have died on the road to Hampshire if Alistair hadn’t stopped to pick her up, feels so indebted to Alistair for his generosity and kindness, and for treating her with respect when no one else would. Her indebtedness makes the relationship between them unequal, so it’s not until the truth of Alistair’s motivations comes out that they can begin to forge a partnership.

The book also explores a theme that was prominent in one of your most beloved books, Slightly Dangerous, that of a conflict between propriety and free spirits. In fact, once Alistair’s past was revealed, I saw some similarities between him and Wulfric, Duke of Bewcastle, the hero of Slightly Dangerous.

I was impressed that Alistair was in no way diminished by this comparison, and in fact, he is one of your best heroes IMO. Even when he mistook Stephanie for an actress or a kept woman, he still treated her better than anyone else did, and although he initially told himself he was marrying her for honor’s sake, the truth was more complex. In the last quarter of the book, Alistair makes a couple of very romantic gestures that made me sigh with satisfaction.

As for Stephanie, while I was totally on her side at the beginning of the book, in the middle section I felt she was a bit too prickly. While Alistair made one or two blunders, they didn’t seem like enough to merit Stephanie’s coldness. But I also understood why Stephanie’s feelings of indebtedness and the attempts on Alistair’s mother’s behalf to mold her into a duchess made her feel resentful.

The exploration of the way gratitude can actually create a negative dynamic was unusual and interesting, and I appreciated that there were no true villains in the story, just human beings who made mistakes and came to regret them.

A significant flaw in the book was that while the beginning and ending were riveting, the middle didn’t create the same level of suspense in me. Still, the last quarter (but for a jarring note in the final scene) was so romantic that I closed the book feeling happy and contented. B+.

~Janine

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1. REVIEW: The Famous Heroine by Mary Balogh
2. REVIEW: A Chance Encounter by Mary Balogh
3. REVIEW: Red Rose by Mary Balogh

Who knew you could be this funny?

Cora Downes is the titular heroine of this 1996 book, now being rereleased in a 2-in-1 volume with The Plumed Bonnet, as well as (to borrow a phrase from the back cover copy on my old Signet edition) a fish out of water in London society.

Cora is the daughter of a very wealthy merchant, and when she saves a duke’s young heir from drowning, the child’s grateful grandmother, the Duchess of Bridgewater, asks Cora to allow her to convey her thanks by bringing Cora to London for a season. The duchess wants to help Cora snag a gentleman for a husband, and Cora, excited by the prospect of hobnobbing with the ton, agrees.

Trouble is that farce is Cora’s close companion. The child she “saved” from drowning, for example, was perfectly capable of swimming on his own. At her first London ball, Cora, at the insistence of one of the duchess’s daughters, wears slippers a size too small. Just when she is about to be introduced to Lord Francis Kneller, Cora trips over her pinched feet so that Francis has to catch her in his arms. Thus begins an unlikely friendship.

Lord Francis Kneller was the main reason I wanted to read this book. Francis appeared in the prequel, Lord Carew’s Bride, where he was one of society beauty Samantha Newman’s many male friends. Elegant and dapper, Francis was stunned when Samantha, who had chosen to remain unmarried for years, announced that she was marrying the plain Marquess of Carew. That was the only occasion on which Francis blurted out his feelings for Samantha. But when he realized she loved Carew, he not only pretended to have feigned his upset, but acted as Carew’s second when Carew defended his wife’s honor.

Now Samantha is expecting a child with Carew, and the lovelorn Francis is depressed. When his friend the Duke of Bridgewater asks Francis to dance with Miss Cora Downes in order to aid her acceptance by society, Francis, who is considered a discerning trend-setter for the courting of society beauties, agrees.

But Cora does not realize how sought-after a suitor Francis is. And because he wears a turquoise coat, Cora thinks of him as a peacock. She quickly comes to like Francis, but his love of wearing colors like lavender, lemon, puce and pink, and something that her brother once told her about men who dress this way, cause Cora to jump to the conclusion that Francis must be gay.

This then, is a friends-to-lovers story with a twist. Francis and Cora each delight in the other’s company, but neither of them believes there could ever be anything romantic between them, and not just because Francis’s birth is higher than that of any man whom Cora could hope to marry. Francis believes himself in love with Samantha, and Cora thinks of Francis as a man who doesn’t swing that way.

And yet, even as they believe that they could never do so, they both fall in love. It is a delight to watch their friendship bloom because these two know how to be honest with each other and how to make one another laugh, and because it is clear that they are both good for each other.

Whether Cora is unable to dance any more due to her too-small slippers, whether she’s jumping out of Francis’s phaeton to try and save poodles from being trampled by a horse, or whether she fears she will pass out on being introduced to Prinny, Lord Francis is always there in the nick of time.

And whether Francis is feeling down in the doldrums due to his loss of Samantha or merely bored with the fashionable world, Miss Downes and her latest escapade is always the best medicine for his melancholy or ennui. Whether it’s poodles being saved or a child’s hat being chased, how can Francis resist Cora any better than he can a turquoise coat?

Both characters are charming. Francis is an interesting mixture of cynical and gallant, perceptive and able to laugh at Cora’s foibles. His bright coats signal that he is secure enough in himself to thumb his nose at what others think, which makes him perfect for the quirky Cora.

Cora is klutzy and occasionally clueless, but her impulse toward heroism stems from empathy and she is self-aware and able to laugh at herself. She is terrified of dukes and royalty, but is the kind of person who would not hesitate to throw herself in the path of a carriage to save a kitten. Her bravery and her gallantry, misguided though they are, along with her ability to see the humor in her mistakes, make her loveable and delightful.

The theme that appearances can be deceiving, a central one to many of your books, lends The Famous Heroine both humor and heart. When Cora learns that gay men can just as easily dress in sober colors and be big and brawny, she is embarrassed by her thoughtless stereotyping. But Cora herself is in danger of being stereotyped for her own tall, voluptuous appearance. And Francis, whose first thought on seeing her was that she belongs in a green room, greeting would-be “protectors,” grows genuinely protective of Cora.

There is also an entertaining role-reversal in that Cora is, in her way, just as protective of her friend Francis. If someone wants to impugn the way he dresses, Cora thinks, “just let them” and she will show that person a thing or two. And Francis has much the same thoughts about anyone who would in any way trespass against Cora.

There is a deliberate silliness to this book, with elements of farce, screwball comedy and even a little slapstick. Occasionally the balance tips in the wrong direction and it is hard to take Cora and Francis seriously as a romantic couple, especially since it takes Francis too long to realize that he is over Samantha. And yet, at other times, there is an underlying poignancy to this story of two vulnerable people who shelter each other from harm, and it is easy to see why Cora and Francis charm one another so much.

As I was reading The Famous Heroine, I thought about the nature of bravery and heroism, about the way appearances and quick judgments can mislead, and about the role that loyalty and friendship play in romantic relationships. I also laughed my head off several times. B+ for The Famous Heroine.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

Note: The Famous Heroine was reprinted in a duet with The Plumed Bonnet which is not a recommended read. The buy links are for the book that is widely available. The Famous Heroine was originally published by Signet in 1996 and it’s 10 digit ISBN is 0451187733.

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2. REVIEW: The Trysting Place by Mary Balogh
3. JOINT REVIEW: A Christmas Promise by Mary Balogh

Sylvester Rayne, Duke of Salford, is looking for a wife, but is horrifying his mother with the bloodless, passionless way he’s going about the search. She casually mentions her (deceased) best friend’s daughter, so Salford decides to check her out. Phoebe is not at her best in social situations, especially around her scary step-mother, so when Salford meets her (again — they met once during Phoebe’s season the previous year), he is unimpressed and can’t wait to get away. Phoebe, however, mistakenly thinks that Salford will definitely propose to her, and so runs away with her best (male) friend during a snow storm. Tom, however, breaks his leg on the flight, and Salford comes to his and Phoebe’s rescue (it makes sense in the book — that its ridiculous is part of the point). They spend a week together, snowed in at an out-of-the-way inn, becoming friends. Salford then helps Phoebe get to London when they’re discovered. There they set up a flirtation, until the truth of Phoebe’s book comes out.

After her utterly unsuccessful season, Phoebe wrote an utterly improbably gothic novel that also happened to be a roman a clef. It’s published when she and Sylvester are at the height of their flirtation and takes the ton by storm. She used Sylvester as her villain because of his villainous eyebrows and because of his abominable pride. If there’s one thing wrong with this book, it’s how many times the characters and the narrator attempt to describe exactly what’s wrong with Sylvester’s pride. They go on and on and ON and it’s almost like Heyer doesn’t *quite* have a handle on it or was trying to convince herself that Sylvester’s pride was actually wrong. That pride is damaged by Phoebe’s book and he confronts Phoebe in public, ruining her.

