{"id":3297,"date":"2021-03-08T22:24:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T22:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=3297"},"modified":"2021-03-09T20:46:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T20:46:26","slug":"review-lady-with-a-black-umbrella-by-mary-balogh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/03\/08\/review-lady-with-a-black-umbrella-by-mary-balogh\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Lady With A Black Umbrella by Mary Balogh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"\"Once you\u2019ve read a few Mary Balogh books, you begin to have some feel for what one is like, and this book\u2026 just isn\u2019t it. She\u2019s written edgy, challenging stuff, and she\u2019s written angst-heavy emotional stuff, but this lightweight, witty and downright frivolous stuff? Not so much. But boy, did I enjoy it. This is the Balogh book for those who don\u2019t like Balogh books.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Giles Fairhaven, Viscount Kincade, is in a spot of bother. On his way to Bath to visit his parents, his overnight stay at an inn is ruined when his purse is stolen. He can\u2019t pay his shot, he can\u2019t pay his debts to the casual gaming opponent of the previous night, and he can\u2019t even pay the serving wench who warmed his bed. And just when he thinks things can\u2019t get any worse, he\u2019s set upon by three ruffians in the inn yard as he\u2019s on the point of leaving. But rescue comes from an improbable quarter – a diminutive lady clad only in a nightgown and wielding a black umbrella, who sees off his assailants, sends him on his way and then pays all his debts. Even the wench.<\/p>\n

Since he and the lady both end up in town, it isn\u2019t very long before he discovers who she is and sets about repaying her and hoping to set the whole humiliating episode behind him as soon as possible. But Daisy Morrison isn\u2019t what he expected, and when she asks him to help him launch her younger sister Rose into society, he finds himself unexpectedly agreeing. The Fairhaven family is marshalled to help out, and Giles finds himself gritting his teeth and suffering from more than one of Daisy\u2019s wild starts\u2026 and also finds himself oddly attracted to her.<\/p>\n

In other hands, this would be a hot mess. Daisy is borderline unbelievable in her sunny insistence that she\u2019s an old spinster who can look after herself, thank you very much. She\u2019s a managing female of the worst kind, and completely oblivious to subtle signals, and trivialities like other people\u2019s feelings. She would be easy to dislike, but I just found her funny. Giles\u2019s intense annoyance with her escapades while also irresistibly drawn to her is a hard act to pull off. But this is Mary Balogh and so it absolutely works. And it\u2019s funny! I love a book which makes me laugh out loud, and this one really does.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one sex scene near the end which isn\u2019t particularly graphic (mainly because Daisy talks all the way through it, which is hysterical), and some fairly graphically described kissing and lusting, but otherwise if you\u2019d told me this was an undiscovered Georgette Heyer, I\u2019d totally believe it. The romance is there, but it\u2019s never spelt out until very close to the end. There are a couple of subsidiary romances that work very well without overwhelming the main couple, and the matter of the stolen purse and the ruffians is resolved rather neatly.<\/p>\n

All in all, this is something of a Marmite book, depending on whether you like Daisy or not. I found her cute and amusing, and rarely irritating because although she\u2019s often reckless of her own safety, she\u2019s not stupid. There really are sensible reasons for the things she does, even if perhaps there may be better ways to achieve her objective. OK, there are always better ways. But I can\u2019t remember when I last laughed so much at a book, so I\u2019m giving it the full five stars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once you\u2019ve read a few Mary Balogh books, you begin to have some feel for what one is like, and this book\u2026 just isn\u2019t it. She\u2019s written edgy, challenging stuff, and she\u2019s written angst-heavy emotional stuff, but this lightweight, witty and downright frivolous stuff? Not so much. But boy, did I enjoy it. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-3297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-balogh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3315,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3297\/revisions\/3315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}