![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/wicked.jpg\")
Book 2 of the Bedwyns series, and after the slow start to book 1, this one starts in spectacular fashion and never quite lets go. It\u2019s a bit of a trope-fest, but very readable, for all that.<\/p>\nBook 2 of the Bedwyns series, and after the slow start to book 1, this one starts in spectacular fashion and never quite lets go. It\u2019s a bit of a trope-fest, but very readable, for all that.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise: Judith Law is travelling on a dismal journey, leaving behind her family to become the poor relation after her charming but feckless brother brings debt on the household. A public stagecoach is a miserable affair for a gently brought up woman, and her daydreams of a handsome highwayman scooping her up and riding away with her are poor comfort. But when the coach overturns and a lone horseman offers to rescue her, the temptation is too great. And when her rescuer offers her a brief liaison while they are trapped at a provincial posting house, she seizes the opportunity. At least she will have a little happiness to look back on in her dreary future. And her two nights of passion are all she had hoped they would be.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Judith, Lord Rannulf Bedwyn isn\u2019t the ship that passes in the night. He\u2019s staying at the neighbouring estate to her relations, and is the principal suitor for the hand of their daughter, Judith\u2019s cousin. There\u2019s no avoiding him, and although he now realises she isn\u2019t the actress and courtesan he originally thought, and offers for her from guilt, she refuses and leaves him free to pursue her cousin.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve said that the book is a positive trope-fest, and it\u2019s absolutely true. Quite apart from the penniless poor relation trope, there\u2019s the silly ingenue trope (we can blame Georgette Heyer for that one), the overbearing aunt who treats Judith as a servant, the lecherous bloke who tries to rape Judith, the compromise-the-hero-into-marrying plot device, the heroine who doesn\u2019t realise how beautiful she is trope, the heroine who runs away constantly, and finally, the revenge plot (which I won\u2019t spell out, to avoid spoiling the surprise, but none of it will surprise experienced readers of Regencies).<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Judith is a sympathetic heroine – I confess, I\u2019m a sucker for the Cinderella-type story, where the heroine does eventually go to the ball. And Rannulf makes for a wonderful hero, even if it takes him far too long to realise that he wants to marry Judith and not the silly ingenue.<\/p>\n
This being a Mary Balogh story, there is, naturally, a whole heap of sex of the relatively graphic variety, but since those two nights of passion are the whole foundation of the story, it\u2019s hard to quibble about it. The other characters are relatively minor, or else unpleasant, so they don\u2019t merit much discussion. I confess I got muddled sometimes by the two grandmothers, and wasn\u2019t always sure which one was being talked of. Another compelling read, but the weight of familiar tropes keeps it to four stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Book 2 of the Bedwyns series, and after the slow start to book 1, this one starts in spectacular fashion and never quite lets go. It\u2019s a bit of a trope-fest, but very readable, for all that. Here\u2019s the premise: Judith Law is travelling on a dismal journey, leaving behind her family to become the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-6269","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\/6269","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=6269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6271,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions\/6271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}