Much like Charlotte Bronte who unwittingly dedicated Jane Eyre to William M. Thackeray who had a mad wife hidden in his attic, Phoebe coincidentally gave her villain a young child as a ward who is completely under his control. Sylvester’s deceased brother’s son is his ward and completely under his control. Sylvester, of course, is nothing like Phoebe’s villain, and loves his nephew, but Phoebe’s book gives Sylvester’s sister-in-law the idea to spirit her son away to France. The book turns into a road romance at this point, with all the character careening around the countryside of France. But it’s hysterical, character driven, brilliantly plotted, and so perfectly done.

I adored this story on reread. It’s always been one of my favorite of Heyer’s books, but I fell into it and just didn’t come out until I was done, even though I knew exactly what was happening. Most of all, I love how Sylvester and Phoebe fall in love:

His sense of humour, too, was lively: often if a fatuous remark were uttered, or someone behaved in a fashion so typical as to be ludicrous, Phoebe would look instinctively toward him, knowing that he must be sharing her amusement. It was strange how the dullest party could be enjoyed because there was one person present whose eyes could be met for the fraction of a second, in wordless appreciation of a joke unshared by others: almost as strange as the insipidity of parties at which that person was not present.

This is one of Heyer’s more romantic books — of course, it’s still Heyer, so “more romantic” means that love is, in fact, mentioned at some point. But still, the understatedness of Sylvester when

looked around quickly, and saw her. Something leaped in his eyes; she had the impression that he was going to start towards her. But the look vanished in a flash, and he did not move.

doesn’t make it any less powerful for all that. And the climax and denouement of the book are among the most romantic Heyer wrote: “O God, Mama, I’ve made such a mull of it. What am I to do?”.

This book is one I recommend for conversion kits. It’s not too heavily filled with Regency cant, like Cotillion, the characters are brilliant, the story is delightful, and the scenes with Edmund and both the button and the tassels are just not to be missed.

Grade: A

Next up, a visit by Sabrina Jeffries, and we’ve added Venetia to the syllabus for the last class! So you get one more review out of me.

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Cotillion shows up on “Favorite Heyer book” lists all the time, and I never really understood why. I mean, I’d read it, of course — I read (almost) all of Heyer’s historical romances. But in the sub-sub-genre of Regency romance that Cotillion belonged to (not smart heroes), I preferred Friday’s Child. But I assigned Cotillion because other people apparently loved it so much. And I’m glad I did, because it meant I had to read it again. And I loved it.

Kitty Charing is a penniless orphan. She’s lived her entire life with the friend of her father who is exceptionally wealthy but utterly miserly. She has no money of her own and Uncle Matthew feels obligated to leave his money to someone in his family. So he invites all his grand-nephews (who are of age and unmarried) to come to visit and offer for Kitty and Uncle Matthew will leave his money to the grand-nephew who marries Kitty. This way Kitty is provided for and the money stays in the family.

Three cousins show up, only two of whom are eligible: Lord Dolphington, an Earl who is slightly mentally retarded (there’s a throw-away line about him being a seven-month babe), and the Reverend Hugh Rattray. Hugh’s brother is also there, to bring Hugh up to scratch, but he’s married and Uncle Matthew doesn’t like him. Three cousins are missing. One’s in the Army of Occupation and we never hear from him. One is Freddy, the heir to a Viscountcy and himself not the brightest candle in the wall sconce. The other is Jack, the dashing and bold man-about-town who Kitty has loved for years. She’s furious that Jack didn’t show up, so runs away in pique. She meets Freddy at the local inn, partaking of dinner before he shows up at Uncle Matthew’s. She convinces him to fake an engagement so she can go to London — just for a month. She wants to make Jack jealous and realize what he’s missing.

So, she goes to London…and unwittingly falls in love with Freddy and he with her, thoroughly overturning Jack’s plans.

I asked my students what Kitty and Freddy learn, and we found something, but it’s so slight: she learns what a true hero is; he learns to grow up a bit. And although this isn’t profound, it doesn’t have to be. You just adore the characters anyway. And this is an utterly character-driven book. Nothing HAPPENS, but nothing has to happen because you’re having too much fun anyway.

And the characters are constructed in such a way that make the plot happen utterly naturally and perfectly. For example, Dolph is able to find his happiness because Uncle Matthew despises Dolph’s mother. Uncle Matthew’s dislike is set up at the very beginning of the book and seems perfectly natural and just the crotchets of an old, disagreeable man and don’t need to mean anything else. But they do mean something important by the end of the book, but it doesn’t look labored at all.

At the end of the book, there are four happy couples — it’s better than Shakespearean comedy.

But the book really is Freddy’s. He’s ridiculous and his sexuality is questionable (he’s a Pink of the Ton and very much NOT “in the petticoat line”), but he makes an amazing hero because Heyer does such a wonderful job of showing what makes a true hero. Kitty says at one point:

“Freddy is the most truly chivalrous person imaginable! . . . and a great deal more to the purpose than all the people one was taught to revere, like Sir Lancelot, and Sir Galahad, and Young Lochinvar, and — and that kind of man! I daresay Freddy might not be a great hand at slaying dragons, but you may depend upon it none of those knight-errants would be able to rescue one from a social fix, and you must own, Meg, that one has not the smallest need of a man who can kill dragons! And as for riding off with one in the middle of a party, which I have always thought must have been extremly uncomfortable, and not at all the sort of thing one would wish to happen to one — What is the matter?”

Meg raised her head from the sofa-cushions: “He w-would say it was not at all the th-thing!”

“Very well, and why should he not?” said Kitty, refusing to share in her hostess’ unseemly mirth. “If you were to hear of such a thing’s happening, you would think it most improper, now, wouldn’t you?” A sudden thought occured to her, and she choked, and said, in an uncertain tone: “As a matter of fact, he said that Lochinvar sounded to him like a d-dashed loose-screw!”

The Cotillion dance, according to Wikipedia, “The Cotillion is a type of patterned social dance that originated in France in the 18th century and was originally made up of four couples in a square formation . . . Its name, from French cotillon, “petticoat”, reflected the flash of petticoats as the changing partners turned. The Cotillion, of repeated “figures” interspersed with “changes” of different figures to different music, was one of many contredanses where the gathered participants were able to introduce themselves and to flirt with other dancers through the exchange of partners within the formation network of the dance.” This is an exact metaphorical description of the book: flashes of petticoat and couples forming and reforming in order to flirt. As my student said, utterly delightful.

Grade: A

Next up: Sylvester! and a visit from Sabrina Jeffries.

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Related posts:

1. GUEST REVIEW: Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
2. REVIEW: Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
3. GUEST REVIEW in Limerick Form: The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

For two whole weeks everything that happened in the Maynard household revolved around one fact: Felicity was coming home.

So begins The Trysting Place, one of your early, out-of-print trad regencies (and a prequel to The Notorious Rake). I loved the opening of this story, in which we see eighteen year old twins Lucy and Laura acquiring new muslin dresses, Mrs. Maynard telling the housekeeper to use only the best linens throughout the house and Mr. Maynard seeing to his estate so that Felicity would be persuaded of its prosperity.

Felicity has been absent from home for five years, and her parents and sisters are eager to see her. Meanwhile, Felicity (who in a title mishap, is referred to as both "Lady Felicity Wren" and "Lady Wren") is in her carriage, remembering her last few visits to her parents' home. Although she'd been grateful to see her family members doing well, Felicity had found those visits difficult, since the unhappy Felicity had had to convince her parents of her happiness.

Worse than that, Felicity had dreaded running into her old suitor, Tom. Tom and Felicity were childhood friends who fell in love, but one day, the beautiful Felicity was spotted at a ball by an elderly and rich man who proceeded to offer for her. Felicity's parents, on the brink of financial ruin, pleaded with their daughter to accept Sir Wilfred's suit, asking if she could bear to see her family in the poorhouse when she could save them. Though desperately in love with Tom, Felicity married Sir Wilfred.

Sir Wilfred had not been unkind to Felicity, but he was very possessive of her, so now for the first time in eight years she feels free. A wealthy widow, Felicity is determined to conquer society, to be happy, carefree and dazzling, and for that she will need a glamorous husband. The simple country life that would have contented her had she never married Sir Wilfred is no longer enough, and she is grateful she didn't marry Tom, who is surely a dull farmer now.

Tom is indeed a farmer, but even after eight years, he still carries a torch for Felicity. He knows he will always love her, that there is no other woman for him. But he also knows that the world is now Felicity's oyster and it is unlikely that she will return his feelings. He tells himself he will pay a single call on Felicity, and leave it at that.

Of course, things don't go according to Tom and Felicity's plans. Felicity finds Tom charming and dear-’as a friend, or so she tells herself. And Tom finds that as long as Felicity cares for him, even if in a platonic way, he will gladly take what she is willing to give him until she marries another man.

When Felicity's twin sisters persuade Felicity to take them to London with her so they can have a season, Tom decides to accompany their party. He will look out for Felicity as long he can bear to do so, he tells himself. What he does not anticipate is Felicity's infatuation with Edmond, Lord Waite.

