Take a photo of a barcode or cover
egelantier 's review for:
A Summer to Remember
by Mary Balogh
i've read one novel by mary balogh at some point and liked it but never felt an urge to pick another, but thankfully a friend sold me on this one, and this one was wonderful. it's a sequel to some other book and a prequel to a bunch of more books i'm still not particularly interested in, but you don't need (as i didn't) to know anything about them.
so. lauren is an extremely proper and fastidious lady who was abandoned by her fiancee (who's apparently a hero of the first book) practically at the altar, and it's her first time in london after the fact - she's trying to get over the social humiliation and have a last unremarkable summer in london before beginning a dignified spinster existence in bath. kit is a mildly annoying rake who runs around london indulging in recklessly wild behavior, but he's called back to heel to his family estate to step into the heir's shoes after his older brother's death and marry said dead brother's fiancee, because why not. instead kit makes a drunk wager that he'll court and engage lauren before going home, to present her to his parents as his bride fait accompli, and unleashes a campany of ~seduction.
at this point it's all kind of ridiculous and sordid and the reader gets kinda like... why, BUT THEN, when kit pops the question, lauren, who's never anybody's fool, directly asks him why is he insulting her with obvious lies, and kit suddenly comes back to himself and realizes he is in fact being insulting and dishonorable, and tells her the truth. and at this point lauren, who feels increasingly stilted and unhappy by her entire prim, well-organized existence, proposes a deal for him: she'll go to his home as his fiancee to save him from the the unpleasant engagement, and he, in turn, will give her a summer to remember and teach her to feel joy.
from there on they kind of (well, mostly, it being a romance novel after all) stop seeing each other as romance novel cliches and instead allow themselves a slow, careful exploration of each other as real people - damaged and hurt and complicated people, too, who can and will learn from each other. it's very gentle and very kind and achingly sweet, and deals surprisingly fine with a lot complicated issues, and is so very warm.
so. lauren is an extremely proper and fastidious lady who was abandoned by her fiancee (who's apparently a hero of the first book) practically at the altar, and it's her first time in london after the fact - she's trying to get over the social humiliation and have a last unremarkable summer in london before beginning a dignified spinster existence in bath. kit is a mildly annoying rake who runs around london indulging in recklessly wild behavior, but he's called back to heel to his family estate to step into the heir's shoes after his older brother's death and marry said dead brother's fiancee, because why not. instead kit makes a drunk wager that he'll court and engage lauren before going home, to present her to his parents as his bride fait accompli, and unleashes a campany of ~seduction.
at this point it's all kind of ridiculous and sordid and the reader gets kinda like... why, BUT THEN, when kit pops the question, lauren, who's never anybody's fool, directly asks him why is he insulting her with obvious lies, and kit suddenly comes back to himself and realizes he is in fact being insulting and dishonorable, and tells her the truth. and at this point lauren, who feels increasingly stilted and unhappy by her entire prim, well-organized existence, proposes a deal for him: she'll go to his home as his fiancee to save him from the the unpleasant engagement, and he, in turn, will give her a summer to remember and teach her to feel joy.
from there on they kind of (well, mostly, it being a romance novel after all) stop seeing each other as romance novel cliches and instead allow themselves a slow, careful exploration of each other as real people - damaged and hurt and complicated people, too, who can and will learn from each other. it's very gentle and very kind and achingly sweet, and deals surprisingly fine with a lot complicated issues, and is so very warm.