Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I was reluctant to read this. Adultery is not a good basis for romance, but the story is so much more than that and the adulterous parts are handled seriously and not glorified or lengthy. It is a very beautiful love story and a tear jerker. I'd encourage anyone hesitant because of the content to take a chance.
It's important to note, that while the hero was married, his marriage was in name only. His wife loved another man and was disgusted by the hero's scars from the Napoleonic war. He had loved her once and it was heartbreaking to read about his joyous return home from war only to find that his betrothed didn't want him back and found him disgusting. Still, he tried his very best to make a good marriage out of what they had.
Honestly, I would never have had the patience with the wife that the hero did. I realize part of it was because of the daughter, but still he was far more forgiving of her selfish, self-pitying behavior than I would have been. I pitied her as well, but it was more of in a 'how sad that you're so self-centered and weak that you can't make the best of life and pay more attention to your own desperately lonely child!' A disgusted sort of pity, I suppose you'd call it. I don't believe I could have been as gentle with her as the hero was.
When you read the first bleak chapter, you will find it hard to believe that the hero is actually a very honorable and selfless person. Balogh painted a great portrait of the complexities of the human psyche and the human failings even the best of us have.
The heroine was a strong, very courageous and honorable character as well.
Obviously there is HEA or this wouldn't be a romance, but expect to cry quite a bit before you get there.
It's important to note, that while the hero was married, his marriage was in name only. His wife loved another man and was disgusted by the hero's scars from the Napoleonic war. He had loved her once and it was heartbreaking to read about his joyous return home from war only to find that his betrothed didn't want him back and found him disgusting. Still, he tried his very best to make a good marriage out of what they had.
Honestly, I would never have had the patience with the wife that the hero did. I realize part of it was because of the daughter, but still he was far more forgiving of her selfish, self-pitying behavior than I would have been. I pitied her as well, but it was more of in a 'how sad that you're so self-centered and weak that you can't make the best of life and pay more attention to your own desperately lonely child!' A disgusted sort of pity, I suppose you'd call it. I don't believe I could have been as gentle with her as the hero was.
When you read the first bleak chapter, you will find it hard to believe that the hero is actually a very honorable and selfless person. Balogh painted a great portrait of the complexities of the human psyche and the human failings even the best of us have.
The heroine was a strong, very courageous and honorable character as well.
Obviously there is HEA or this wouldn't be a romance, but expect to cry quite a bit before you get there.
Great book - predictable story but very sensitive, makes us feel for the characters.
This was my first Mary Balogh that I read and made me a total fan. She really knows how to ratch up the angst. Just love her work.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm used to quiet, sedate Mary Balogh books. This one is a lot darker. It starts with a gentleman taking a prostitute for the night, only to discover she was a virgin. He feels so bad that he hires her as a governess, and from there, they slowly fall in love. There were a lot of red flags for me that this was treading on dangerous territory, but I think Balogh was successful in accurately depicting trauma, in building a slow-simmer romance without making it feel like the duke was forcing himself on his employee, and in adding enough intrigue at the end to give us pay-off for why Fleur was driven to such desperate circumstances in the first place. That said, this comes with some major trigger warnings, and I'm curious to hear from other readers if I have some blind spots that made this acceptable to me but not to them.
Supposed to be her best or one of her most beloved. I thought it was bad. Not horrible, but the two characters were pretty awful. Commenters on Amazon claim that he's "very honorable" I think because he only slept with her once, kissed her 2-3 times and castigated himself for it. I think he was NOT very honorable for the way he kept his wife believing a lie even knowing that it was killing her and making him miserable. How was it protecting her to know that she was pining for a loser? And how come he didn't just force Thomas to do the right thing? He wasn't honorable he was just a doormat. And Fleur... I can't see the attraction but I guess she's pretty. And she doesn't abuse children. Is that it? Is that what makes her so great? I can't agree. I'll go back to reading Summer to Remember which is everything this book is NOT
Old school Mary Balogh- a lot of old tropes (he's a duke and a wounded vet with a wife that tortures him, she is a virtuous woman driven to prostitution by a conspiracy against her by a "big bad") but the development of the relationship has a reality to it that is mostly satisfying. I found some of the narrative conventions odd (the alternating chapters from opposite povs meant moving forward and backward in time in ways that didn't feel revealing. And the heroine's initial trauma around her one experience with the hero was so significant that his attempts to be kind were disturbing to read.