Felicity sets her cap for Waite, who is nearly betrothed to another woman and interested in Felicity only as a potential mistress. She can change Lord Waite's mind, Felicity is sure, if Tom will help her by making Edmond jealous-

I thought the beginning of this book was quite promising, since I started out feeling for both Tom and Felicity. I could see that Felicity had done a number on herself where Tom was concerned. While married to Sir Wilfred she could not have Tom, so she convinced herself that Tom would not have made a good husband for her. Her self-delusion had been a coping mechanism, so in the first third of The Trysting Place Felicity had my complete sympathy.

Fans of The Notorious Rake should know that Edmond, Lord Waite is portrayed somewhat differently from the way he comes across in that book; here he is colder and more high in the instep, which makes him a good foil to Tom. Tom is a wonderful character, warmer, more loving and far more devoted to Felicity than Edmond (based on his depiction in this book alone) could ever be, but Felicity is blind both to Tom's true value and to Tom's feelings for her.

Felicity doesn't understand her own emotions either, and so she gives the two men mixed signals and strings them both along. Somewhere along the way my patience with Felicity began to dwindle. I had tremendous sympathy for the suffering Tom, who was truly a jewel, and, because I had read The Notorious Rake first, though it was published later, I even felt some sympathy for Edmond. Felicity's confusing and tormenting of the two men went on so long that I became exasperated with her.

It was hard to believe Felicity could remain as blind as she was for as long as she did, so her portrayal did not ring true. It didn't help that she was also a virgin widow, which is not one of my favorite romance tropes. To top it all off, though twenty-six, she didn't have half the maturity of her eighteen year old sisters, and struck me as a flighty, neglectful chaperone.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

London life is frequently contrasted with life in the country and found wanting in The Trysting Place. It is implied over and over that country life is more meaningful; one would get the impression from reading this book that with the exception of a few side characters, only superficial gossips and snobs inhabited Regency London, while people in the country had more substance.

Perhaps this was intended to reinforce that Felicity's valuing of London life with Edmond over country life with Tom is wrongheaded, but as a city dweller, I dislike these stereotypes. As an aside here, why is it that so many books hold up country life as somehow superior to life in a city?

It may sound from this review like I did not enjoy the book at all, but that would not be true. I loved the character of Tom and I loved the moving beginning of the story. I also enjoyed the secondary storylines involving Felicity's two twin sisters, Lucy and Laura. There was an especially nice chapter in which something happens to each twin which she does not expect.

Felicity's younger brother Adrian, a prankster, was also a delightful character. In actuality so many parts of this book were so very well written (I bookmarked several pages I liked with post-it notes) that my frustration stems from my feeling that this book could have been truly great.

We've all read books in which the hero takes for granted the heroine who has loved him for years, while being dazzled by a more glamorous beauty. The Trysting Place takes that trope and reverses the genders, and I think the results could have been amazing if Felicity had been portrayed more consistently and believably.

Weighing the weakness of Felicity's characterization against the strengths of Tom, the side characters, and the powerful opening scenes, I have decided that for me, The Trysting Place was a mixed bag and a C/C+ read.

Sincerely,

Janine

Book Link | Amazon

This is an expensive OOP book costing upwards near $30+ for a used copy.
Publisher: Signet (June 4, 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451143000
ISBN-13: 978-0451143006

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Sunita: I thought I had read this book before but when I picked it up a couple of months ago, I realized it was new to me. The synopsis made me think it was similar to Georgette Heyer's A Civil Contract, which is one of my favorites among her novels, but it's not very romantic. The book does share some plot similarities, but the tone is quite different.

Janine: A Christmas Promise is a marriage of convenience story, a Christmas celebration story, and also a story that deals with grieving. It begins when Randolph Pierce, Earl of Falloden, receives a visit from Mr. Joseph Transome, a successful coal merchant.

Randolph has recently inherited the earldom, and with it the country home in which he grew up. Grenfell Park is mortgaged to the hilt, and Randolph has refused to sell it in order to pay off this and the other debts which his cousin, the previous earl, ran up.

Mr. Transome has purchased all of Randolph's debts, and he offers Randolph the following bargain: he will cancel all of Randolph's debts and settle half his enormous fortune on Randolph, if Randolph will marry his only daughter.

Randolph immediately balks at the notion of marrying a stranger, and the daughter of a "cit." He is in love with Miss Dorothea Lovestone, though he cannot afford to offer for her. He asks the coal merchant for more time, but Transome replies that that is time is the one thing he does not have. Although Randolph does not immediately realize it, Joseph Transome is dying.

The frail Mr. Transome grants Randolph a mere 24 hours to think over his offer, and after drinking himself to a near-stupor, Randolph realizes he has little choice unless he wants to sell Grenfell Park, which he cannot bear to do. The next day he tells Mr. Transome that he will agree to marry his daughter Eleanor.

Mr. Transome is pleased, though he stipulates two more conditions: The union must be consummated on the wedding night, and Randolph must reside with his new wife for the first year of their marriage.

Meanwhile, Eleanor Transome is at least as repelled by the thought of marrying an earl as Randolph is at the notion of allying himself with a coal merchant's daughter. Not only has Eleanor been rejected by members of the aristocracy in the past, despite her finishing school manners, but she is also in love with someone else: her second cousin, Wilfred.

But Wilfred, a shipping company clerk, has written Eleanor that he cannot in good conscience marry her while his prospects are so poor, nor ask her to wait for his circumstances to improve. Since Wilfred has left her no hope of a marriage between them, Eleanor agrees to fulfill her father's dying wish by marrying Randolph.

Randolph and Eleanor's first meeting does not go well. Eleanor believes Randolph is a spendthrift and gambler who has wasted his own fortune and will do the same to her father's, while Randolph thinks Eleanor is ambitious and grasping in her pursuit of a title.

It does not help Randolph's perception that Eleanor, conscious of her father's physical suffering, barely touches the dying man, and that self-consciousness makes her stiff in Randolph's presence. Randolph believes his soon-to-be bride is cold, and when Mr. Transome assures Randolph that in time he will see that Eleanor is the greatest of all the treasures Transome has bestowed on him, Randolph refrains from saying that he cannot imagine such thing will ever come to pass.

Nonetheless, the two young people marry and the wedding night scene is both surprising and memorable. Mary Balogh is a master, in my opinion, at depicting the evolution of a couple's relationship in the progression of the ways they make love. The sex scenes in her books can sometimes be strange or even uncomfortable to read, but they are also memorable and very effective at showing the nature of the couple's feelings toward one another. The angry sex between Randolph and Eleanor is both painful and oddly pleasurable, and it shocks both of them.

The next day, Eleanor goes to her father's house and remains there until Joseph's death. Before her father dies she does her best to give him assurances she does not believe about her husband and her marriage, and in turn, Eleanor's father extracts a promise from her. She is not to mourn him for long, and she is to celebrate Christmas with all the joy she is capable of.

But will Eleanor be able to keep her Christmas promise when she has not even be able to cry all the tears trapped inside her at the loss of her only remaining and loving parent? How can she evince joy at Christmas when she learns that Randolph was in love with Dorothea Lovestone, and that he is rumored to be keeping a mistress?

Will it be possible for Eleanor to celebrate the holiday when Randolph suspects she is too cold to mourn her father, and when he has invited four lonely gentlemen to share the holiday with them, one of whom Eleanor has reason to despise? Can Christmas be anything but fraught with conflict, when Eleanor has invited twenty of her boisterous middle class relatives to Grenfell Park at the same time and when Wilfred arrives with them, uninvited?

Will all these obstacles make Christmas at Grenfell Park an inescapable disaster? Or will a Christmas miracle enable Randolph and Eleanor to see each other with new eyes, and heal the breach between them?

Sunita: Your summary perfectly illustrates how much this book is and is not like Heyer's. The similarities are there: Rich Cit buys impoverished nobleman for cultured daughter, both must learn to live with each other. But even apart from the wedding-night sex scene, which I found intense and surprising, and the greater level of sexual tension and awareness, there are key differences. For one thing, Eleanor is beautiful. More importantly, while Mr. Transome sets the plot in motion and his memory shapes events in the book, he is not physically present for most of it, allowing Balogh to concentrate on the romance at the core of the story.

Janine: As I mentioned above, I approached rereading A Christmas Promise with some trepidation because it's rare for a book to have the same intense emotional impact on me on rereading that it had the first time. I remembered my first reading of A Christmas Promise as magical, and I wasn't sure that lightning would strike twice for me with this book.

Imagine my delight when the book proved to be as magical and seamless as I remembered. It was such a beautiful reading experience for me that I can't keep from describing it in metaphors and saying that it has the crystalline sparkle of snow; the sharp, stark, melancholy beauty of a deep winter twilight; the warmth and sweetness of a hot mug of cocoa, and the deep emotion of holiday music.

