Reviews

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh

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rachelini's review against another edition

3.0

I usually love Mary Balogh's historical romances, but the writing in this one felt very amateurish (and it's from 2009, I think, so not her first book or anything) - lots of tell, not show and bad pacing. I do love an marriage of convenience-type plot device, though, so that saved it somewhat.

literarykate616's review against another edition

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4.0

I have been meaning to start this series for the past year and I'm happy that I finally did. I love reading books that revolve around families like Lisa Kleypas' Hathaways. The Huxtables are a normal family living in the same small town they were born in. They consist of three sisters and a brother, Margaret, Vanessa, Katherine, and Stephen, who have had to rely solely on each other ever since the death of their parents. Unknown to them, their lives have drastically changed and Elliot Wallace, Viscount Lyngate arrives to tell them the news. After the death of the former Earl of Merton, Stephen has inherited the position at the young age of seventeen. Much to the viscount's chagrin, he is not able to simply remove the new Earl from his family and place him in his new home because all three sisters demand to accompany their brother. Elliot sees them as an unwelcome burden and instantly forms a dislike of Vanessa (the widowed Mrs. Dew). Unfortunately, Elliot soon realizes that he must marry quickly if he is prepare the sisters for their debute in front of the ton. Deciding that marrying one of the sisters would be the easiest solution, he prepares to offer to marry Margaret, the eldest and most beautiful of the trio. He doesn't anticipate that Vanessa will offer to take Margaret's place instead to save her from a loveless union. Elliot reluctantly agrees to marry Vanessa even though in his eyes she is an annoying Plain Jane. To find out what happens next, pick up your own copy and start reading. You won't be disappointed. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Then Comes Seduction, featuring Katherine, the youngest sister.

milicasbookshelf's review against another edition

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2.0

To be clear right away, I had no expectations when I started reading the book.
Even so, I didn't feel any connection between the main characters. And if I saw just one more time how the heroine has such a low opinion of herself, I would go crazy.

kamahi's review against another edition

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2.0

Rating this book is hard. It was my first *romance* novel years back and I remembered it fondly but found my tastes have changed in the years since. This is one of those books that in theory should work for me. It's got a lot of my favorite tropes; marriage of convenience, historical setting, somewhat grumpy male lead with a willfully happy female lead, but I've since read a lot of novels and fanfiction with those trope that I like a lot more. I found the constant talk if the heroine being plain and self conscious annoying. Believable? Sure. But there sure was a lot of it. That element could have been toned down quite a bit and been just as effective without being as annoying as it ended up being to me. Overall there was stuff to enjoy but I found myself speed reading to just finish it already.