This was always going to be the most fascinating book of the series. Wulfric, the Duke of Bewcastle, has been sketched in as a man without emotion, but we’ve seen in the last couple of books, first when his brother Alleyne was believed to be dead, and later when he is found again, that Wulfric isn’t really emotionless and cold at all. But he’s created such high walls around himself that it’s hard to see how any potential duchess can get past his defences.
Christine Derrick is not your typical potential duchess, however. She’s gauche and clumsy, constantly in some scrape or other, and she’s not the least bit cowed by the haughty, aristocratic duke. Far from dropping her eyes when he stares at her, she outstares him, and even as he deplores her lack of elegant manners, he’s drawn to her. She is the very opposite of him: where he is (seemingly) cold and devoid of humanity, she is fizzing with life, bringing light and joy to everyone. Even ice-cold dukes, apparently.
The challenge for an author with setting up a character as dramatic as Wulfric is to allow him to fall in love without losing the very essence of his character. It becomes necessary to show those walls coming down without somehow changing him. A man who has hidden his nature from the world for almost two decades is simply not going to melt into a puddle of emotional longing overnight. Balogh pulls this off superbly. She shows the reader both the reason for Wulfric’s protective shield and also how Christine works her way past his defences. Their moments of high drama are more about anger and violent quarrels than anything romantic. It makes for a powerful and compelling story.
This review must act as a summary of the whole series, too. I liked the varied characters, the six Bedwyns, very different from each other but united as a family. I liked the complicated backstories Balogh wove into the romances. I liked the settings, from Bath and London to the grand country houses. Balogh doesn’t spend too long on extraneous nothings like travelling; she gets straight to the next encounter between hero and heroine. I disliked the way all these heroines rushed into bed with the heroes, under the most improbable of circumstances. Sex was a huge deal for an upper-class Regency woman, and the lucky-I’m-not-pregnant casualness of it all grated on me. And naturally the virgins are all instantly orgasmic. {Rolls eyes}
But in the end, Mary Balogh gets me in the feels every time. Her women might be a little too modern and her Regency is slightly wonky to my eyes, but the writing is superb, and I tore through the entire series in double-quick time. This final book is the best of an excellent series. Five stars.
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