Sunita: I agree that this is a beautifully written book. Many of Balogh's earlier and very good novels are light on dialogue but very heavy on introspection and internal monologues. In this book, where the hero and heroine are thrown together and develop an unwilling attraction, this lets us see their feelings develop and uses their sharp words toward each other sparingly.

Janine: You make a great point. Let's discuss the characters.

Randolph isn't always good to Eleanor, but I found him sympathetic because it was clear from early on, when he showed her father compassion, that he had a good heart. He starts out making some mistakes, like not comforting Eleanor after her father's death, and seeing his mistress, but he realizes these were mistakes and he rectifies them.

I love the way Eleanor gradually grows on him, and he starts to realize how wrong he was about her. He sees that she has a loving heart, and he wants that love for himself. He's just not sure how to get from point A to point B. But he wants to be a good husband, and by the end of the book, he is everything Eleanor could ask for.

Sunita: I also really liked that Randolph could reevaluate his own behavior and assumptions as he got to know Eleanor. His initial reactions to her father and her family were snobbish and suspicious, but as he spent time with Eleanor and her family, he allowed his greater knowledge to reshape his opinions and feelings. You never feel that Randolph will lose his aristocratic instincts, but at the same time he can see the disadvantages of his upbringing. I thought Balogh hit the balance really well, in that both characters learned from each other without losing their individuality.

Janine: As for Eleanor, boy, I really felt for her despite her outward coldness to Randolph. She loves her father so much and his loss unmoors her. She has a tendency to get defensive and to lash out when hurt but I loved that fighter aspect of her personality. For example when Dorothea Lovestone's mother tells Eleanor about Randolph's mistress, Eleanor finds a way to make Lady Lovestone uncomfortable.

Sunita: Eleanor's relationship with her father had a special poignancy for me, because I am an only child and was extremely close to my father. He died suddenly and unexpectedly, and even though it's been almost ten years, I still miss him terribly. Balogh beautifully captured that sense of rudderlessness that can overwhelm you when you lose someone close to you. I found this aspect of the novel hard to read the first time, and I think I may have skimmed a bit. The second time I was prepared, but wow, it still packs a punch.

Janine: The larger cast of characters is also memorable. There are three other pairings in the book and I enjoyed all of them. Sir Albert Hagley, Randolph's best friend, seemed like a jerk at first but really redeemed himself by the end of the book.

The members of Eleanor's family were wonderful (with the exception of Wilfred) and they showed Randolph and his friends that the middle class has as much to offer them as vice versa. In another book, I might have found something like that unrealistic, but I thought it worked here because the initial snobbery wasn't overcome in an instant.

Sunita: I agree. These aren't people that are going to suddenly become kindred spirits, but they appreciate each other. It helps that everyone seems comfortable with their own class location.

Janine: The theme of mistaken first impressions, which is present in many of Ms. Balogh's books, is so well-executed in this one. Eleanor and Randolph have legitimate reasons to think badly of one another, and it makes sense that they cling to those mistaken first impressions early out of misplaced loyalty to the people they believe they are in love with. But they agree to be civil to each other pretty quickly and they start to give one another the benefit of the doubt shortly after that.

Sunita: Isn't it nice to have characters who mostly behave like thinking adults? They act on a lot of snap judgements and mistaken impressions at the beginning, but they get over them.

Janine: Agreed. Something else I really appreciated was that the book shows the holiday season in all its facets. Yes, it's a time of boisterous celebration and of family closeness for some, but it's also a time of loneliness for others and a time for missing loved ones who are no longer with us.

Sunita: Balogh has a number of books set at Christmas time, and I think she pulls off the tension between loneliness, loss, and the almost obsessive desire to be happy in the holidays better in this book than in most of them. Perhaps it works because the difficult emotions aren't only being experienced by the hero and heroine.

Janine: It's rare for me to enjoy every single page of a book but I did with this one. Still, if I had to pick a favorite scene from A Christmas Promise, it would have to be the last scene. I don't want to give away what happens but suffice to say that I almost emptied my box of tissues when I read it.

Sunita: The last few scenes are incredibly powerful to me. I also liked the scenes in the village, especially in the school.

Janine: For a grade, I'm torn between A- and A. I know there is no such thing as a perfect book, and there are minor nitpicks I could make about this book (for example, it seems doubtful that Randolph, a peer, was really in danger of going to debtor's prison for not repudiating his cousin's debts, and being Jewish, I would not have objected to less of a focus on the story of the birth of Christ), but I was so caught up in the story that I hardly minded these things. Perfect books may not exist, but as holiday reads go, I can't think of one that is closer to perfect.

Sunita: Agreed. I love Christmas stories despite the fact that I'm not Christian. I think the Bethlehem focus felt even stronger because of the birth-death dichotomy. Also, the neat matching up of the secondary characters seemed a bit much. If I hadn't known otherwise, I would have assumed they were sequel bait. But whether it's an A or an A-, it's a real keeper. I am so glad these early Baloghs are being released.

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Lately, after enjoying A Chance Encounter very much and The Wood Nymph to a lesser degree, I've been spending some time reading more of your older traditional regencies. A Masked Deception is your first book. Here is a description of the novel taken from your website:

Margaret, the new Countess of Brampton, is a quiet, demure, dutiful wife by day, an alluring, masked charmer by night. Will Richard, Earl of Brampton, ever discover that the wife he is growing to love and the seductress he finds almost impossible to resist are one and the same?

Margaret fell in love with Richard during a masked ball. He fell for her too, but never knew who she was and wasn’t able to find her again, and when they met unmasked he showed no attraction to her, so Margaret was afraid to reveal she was the one he'd once kissed. Still, several years later Richard proposes to Margaret due to family pressure, thinking she is dull and boring, because she has been behaving very properly in all these years. After the two of them marry, Margaret continues to behave quietly and demurely, while Richard keeps a mistress on the side.

Just when Richard calls it off with the mistress in order to devote himself to his marriage, Margaret's sister Charlotte talks Margaret into wearing a mask to Vauxhall Gardens and meeting her husband there disguised in her old Marie Antoinette costume. Of course, Richard recognizes Margaret as a the charmer he fell for years ago, but not as the woman he married, and begins an affair with his own wife.

Margaret fears discovery but keeps meeting her husband in secret because his lovemaking is so different when she is masked than it is in their marriage bed. He shows her a lot more passion and seduction when he sees her as his lover than when he sees her as his wife, and she does not know that this is because he believes his wife would not want that kind of attention from him.

There is also a subplot about Charlotte who is spending a lot of time with Richard's brother Charles. Charles has a fiancée he hasn’t told the family about, and he asks Charlotte to deter other young women from pursuing him. Unfortunately, Charlotte is in love with Devin, Richard's best friend, but Devin believes she is falling for Charles.

I thought this book had several problems. First, there was a flashback to Richard and Margaret's first meeting at the masked ball and almost nothing happened between them. A stolen kiss and a few sentences exchanged, but in my opinion it was not enough to explain why they couldn’t forget each other years later.

Second, while Margaret suspects Richard of keeping a mistress, she never learns the truth about it, so he is never confronted with his wrongdoing on that score. Margaret’s anger at Richard “cheating” and with her and the difference in his lovemaking only emerges briefly toward the very end of the story.

Third (the biggest problem of all to my mind), Margaret is a very passive character when it comes to her marriage. She only disguises herself at her sister’s insistence and she refuses to wear attractive clothing or style her hair around her husband, out of some principle I didn’t quite understand. Her two personas could have been more interesting had the way she repressed her lively side most of the time been explored in greater depth. But it wasn't, and instead Margaret just came across to me as insipid and even a bit foolish.

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One also has to suspend disbelief that Richard wouldn’t recognize Margaret's scent, voice or anything else about her while sleeping with her when she is in both of her roles, but I probably could have done that if not for all the other problems.

The subplot about Charlotte was entertaining, and as mentioned previously I did enjoy the farcical scenes toward the end of the book, but that just wasn’t enough for me. This is your first novel and I think that shows. I kept wanting to put the book down and in the end, and when I finished it I wasn’t sure why I had kept reading, or whether I had gotten anything out of the experience. Fortunately, many of your later books are far more accomplished, but A Masked Deception gets a D from me.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

This book is out of print.
Publisher: Signet (February 5, 1985)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451134052
ISBN-13: 978-0451134059

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3. REVIEW: Red Rose by Mary Balogh

Your traditional regencies are books I often find interesting even when though they are not always necessarily romantic or sexy to me. That's because the characters have human flaws and weaknesses not often seen in many of today's books. Such is the case with Alex, Viscount Merrick, the hero of The First Snowdrop.

Here’s is a description of the book from your website:

When Viscount Merrick inadvertently compromises plain Anne Parrish, he is obliged to marry her. But he has no intention of living with her or even seeing her again after settling her on his country estate. When he arrives at his grandparents’ home more than a year later for the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, he is enchanted by his first sight of a lovely stranger. Then he realizes that she is his wife….

