A very different hero in this book, Peter being far more of a beta than anything else. He’s kind to everyone, especially ladies, flirting with the young ones and being chatty and attentive to the older females, but is there anything more to him than frivolity? I liked him very much. Susanna is more difficult to like, frankly. And I’m getting heartily sick of slow, angsty romances, single women hopping into bed with a bloke without a care in the world, complicated backstories and couples who just won’t admit they’re in love. Plus coincidences everywhere, and the whole ‘last time we’ll ever meet’ thing repeated fourteen times. But it’s Mary Balogh, so there’s that.
Here’s the premise: Susanna Osbourne is another of the teachers at Miss Martin’s school for girls in Bath. She was taken in as a charity girl at the age of twelve, and then stayed on as a teacher, which she’s brilliant at, natch. Oh yes, and she’s stunningly beautiful, as all Balogh’s characters seem to be. On a summer holiday visiting a friend, she meets Peter, Viscount Whitleaf, and recognises him from her pre-school childhood, but in a negative way. He lived on a neighbouring estate, the precious only son, too good to mingle with the daughter of Lord Markham’s secretary.
She instantly despises him, but he sets himself to win her over, as he does with all females, but recognising her very different character, he doesn’t flirt with her, treating her as an equal and friend. Needless to say, she responds to his charm, realising that he’s not quite the shallow rattle she’d thought him. By the end of their two weeks, they end up having sex. Why? Because this is a Balogh book. In the previous two books, the sex made some sense but in this one, it just doesn’t.
And then, they separate, never to meet again. Until they do. Repeat ad nauseam. Well, perhaps that’s not quite fair, because every time they do meet, their interactions are fascinating. Because Balogh. And gradually, the whole of Susanna’s tragic history is revealed, inch by inch. I’m going to be honest here and say that some elements of the plot made no sense to me, leaving all sorts of unanswered questions dangling. For instance: we never find out why Lady Markham thought Susanna would be such a burden (and it was what drove her to run away, after all); we don’t know how her uncle died; I’m not at all clear why Susanna had such an aversion to Peter’s mother, since she doesn’t know until almost the end of the book what she actually did; and why didn’t Susanna know about her grandparents?
But (and it’s a big but) it doesn’t really matter, because the romance is the heart of the book and that works fine. I’d have liked it if they’d accepted that they were more than friends a bit earlier. That whole business of ‘I love him/her but I can’t marry him/her because he/she doesn’t love me’ thing went on way, way too long. But finally Peter gets it, and decides that he’s going to be decisive, deal with his mother, take control of his estate and pursue Susanna seriously. A bit late, but better late than never. And then there’s the whole big wedding thing that Balogh absolutely loves, even though it really wasn’t a thing in the Regency. But never mind.
This all sounds very critical, and maybe I was just in the wrong mood for this or maybe it suffered from being the third in the series and perhaps the weakest and maybe I just misunderstood bits of it. But despite all my grumbles, I did enjoy it and tore through it in no time and Peter was thoroughly endearing, so I’m only going to knock it down to four stars. And now on to the final book of the series and the headmistress, Claudia Martin. I’m very curious to see how Balogh gets her into bed with the hero.
Leave a Reply