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daychaser 's review for:
Slightly Married
by Mary Balogh
3.5 stars
This is a very straightforward marriage of convenience HR. There are no crazy trope subversions, the characters are neither too quirky nor ridiculous, and I agree with others when they say that this is a very prototypical romance.
Slightly Married features Aiden Bedwyn, a British colonel in the Napoleonic Wars and brother of a Duke. The Bedwyn Saga features the Bedwyn siblings a la Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series, and Aiden is the second eldest brother. He's not really a grumpy or cold man, but he doesn't emote at all, and comes off a bit dour. So yeah, he's a nice guy who outwardly looks like he's about to murder someone.
Anyway when a man who saved his life on the battlefield makes a dying wish for Aiden to make sure his sister is taken care of after his death, Aiden does the dutiful thing and sees it through.
This man's sister is Eve, a woman who lives in a large house who takes in the "outcasts" of society and provides jobs and/or a comfortable life for them that they otherwise may not have gotten in early 19th century Britain. Aiden soon finds out that Eve may lose her house since she hasn't gotten married yet, which was a stipulation in her father's will. So, Aiden does the honorable thing and proposes a marriage of convenience where Eve will be able to keep her house and the orphaned children she's raising as her own.
I never felt particularly invested in the romance or characters, so I knew this was never going to be 5 stars from me. Still, this story didn't have anything in it that I was actively hating either. It was a very average read but I got through it quickly so it was at the very least readable.
I found Eve and Aiden to both be okay characters. Aiden doesn't emote at all, but there was nothing else to him and I didn't find him interesting. Eve is just a classic "nice woman" who takes in children and helps out the less fortunate. I wasn't interested in either of them.
I like marriage of convenience, and I appreciate that this book didn't have love, or really even attraction at first sight. It took a while for the characters to see each other in a romantic light. Of course the main conflict in this story was the characters refusing to communicate which I didn't find to be particularly compelling, but at least there is some in-text justification for it.
Also I still hate when children are a part of stories and I didn't much care for the found family element of the book. But that's because I have a black heart lol
Anyway, this is a straightforward romance that I'd recommend you read only if you really enjoy the marriage of convenience and found family tropes. I probably will forget about this book in 2 weeks.
I still hold that Mary Balogh's A Matter of Class is the much superior story.
This is a very straightforward marriage of convenience HR. There are no crazy trope subversions, the characters are neither too quirky nor ridiculous, and I agree with others when they say that this is a very prototypical romance.
Slightly Married features Aiden Bedwyn, a British colonel in the Napoleonic Wars and brother of a Duke. The Bedwyn Saga features the Bedwyn siblings a la Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series, and Aiden is the second eldest brother. He's not really a grumpy or cold man, but he doesn't emote at all, and comes off a bit dour. So yeah, he's a nice guy who outwardly looks like he's about to murder someone.
Anyway when a man who saved his life on the battlefield makes a dying wish for Aiden to make sure his sister is taken care of after his death, Aiden does the dutiful thing and sees it through.
This man's sister is Eve, a woman who lives in a large house who takes in the "outcasts" of society and provides jobs and/or a comfortable life for them that they otherwise may not have gotten in early 19th century Britain. Aiden soon finds out that Eve may lose her house since she hasn't gotten married yet, which was a stipulation in her father's will. So, Aiden does the honorable thing and proposes a marriage of convenience where Eve will be able to keep her house and the orphaned children she's raising as her own.
I never felt particularly invested in the romance or characters, so I knew this was never going to be 5 stars from me. Still, this story didn't have anything in it that I was actively hating either. It was a very average read but I got through it quickly so it was at the very least readable.
I found Eve and Aiden to both be okay characters. Aiden doesn't emote at all, but there was nothing else to him and I didn't find him interesting. Eve is just a classic "nice woman" who takes in children and helps out the less fortunate. I wasn't interested in either of them.
I like marriage of convenience, and I appreciate that this book didn't have love, or really even attraction at first sight. It took a while for the characters to see each other in a romantic light. Of course the main conflict in this story was the characters refusing to communicate which I didn't find to be particularly compelling, but at least there is some in-text justification for it.
Also I still hate when children are a part of stories and I didn't much care for the found family element of the book. But that's because I have a black heart lol
Anyway, this is a straightforward romance that I'd recommend you read only if you really enjoy the marriage of convenience and found family tropes. I probably will forget about this book in 2 weeks.
I still hold that Mary Balogh's A Matter of Class is the much superior story.