Merrick, riding alone when the weather turns bad, arrives on Anne’s doorstep seeking shelter from the snowstorm. Anne answers the door herself because she and her brother are about to relocate and have already let the servants go. Anne’s brother is at the pub and gets caught in the storm there, so Anne is alone with Alex, who assumes she is a housemaid. The shy, reticent Anne doesn’t say much to change his misapprehension.

Alex thinks Anne wants to sleep with him so he attempts to kiss her but when she shows some resistance, he immediately stops. When Anne’s brother Bruce shows up the next morning, along with his friend the local vicar, Bruce and the vicar pressure Alex into proposing to Anne, who has been compromised by his mere presence under the same roof.

Alex was about to propose to another young woman, Lorraine, with whom he believed he was in love. Since Lorraine is beautiful and vivacious while Anne is overweight and timid, Alex hopes Anne will refuse his proposal. But Anne, already smitten with Alex mostly on the basis of his good looks and the attention he has shown her, says yes.

After they marry Merrick convinces himself that Anne took advantage of the situation to mislead him and entrap him on purpose. He plots some kind of revenge, but the wedding night turns unexpectedly passionate and pleasurable. The next morning Alex abandons Anne on his estate. He sends her money over the next year and some months but wants nothing to do with her and doesn’t allow her to come to London even to visit a friend.

Meanwhile Anne restores the gardens in Alex's country home. She also loses considerable weight, acquires pretty clothes, allows her maid to style her hair beautifully and blossoms into a beauty, although her life is a lonely one and she wishes she had a real marriage.

In the spring of the second year of their marriage, Anne receives an invitation from Merrick’s grandmother, a duchess, to a family gathering in honor of the grandmother and grandfather’s 50th anniversary. Merrick forbids Anne to attend but his grandmother insists that the duke will send his carriage for Anne regardless so Anne goes, arriving two days ahead of the rest of the family.

Anne hits it off with Merrick’s grandmother and when Merrick arrives, he doesn’t recognize Anne right away. But although Anne is now a beauty, she is still shy and reticent, a bit intimidated by the husband who treats her coldly during the day and passionately at night, and for whom she still has deep feelings.

Alex feels guilty for the way he has treated Anne, but somehow that doesn’t ease his resentment at the way he ended up married to her. He is also jealous of the attention his cousin Jack gives Anne, and partly as a result of that he is alternately warm and cold, drawn to Anne despite himself, unhappy with his attraction to her yet needing her all the same.

As for Anne, she feels helpless to defy Alex until late in the book, but she comes out of her shell around his family, who adore her. Gradually she realizes she deserves more than Alex is giving her, but can she stop loving him?

Of the three of your older traditional regencies which I have read recently, A Masked Deception, Red Rose and this book, The First Snowdrop, this is the one I enjoyed the most. It was a reread for me and I think I even liked it a bit better this time than the first time I read it.

The premise of a pair of strangers trapped into marriage was engaging, especially with Alex’s conflict of having been about to propose to another woman. The characters were much more compelling to me here than in the aforementioned two books. Alex could be a jerk at times, but it was clear he had a good heart under there. Anne was weak-willed at times, and I wished she’d found her spine more times than she did, but I liked the way she came out of her shell and sparkled, and the way Alex’s family member appreciated her endearing qualities so that Alex began to notice all the things he’d overlooked.

Alex's grandmother insisted that Alex and Anne play the leads in a theatrical performance of She Stoops to Conquer which the duchess required her family members to perform, and the parallels between this play and the dynamics of Anne and Alex's relationships were entertaining. I also found a subplot about Alex's cousin Freddie, who was not too intelligent but was blessed with a loving heart, in contrast to the clever but less open-hearted Alex, very touching.

While I wish that Merrick and Anne had communicated better, and that Anne’s love for Alex had been the result of more than his good looks and their passionate wedding night, I still found the book an interesting character study. I was invested in their story and the emotional ending made me cry, so I’d give The First Snowdrop a B-.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

This book is out of print.

• ISBN-10: 0451145933
• Publisher: Signet
• Date: September 2, 1986
• For sale at Amazon and other used book places.

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I've been reading your earlier traditional regencies lately, with varying degrees of enjoyment. So far Dark Angel and A Chance Encounter are the two I have enjoyed most of the ones I've read this year.

I lucked into a copy of Red Rose, one of your out of print books, through Paperbackswap.com. I had high hopes for it because I remembered hearing good things about it from friends years ago.

The following description of the book is taken from your website:

The Earl of Raymore is as determined to marry off his newly acquired ward, Rosalind Dacey, as she is never to marry at all. They hate each other with a passion until they discover a bond in their shared love of music.

Raymore is one of those old skool heroes whom some woman wronged in the past and as a consequence, he decided to hate all women . In Raymore’s case I think it was both his mother and his fiancée whose actions convinced him that all women must be faithless sluts. I rarely have sympathy for misogynistic heroes, no matter the catalysts that got them started on their woman-hating, so I was surprised that you were able to evoke some sympathy for Raymore in me during a flashback scene in which he is painfully in love with his fiancée while she tells him that she doesn't intend on being faithful to any man.

His reaction is to break it off and become a rake, keeping a string of mistresses who prove to him that all women are exactly what he expects them to be. Things change when Raymore inherits Rosalind and her cousin Sylvia, two orphaned young women, from Sylvia’s father who passed away. It’s Raymore’s responsibility to bring them out in society and ensure that they catch good husbands.

Sylvia is excited about her first season but Rosalind wishes she had been allowed to stay in the country. She is disabled due to a leg that healed badly after it was broken in a riding accident when she was a child and she’s convinced no one will want to marry her because of it.

(The novel begins with a carriage scene of Rosalind and Sylvia arriving in London and discussing the mysterious reason Rosalind will not be able to marry unless she finds a man who will overlook her flaw. I was hoping the flaw would turn out to be that Rosalind wasn't a virgin, so that Raymore would be confronted with his greatest aversion, but alas, this was not to be. Rosalind's perceived flaw was her "lame" leg).

Raymore forces Rosalind to submit to having dresses made and plans to have her sit on a sofa rather than dance during her coming out ball, so that she might attract some older man who needs a mother for his children. He is surprised when Rosalind she defies him by crossing the room on the arm of the young and handsome Sir Bernard Crawleigh and flaunting her injury to a scandalized ton.

In fact, Rosalind defies Raymore more than once, and he responds by being dictatorial and oppressive. The two clash over and over, and the only time Rosalind feels at peace is when she is playing the piano and singing. She doesn’t know that Raymore is eavesdropping from a nearby room, and secretly admiring her skilled musicianship.

It isn’t long before Rosalind ends up betrothed to Sir Bernard, but she starts to have second thoughts when her fiancé pressures her to sleep with him before they marry. Raymore supervises Rosalind and Sir Bernard closely, and realizes too late that he wants Rosalind for himself.

Meanwhile, Sylvia has also betrothed herself to a man she doesn’t love, and realizes it after the fact. Can the two young ladies and their guardian untangle themselves from their snarl of mixed feelings before it's too late?

I liked Rosalind, who shows more spirit than many of your heroines and I thought the conflict between her and Raymore had the potential to be exciting. Unfortunately, that potential never fully materialized. Raymore and Rosalind clashed until quite late in the story, and there wasn't much in the way of courtship between them.

One thing I really liked the scenes where Rosalind played the piano and Raymore secretly listened. I felt that they showed that there was a side of him that secretly appreciated Rosalind's spirit and passion even though he would not allow himself to reveal that for most of the book.

I also thought the subplot about Sylvia was mildly amusing and I liked that it showed a hidden facet of Sylvia's character. But I wish that Raymore hadn't taken as long as he did to show his caring side to Rosalind. I liked that side of him very much when it was finally revealed, but by the time it emerged, I didn’t fully root for him, though I did want Rosalind to be happy.

This is one of those books that was a decent way to pass the time but not one I would reread. C for Red Rose.

Sincerely,

Janine Ballard

This book is out of print.
ISBN 10: 0451141571
Pub Date: March 4, 1986
Amazon link: Red Rose

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Dear Ms. Balogh,

Recently I reviewed one of your older traditional regencies, A Chance Encounter. I enjoyed that book immensely, especially considering that it is a quarter century old, so much so that shortly after finishing it, I dug up its sequel, which had been lingering on my TBR shelf for a few years.

The Wood Nymph was published by the Signet Regency line back in January of 1987. It is a hard-to-find, out-of-print book, and now that some of your older books are being reprinted, I hope that it will find its way back to print as well.

The novel opens with a scene in which the Countess of Claymore is discussing with her three daughters the arrival of an eligible bachelor in the neighborhood. Emily, the oldest daughter, is haughty and dignified, focused on the “superior tone” that Mr. William Mainwaring’s presence will add to the neighborhood. Melissa, the middle daughter, is superficial, and therefore more concerned with Mr. Mainwaring’s wealth and appearance. But Helen, the youngest daughter, isn’t concerned with Mr. Mainwaring at all. Instead, she is daydreaming and longing to return to her special place in the woods.

