Skip to main content

Romanced

Someone to Romance by Mary Balogh, which I actually finished before the Anne Stuart romp in November, made a welcome change from all the eh/emotional wrecking ball/no-don't-do-that clunkers that have plagued me in 2020. I do love this series, and the author is an auto-buy for me, so I'm prejudiced, of course. But sometimes it's just such a relief to have a well-written, emotionally satisfying GOOD book to write up.

Lady Jessica Archer. sister to the Duke of Netherby, is now twenty-five and still unmarried. Out of solidarity with her cousin and BFF Abigail, daughter of the bigamist who created the whole mess in this series, she's refused to even consider being romanced. She was happy when Abigail fell in love and married her one true guy (Someone to Honor) but she also feels a little left behind, too. So she decides it's time to find a husband.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Thorne, a new and myserious dude on the ton scene who has spent most of his life getting rich in America, decides he needs to find a wife among the privileged and titled in London. This is so he can lay claim to his true name, title and estates before the man who ruined his life grabs them. Gabriel is looking for a lady who can not only step up and take on the role of his countess, but help him protect a particularly vulnerable poor relative about to be booted to the curb by grabby life-wrecker.

I have to say first that these two are an interesting pair. Both of them have their own agendas, and neither of them are clueless. There's actually very little drama at first; it's all done by the ton book. Plus they're hard-headed, know what they want, and go after it in a fairly linear fashion. What's interesting is the slow burn of their romance despite all that. It's not as dramatic as some of the other novels in the series, but I liked it because of the deft way the author stayed true to the characters while having them fall in love.

The first part of the book suffers from lengthy series syndrome: there's a lot of backstory drop that literally has to be done so new-to-the-series readers can sort out the massive cast. Also, it's a bit slow, action-wise. A few times I actually saw where an editor probably said to Mary, "You need to explain that for the reader." Second half of the book picks up speed and things start to happen. As Gabriel's true identity is made public lots of excitement and drama ensue. Poor relative is saved, grabby guy gets his just desserts, and Jessica and Gabriel get their HEA.

Bottom line, I highly recommend Someone to Romance as a solid romance, an interesting character study and an antidote to anyone's reading woes.

Labels:

Comments

nightsmusic said…
I haven't read this series, but I do like Balogh and have read several. My go to for romance is still Anne Gracie. Gideon from The Perfect Rake is still my all time historical romance hero.
December 7, 2020 at 4:02 PM
the author said…
I meant to tell you -- I picked up a copy of Annie Gracie's The Autumn Bride to read, which will be the next romance book I tackle. I thought if you liked her so much I would, too. :)
December 7, 2020 at 4:29 PM
nightsmusic said…
I hope you like her at least. She's been an auto buy for me forever now, it seems. You know, if you don't mind your Kindle, you can borrow from my library...
December 7, 2020 at 4:38 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to
Post a Comment
Read more

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more