She had not been to her private place there for three whole days, and she was beginning to chafe against the restrictions of home. She knew that Emily was right. She was a grown woman now, and she should be taking an interest in the activities of womanhood. She should be interested in her appearance and in visiting and attending all the social activities that rural living could not offer. She should be interested in finding an eligible husband. She should be joining wholeheartedly in the feminine chatter of her mother and her older sisters. But, oh, she could not.

Her own world, the one she had built up through the years of her girlhood, was still far more attractive to her than she could imagine the real world ever being. Reading and painting and writing could still inspire her with more passion than the prospect of a new gown or ball. And sitting and gazing at nature around her was infinitely more exciting than sitting in the drawing room listening to the polite conversation of her family and the current visitors. She found it all painfully boring and unsatisfying. If matters were left to her, they would never either visit or entertain.

And that is Helen in a nutshell, at least in the beginning of the book. An idealistic and artistic girl, she is viewed as a little strange by some in her community. When William Mainwaring comes to call on her family, she sneaks away to her spot in the woods, which happens to be just over the boundary between her father’s property and William’s. And so William doesn’t meet Lady Helen Wade that day.

William is still suffering over the loss of Elizabeth in A Chance Encounter, and he does not believe he can ever love anyone else. But one day, after receiving a letter from Robert and Elizabeth in which they attempt to renew their friendship with him, and feeling the need for solitude as a consequence, he walks to a corner of his woods and discovers Helen. She is barefoot and dressed in an old, shapeless, too-short dress that she has changed into for comfort, so William does not realize who she is. Helen is startled when she becomes aware of his presence:

A man was leaning one shoulder against a tree some distance away, arms folded, watching her. She knew at a glance that he was Mr. Mainwaring. This was his land, after all, and one could hardly expect to find another strange and fashionable young man wandering in this particular area, especially when the young man was tall and dark. Yes, and handsome. Melly had been quite right. Helen did not move. She just continued to look.

Helen could feel her face flushing. She felt horribly embarrassed to be caught thus, in this position and in these clothes. She, Lady Helen Wade!

“Is it a wood nymph?” he asked. “Or is it human?”

“Oh,” she said, and rolled over onto her knees. “you did startle me. I thought you were a wild boar at the very least.” In self-protection, almost without realizing she did so, she used the North Country accent that the servants always used, instead of talking in her own voice.

When William assumes she is a commoner and then asks her name, in her shyness, Helen introduces herself as Nell. The conversation that follows is a novelty for both Helen and William; Helen because instead of dismissing her imaginative musings on nature, William shares her feelings about it, and William because the pretty little “wood nymph” distracts him from his broken heart. He makes “Nell” a gift of a nearby little hut on his property, and agrees not to go inside it. Little does he know that this is the place where Helen keeps her regular clothing and poetry books.

William and Helen meet again in the same place, and from their intuitive understanding of each other, an attraction blossoms. They begin to express their feelings sexually. Although Helen is nineteen and William thirty-one, both are virgins, and neither entirely realizes what it is that is happening between them.

Afterward, William feels guilty for having taken advantage of a poor village girl, and Helen for concealing her true identity from William. Helen’s sister, Melissa, has meanwhile maneuvered William into the beginnings of a courtship. William, in his ignorance of Helen’s real status in society, is both guilt-ridden and grateful for the respite “Nell” has given him from his broken heart, and sees their connection as one of physical affection. Helen though, recognizes that she has deeper feelings.

I don’t want to give away where things go from there, but suffice to say that both Helen and William make some very unwise choices, and in the case of Helen, she continues to make them almost until the last page. The two spend more time apart than together, and the relationship gets into a holding pattern in the middle of the book. The plot calls for Helen to make decisions that might have been difficult for me to comprehend in a girl of her background and era, if not for the way her character is established early on in the story.

And in the end, that is what makes this book work for me despite all the aforementioned flaws: character. It is especially interesting to compare Helen with Elizabeth, the heroine of A Chance Encounter, who also plays a signficant role in this book. Where Elizabeth was mature, self-contained, socially adept, wry and observant, Helen is much younger, idealistic and dreamy, sometimes given to forgetting her surroundings, often socially inept, passionate and occasionally prone to misjudging others.

Had Helen been a few years older, I would have been less forgiving of some of her bad decisions, but her youth and her painful experience of first love made it possible for me to understand her and in some parts of the story, even to empathize deeply.

William is more mature, but he too has a kind of innocence that, combined with his focus on his loss of Elizabeth, leads him to make some serious mistakes. I would strongly recommend reading A Chance Encounter first, since I think without reading that book, one of William’s choices would be harder to understand and sympathize with. Nevertheless, I loved the way you portrayed William’s confusion over his feelings for both Elizabeth and Helen, and later, his determination to make up for his errors. I also enjoyed seeing Robert and Elizabeth again.

Finally, this is not a book about two idealized characters, but rather, about real people with real blind spots and weaknesses, people who have to go through some growing pains before they can resolve their problems. Like many of your books, The Wood Nymph requires tolerance on the reader’s part. In the end, I was left with some doubts about Helen’s maturity, but I felt that she and William suited each other well and that I could envision them continuing their growth together. B- for The Wood Nymph.

Sincerely,

Janine

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A friend loaned me A Chance Encounter, one of your earliest books. Given that the book is twenty-five years old and does contain a few elements that I associate with romances from that era, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I know some of your traditional regencies are being reprinted and hope that this one will eventually join them. It may be slightly outdated, but it is also enormously engrossing.

The opening of A Chance Encounter bears some resemblance to that of Pride and Prejudice. The town of Granby is agog to learn that a wealthy young man, William Mainwaring, is about to begin residing in the manor house he inherited from his uncle. Not only that, Mr. Mainwaring is bringing company with him.

In very little time, Granby is rife with speculation as to what William Mainwaring looks like, whether he is married or single, and what kind of balls and parties his presence in Granby might occasion. One thing is certain, Mrs. Rowe decides. Her daughter’s Cecily’s wardrobe must be updated in honor of Mr. Mainwaring’s arrival. And Miss Rossiter, Cecily’s companion and former governess, should obtain a new dress too.

But Elizabeth Rossiter does not want a new frock. She is perfectly comfortable in her gray dress, and for all that she is twenty-six and well born, she has no interest in catching an eligible man’s eye or indeed, in marrying. Elizabeth prefers to blend into the background. And she is trying her best to do just that when William Mainwaring and his friends pay a return call on the Rowes, and among the party is the man she once loved.

Robert, now the Marquess of Hetherington, was a penniless younger son when Elizabeth met him during her one season in London. At first the two became friends, and then they became smitten. Exactly what it was that separated them isn’t revealed until late in the book, but it’s clear that neither one is interested in rekindling the relationship.

Yet despite her polite coolness to Robert, and his own coldness to her, Elizabeth is unhappy to see Robert turn his charm full force on her charge, Cecily. She does not want to see the girl’s heart broken, and grows even more agitated when she learns that Miss Norris, one of William’s guests, has every expectation of a betrothal to Robert.

Meanwhile, William Mainwaring begins to open up to Elizabeth, and she realizes that he is not toplofty, but merely shy. He begins to charm her by coming out of his shell, and Elizabeth realizes that she could easily grow to care for William, and that William is developing feelings for her.

But how can she allow herself to love William, when Robert is his friend? Is she truly over Robert, and if not, would it be fair to encourage William? Yet if she discourages William, will she be cheating herself of the happy future she could otherwise have?

A Chance Encounter is written in omniscient third person viewpoint and while we get much access to Elizabeth’s thoughts, there is almost none of the hero’s POV. You’ll notice that I have tried not to give away which of the two men Elizabeth ends up with, so I will just say that since we get very little of his POV, this character is not as fleshed out as Elizabeth.

Like Elizabeth, I had a tough time deciding which of the men she should be with. I wasn’t always crazy about the man she ultimately chose. And although by the end of the book I was fine with the choice she made, I felt for the other guy, too. My enjoyment of A Chance Encounter was therefore centered less on the development of the romance itself, and more on the characterization.

Many of the side characters in the town of Granby were delightful, from the tongue-tied girl Lucy Worthing, to the sparring Cecily and Ferdie, who might or might not marry someday, to my favorite, Mr. Rowe, whose fatherly banter with Elizabeth, whom he referred to as “Cinderella,” charmed me to my toes.

But what really made this book click with me is the restrained Elizabeth, who keeps her deep feelings below the surface. She is fiercely independent, but most of the time, not in a way that feels anachronistic. She also has a wry sense of irony, a stubborn will and a kind heart.

I loved watching Elizabeth grapple with the choices facing her, which were not just marriage to William or marriage to Robert, but also, a life as Cecily’s companion, or governess to some other family, or staying with her brother and sister-in-law. Because Elizabeth considered most of these options, often weighing them thoughtfully yet occasionally acting impulsively, she was a heroine whose depths absorbed me so much that I lost track of time reading the book.

As mentioned above, there are some old fashioned elements to this book, both in terms of the plot and in terms of the characters’ behavior. Unfortunately I can’t go into them in details because they involve big spoilers, so suffice to say that I felt some of what kept Elizabeth and the man she chose apart was contrived. I did like the plot twist in the middle of the book, though again, to say what it is would be to spoil it.

Readers should also be aware that the sex in A Chance Encounter amounts to no more than a couple of paragraphs, and that is not really surprising given that the book was first published in 1985. I didn’t feel this as a lack, though, because the book absorbed me so deeply. A Chance Encounter gets a B/B+ from me.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can only be purchased used and it is fairly expensive. Hopefully it will be reissued by Signet or Ballantine who is currently republishing formerly out of print Balogh regency titles.

• ISBN-10: 0451159667
• ISBN-13: 978-0451159663

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2. REVIEW: Dark Angel by Mary Balogh
3. REVIEW: Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh

Dear Ms. Balogh,

Your books have been an acquired taste for me. My early experiences of them were like my first taste of sushi. They too, seemed like something unusual, intense and raw, to which my palate was unaccustomed. At first I wasn’t sure they would appeal to me, since the protagonists are so often emotional or filled with trepidation, and since it’s not uncommon for the heroes to have names like Rex, Edgar, Archie or Freddy — names that don’t call to my mind much glamour. There’s also the tendency your characters have to think in circles, repeating certain sentences over and over.

But after several tries, I got the hang of reading your books. It takes a certain degree of patience and tolerance for human vulnerabilities and even weaknesses, yet that is also what I find most rewarding about the best of your novels. They can be stories of heartfelt redemption and moving forgiveness.

I’ve now come to appreciate the insight you have into your characters, and the freshness of many of your plots. I still have much of your backlist to catch up on, and not all of your oeuvre has worked for me, but I have kept a dozen or so of your books, and very few authors have come close to matching that.

Among those dozen or so books is Dark Angel, originally published in 1994 as a traditional regency, and now reissued in a 2-in-1 volume with Lord Carew’s Bride. It probably sounds fanciful to say so, but if good books are gems, I like to think Dark Angel is a ruby — a hard, cool stone of a color we associate with both hearts and wounds, with gleaming facets and warm depths.

As a friend of mine once pointed out, the plot of Dark Angel is a bit reminiscent of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (the French epistolary novel which has been adapted for the big screen at least three times, as “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Valmont,” and “Cruel Intentions.”). Here, too, women become pawns in a dangerous game of one-upmanship, although the motives of the game players differ.

The novel begins with two young ladies conversing in a carriage as they enter London. Jennifer Winwood and Samantha Newman are cousins, about to make their debuts in society, but in different circumstances. Eighteen-year-old Samantha is nervous about whether she will have any beaux. Twenty-year-old Jennifer is relieved to have no worries on that score. Jennifer is betrothed–albeit unofficially–to Lionel, Viscount Kersey, and has been since she was fifteen.

Jennifer’s debut has been delayed due first to the death of Lionel’s uncle two years earlier, and later to her own grandmother’s passing, but now, after five years of waiting, she is thrilled at the prospect of coming to London, where her betrothal will be officially announced. She could not dream of a handsomer and more wonderful husband than Lionel, and has no interest whatsoever in any other man.

What Jennifer doesn’t know is that two years before, when Lionel was attending his ailing uncle in Northern England, he toyed with the affections of a young countess married to a much older man. When Catherine turned up pregnant, Lionel abandoned her to face the fury of her husband. But Catherine’s grown stepson, Gabriel, came to her aid and accompanied her to Europe, to offer his support until after the birth of Lionel’s daughter.

Now that Catherine no longer needs him, Gabriel has returned to England. Gabriel’s father passed away during Gabriel’s absence, and the young man is now Earl of Thornhill. But Gabriel’s reputation has been all but destroyed. His stepmother never named her seducer, and when Gabriel left England with her, it was widely assumed he himself impregnated his stepmother, and that his actions brought about his father’s death.

Thus, Gabriel is paying for Lionel’s sins. And since to duel with Lionel would only bring further scandal to Catherine’s name, Gabriel has ruled out slapping his glove in Lionel’s face. Nevertheless, he loathes Lionel with the heat of a hundred thousand suns, and would like nothing more than some kind of vengeance.

On their second day in London, Jennifer and Samantha go for a stroll in Hyde Park, and come into Gabriel and his friend Bertie’s view. Gabriel and Bertie admire the beauty of the two young ladies, while Samantha and Jennifer also notice the men. Jennifer compares Gabriel’s attractive darkness to Lionel’s angelic, golden beauty:

“Yes,” she said, “he did look like the devil, did he not? As Lord Kersey looks like an angel. You were quite right to say they are handsome in quite opposite ways, Sam. That gentleman looks like Lucifer. Lord Kersey looks like an angel.”

That Lionel is not an angel of light and Gabriel not a prince of darkness is only the first irony, and also the first of many mistaken impressions Jennifer and Samantha have. But soon enough Gabriel proves he is no angel, either. When he sets eyes on Jennifer again at her come-out and learns she is affianced to Lionel, he decides that she will be the perfect means to revenge.

Gabriel, who like many of your characters, is so lifelike and believable, tells himself he will be doing Jennifer a great favor by enticing her to some indiscretion or scandal that will humiliate Lionel publicly. After all, Lionel already has two mistresses, one of whom had borne him children, and Gabriel knows firsthand how unfeeling Lionel is. Though his conscience protests at the thought of manipulating and deceiving an innocent young woman, Gabriel drowns it in both alcohol and anger at the man who debauched his stepmother.

Jennifer is perhaps not the most powerful piece on this chess board, but she her painful vulnerability renders her very sympathetic. In her eagerness to get to know Lionel, whom she has loved for five years, she is disappointed when her betrothed does not steal a kiss or profess true love, and angry with Gabriel for depriving Lionel of a couple of opportunities to show her affection. Yet despite that anger, she is also susceptible to Gabriel’s overtures of friendship. People keep warning her that Gabriel has a terrible reputation, but she can sense he is not cad enough to have earned it.

Meanwhile, Lionel, a delicious villain if ever there was one, realizes what Gabriel is up to and has a play or two left to make. His pawn is Samantha, who is torn between loyalty to Jennifer and an unwelcome attraction to the golden, beautiful Lionel.

Who will win the “game” between the two men, as Lionel calls it? And what will happen when Jennifer realizes she has been played by them both? Can love emerge from these underhanded maneuvers?

Dark Angel is a rewarding book on many levels. The complex plot is deftly handled, and the themes of revenge vs. moral justice, deceit vs. conscience, naivete vs. cynicism, and immorality vs. redemption, are beautifully realized.

The characters feel so real, and the tension that comes from the reader’s knowledge of all that Jennifer is unaware of mounts and mounts until the story reaches its pinnacle in which one twist comes on the heel of another, and revelation follows revelation.

The second half of the book is so tightly packed with dramatic payoffs that I defy anyone to put the book down for very long during this section. I certainly couldn’t, even though I was rereading it this time and knew how things would turn out.

No book is perfect — Dark Angel did not make me fall in love with any of its characters, and I felt a bit of impatience in the first half — but I find it hard to care about that, since for me, this is surely one of the most original and satisfying books in the traditional regency subgenre. A-.

Sincerely,

Janine

| Mary Balogh’s Website | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders |
Fictionwise | Books on Board (epub)

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1. REVIEW: Dark Angel by Mary Balogh
2. REVIEW: Lord Carew’s Bride by Mary Balogh
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Thank you for sending me this book for review. I am a big fan of the traditional regency which is what I would categorize this novel as. The key to a successful traditional regency is the total immersion of the reader into the time period which is well done in Mr. Malcom’s List. Like other traditional regencies, the hero is not a lord, but a man of great means and the second son of an Earl which, during that time, was sufficient to make him a marital catch.

Selina was a paid companion who was left comfortably well off after her companion’s death. She does not want to return to her vicerage with her family and writes to her old school classmate, Julia, with a request to visit her in London. Julia is living the life of parties with other young people that Selina longs to enjoy. Julia ignores this request for months and then, out of the blue, Selina receives an invitation to visit.

Julia Thistlewaite had her sights set on marrying The Honorable Jeremy Malcolm, second son of the Earl of Kilbourne. He was the catch of the season and Julia was a beautiful, wealth, well connected member of the gentry. But Malcolm has a list of attributes he wants in a woman and Julia doesn’t measure up. (She fails item No. 4 which is “The ability to converse in a sensible fashion.”). Cassie, friend to Malcom and cousin to Julia reports back that she doesn’t meet all the requirements on the list. Julia decides she’ll use Selina to enact a revenge. Selina is to conform to all the list elements and make Malcolm fall in love with her (or at least to request her hand in marriage) whereupon Selina will crush his dreams.

Selina agrees to do this because she won’t get to stay and have fun in London unless she agrees to Julia’s schemes and because Malcolm sounds like a prig in need of being brought down to earth.

When Selina and Malcolm meet, they actually start to like each other quite a bit to the point that Malcolm does indeed think that Selina is the woman for him. When he finds out its all a ploy, he’s angered and hurt. Selina feels badly and tries to explain that she, too, has real feelings for him but he is definitely not interested in listening to her.

I actually thought the star of the book was Julia. I found her really entertaining. She was always scheming even when it went against her own interest and eventually she has to give up her vendetta against Malcolm to get her own matrimonial prize. Selina and Malcolm were a bit stiff to me, particularly juxtaposed against Julia.

Another highlight of the story is the dialogue. It’s snappy, entertaining and humorous. The plot was comedic but it felt a bit forced as the characters carried out setup after setup even until the end of the story. C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

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Imagine my surprise when I found a release of yours on Fictionwise that I hadn’t bought. I spent last week re-reading some of my favorite traditional regencies and I lamented anew how much I missed this sub genre. I’m not certain what it is about the trad regency that I like so much, but I think it’s that the setting seems so genuine that I can really lose myself in the period and enjoy watching the pleasurable courtship take place.

The focus of the relationships are rarely overtly physical which makes A Prudent Match so unusual. The story starts out with said William Ledbetter, Eighth Baron Ledbetter, and Prudence Stockworth tying the knot. Prudence inherited a great deal of money from her deceased fiancé of three years and most everyone, including William’s sister, believes that he is marrying Prudence for her money.

Prudence doesn’t object to this exactly. She isn’t forced into marriage. She isn’t so on the shelf, particularly with the great fortune, that she had to marry Ledbetter and only Ledbetter. I think Prudence had a good sense of her own worth and she didn’t hold Ledbetter in awe like some did, given his distinguished family name and handsome countenance.

For Ledbetter’s part, he likes Prudence, but can’t help but wonder if he entirely has her measure.

He heard her whisper, "Oh, I shall miss you, Pru. Write to me often. Promise you will!”
“I will," his bride agreed, "for with Ledbetter to frank my least significant words, I shan’t hesitate to post them.”
He eyed his bride sharply. Somehow it almost sounded-’though of course she hadn’t meant it to-’as if she had married him because he could frank her letters to her sister. And there was that gleam in her eyes, the gleam he suspected meant that she was amusing herself at someone else’s expense-’in this case, his.

And then there is the issue of Prudence’s innocence which Ledbetter stultifyingly announced that he found so charming earlier. Prudence found Ledbetter to be too overwhelming for her and it made her quite afraid of marital relations. She recognizes her "duty" and resigns herself to that fate which, in turn, makes Ledbetter quite angry for her wants Prudence to want him like he desires her.

“But you and I are wife and husband now," he protested. “That doesn’t make it any less embarrassing … or frightening.”
“It should.”
“How? Because a few words are spoken in front of us? Because we said "I do’?" Prudence scoffed. "I scarcely know you, and yet I am to allow you to … to do with my body what you wish

It’s fairly amusing watching Ledbetter have to deal with Prudence’s embarrassment and fear of intimacy given his appreciation of her virginity. In all fairness, Ledbetter is beyond patient and tender and loving with Prudence and it’s a way to show how truly wonderful a character Ledbetter is behind his sometimes evident superiority complex.

There’s a mystery that Prudence has to unravel about the "why" of Ledbetter’s need for her dowry. His property is well maintained. There are plenty of family jewels. The why is a bit complicated and adds to the already precarious relationship between the newlyweds.

I fully appreciate how every plot thread was discussed and how it affected the conflict and interplay between Prudence and Ledbetter ever so subtly from Prudence’s fear of being abandoned and Ledbetter’s real purpose in marrying Prudence. B

Best regards,

Jane

This book is out of print and can be purchased through various used bookstore outlets such as Amazon or ebook format from Fictionwise.

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I have a soft spot for the unheralded people of the world finding love. People not as beautiful or dazzling, not as charming or glib as those who easily command the spotlight. Yet at the same time, I don’t want authors to pour misery on the head of a lead character thereby making me pity them more than sympathize with them. “Carolina’s Walking Tour” handles my concerns nicely.

Miss Carolina Finmere is one of those who hug the edges of a party, who might take a minute to formulate a reply to a comment but who notices much and dares to dream. Lord Alexander Quainton is one she notices but whom she would never have approached except for her commanding grandmother’s insistence. Long acquainted with his mother, her grandmother serves as a source of information about Alexander’s wartime injuries.

Quiet Carolina is astonished when he asks her to accompany him on a walk through Bath. Thus begins their summer long rambles through and around the resort town. And slowly, almost unperceived by Carolina herself, she begins to blossom into a woman of a little more confidence, a little more presence. And when faced with a future without the man she’s gently fallen for, Carolina decides to take the boldest step of her young life.

I like that Carolina’s personality doesn’t so much change as she gains the courage to show who she really is. She reminds me a little of some of Carla Kelly’s reluctant heroines who shine only in the eyes of their beloved. At story’s end, Carolina hasn’t been transformed into a show stopping femme fatale but her inner happiness does bring a blush to her cheeks and a brighter sparkle to her eyes. Indeed she won’t be the aging antidote she feared she’d become.

Alexander is a little more of a martyr than I’d like though thankfully we don’t see this much. He has suffered much, both physically and emotionally. He also knows that the people back home don’t want to hear the gruesome details of what their soldiers are enduring in Spain and thus must keep his concerns for his still fighting comrades to himself. He wants no pity and must be sure he’ll get none from Carolina before he’ll reach for the happiness he desires with her.

Ebooks are proving to be the source for the more traditional style regency that Signet once provided to readers. I’ve not yet tried one of your longer books but both short stories have proved to be delightful. B

~Jayne

available as an ebook from Uncial Press or Fictionwise

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I had heard many good things about your book, A London Season. Despite having been published twenty-six years ago, it remains loved by many fans of traditional regencies, some of whom consider it a classic of that subgenre. So when a copy of the book came my way, I was eager to read it.

When Lady Jane Fitzmaurice is six years old, her parents' boat capsizes, leaving young Jane orphaned. Jane is sent to live with her uncle Edward in Newmarket, on an estate called Heathfield. Since Edward is only twenty-six years old, he is not ready to raise a child, but fortunately for him, Jane is no ordinary child. Independent, self-possessed, and direct, she has a maturity that few children her age share.

Edward gives Jane free reign to mostly do as she pleases, and Jane is more than pleased to discover that Edward has bought her two ponies and is the owner of a superb stable. More than anything else, Jane loves to ride.

Seven year old David Chance also loves riding. David lives in Newmarket with his aunt, a Frenchwoman who has been raising him since his parents were killed in the French Revolution. David's aunt is a bitter and unpleasant woman, and David's escape is going to Heathfield to look at the horses.

David too is an unusual child; gentle, patient and intelligent. He is very good with horses, so the Heathfield grooms have him exercise Jane's ponies while they are waiting for her to arrive. David is prepared to dislike Jane, but he is quickly won over by her horsemanship. Jane too takes a shine to David very quickly. She shares her ponies with him, and he shares his secret place in the woods with her.

Thereafter, Jane and David become Jane-and-David, inseparable and unswervingly loyal to one another. They love each other with the intensity of children who have no one else to love. As they grow up, Edward's casual attitude to raising his niece works in their favor. He allows Jane to study with David and to continue riding with him.

But Jane and David's luck can't hold out forever. They are sixteen and seventeen respectively when their feelings for each other begin to take a romantic turn. Unfortunately, though Jane's uncle Edward likes David, who is now training to take over the position of head groom at Heathfield, he cannot see his way to letting Jane marry a commoner. He is determined that Jane should have a London season in which to find a more proper husband.

A London Season is an unusual romance, and I can see why it is considered a classic of its subgenre. Even after twenty-six years, the story feels fresh and different from most romances. Its main characters are memorable, vivid and distinct. Jane's determination and willpower sets her apart from most heroines. David, despite being only eighteen at the end of the story, is both gentle and strong, possessing a maturity that many older heroes lack.

As I read the book, I turned each page eagerly to find out what would happen to Jane and David. Their young love mattered all the more to me because they were only in their teens.

Nonetheless, I do have a few quibbles. A London Season is written very simple sentences, and some were too simple for my taste. Second, the resolution of the class difference issues between Jane and David was a bit predictable. Third, when, at the end, there was talk of Jane having David's babies, I was doubtful of whether she was mature enough to handle that responsibility. I know that in the nineteenth century many girls did marry at seventeen and have children shortly afterward, but Jane seemed in many ways too young to be a mother.

Despite these points, I enjoyed A London Season very much. This is one traditional regency classic that has aged seamlessly, and I'm happy to give it a strong B.

Sincerely,

Janine

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