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Slightly Tempted

Slightly Tempted

List Price: $5.99
Your Price: $5.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Vastly tepid
Review: Ms. Balogh used to write readable books, such as 'Lord Carew's Bride', 'Longing', etc. However, the mass production of the 'Slight...' series proves to be slight in quality or emotional intensity.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 4.5 Stars.
Review: Oh how I love a good story, the kind you can't put down, and here Mary Balogh has written such a novel. Her heroine, Morgan Bedwyn, continues the family saga and Balogh's character is true to her ancestral traits. Morgan Bedwyn is intelligent, strong-willed, and she bulldozes her way through society's strict rules. However, kindness and affection also influence this leading lady's personality. In "Slightly Tempted", Mary Balogh has successfully developed a favorable young woman.

Gervase Ashford, the Earl of Rosthorn, has acquired a life long enemy -- Wulfric Bedwyn, the Duke of Bewcastle. Callously seeking revenge against his arch enemy, Ashford chooses his weapon of retribution -- the lovely Lady Morgan Bedwyn, the virginal sister of the celebrated Duke of Bewcastle.
Scornful vengeance may have activated Ashford's feelings toward the charming Morgan Bedwyn, but soon his passion changes into fondness, friendship, and finally love. The author slowly develops this ardent intensity; yet, Balogh never bores her reader with her lingering pen. Forgiveness and understanding become the story's centralized theme and draw a satisfactory path to the story's end.

Also impressive, the description and feelings the writer conveys circling the days leading up to the Battle of Waterloo. Again Balogh's vivid words are both informative and interesting but never boring, a history lesson the reader can relish.

This is a good book and I look forward to continuing with the Bedwyn family saga in Balogh's next two installments. Happy writing Mary Balogh.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It was okay
Review: Overall, I did enjoy the book and am glad that I read it. It did not, however, live up to my expectations as the other books in the Bedwyn series did. It started off a little slow, and I didn't really get into it until a little over halfway through the book. After that, though, it was really good. It had a really sweet ending and it pulled at my heart strings. I also liked how they showed a more vulnerable side of Wulf throughout the book. I can't wait until Mary writes his story.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Read, Don't Miss It
Review: Please don't be misled by some of the previous reviews. This is a wonderful book and the author absolutely DOES NOT belabor her subject with personal opinion. I love CHARACTERS with strong opinions on war or any other subject, and I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Balogh's latest romantic tale of the Bedwyn family. I appreciate romance novels that rise above the level of Boy Meets Girl, and this, like all of Ms. Balogh's books, is a multi-layered page turner. Though many of the characterizations are familiar to Regency readers, the depth of emotion the author is able to evoke always raises the level of the writing. Unlike some of the previous readers, I found that having much of the romance based upon events surrounding the Battle of Waterloo an enhancement of the story, and would have enjoyed reading even more about it. I would certainly expect that two characters swept up in the great event of the age would discuss the war at even greater length than they do here; and these discussions are important to both plot and the characterization of Morgan and Gervase as well as the characters around them. (For those who actually enjoy a historical background in their historical romances, another wonderful romance novel set at the Battle of Waterloo is by Georgette Heyer, entitled An Infamous Army). Characters with too many opinions??? I'm mystified. Aren't there more than enough novels with cardboard characters engaged in trivial, romantic trash talk? Since I happen to be addicted to romance novels, I treasure the ones with richness and depth. This is yet another Mary Balogh treasure.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Morgan and Gervase, sittin in a tree
Review: Slightly tempted? Puh-leeze. I would say that these two were far more than simply tempted. They were tantalizing with their very French waltzes, stolen kisses, embraces in the moonlight. Who knew Brussels at wartime held so much sexual tension? A sweet and saucy tale of two very different personalities, coming together to make a perfect pair. And the ending? How can Ms. Balogh leave her readers hanging that way without remorse? Oh- she KNEW we'd have to go out and get the next in the series!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Vastly tepid
Review: The heart of a romance is character, and Balogh is gifted at presenting that. Morgan is particularly attractive and believable, aside from a brief episode towards the end of the book where her innate nobility seems to be shunted for a somewhat contrived plot point. Still, Morgan and Gervase are compelling enough to forgive the departure. Their story is both uplifting and entertaining.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Love the People, Love the Book
Review: The heart of a romance is character, and Balogh is gifted at presenting that. Morgan is particularly attractive and believable, aside from a brief episode towards the end of the book where her innate nobility seems to be shunted for a somewhat contrived plot point. Still, Morgan and Gervase are compelling enough to forgive the departure. Their story is both uplifting and entertaining.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another Touching Book by Mary Balogh.
Review: This book is full of characters that draw you into the story. Although I enjoyed all of the BEDWYNS, It is by far the best of her "Slightly" Series. I couldn't put it down and finished it in one day!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not first rate Balogh
Review: This fourth entry in the Balogh's "Slightly" series suffers the same problem hinted at in the title: it's "slightly" entertaining. I haven't been able to warm up to any of the Bedwyn family stories. These people are too rich, too smug, too smart, too complacent, too charmed, too good-looking (oh! I forgot! Some of them have big noses!) and just a tad too shallow.

I'm a huge fan of Balogh's work so it greatly pains me to have to write a luke-warm review of her latest. The plot here is predictable, as others have written, and the heroine and hero are just not very compelling characters. Most distressing of all, however, is Balogh's attempt to make the heroine a budding feminist and pacifist through long-winded, sophomoric rants about women's rights and the inanity of war. Please, Mary, keep the PC jargon out of your novels! I want to read about people in the early 19th century and feel I'm really there, not simply reading about early 21st century sterotypes dressed up in Regency togs.

Balogh has written some minor masterpieces (Heartless, The Devil's Web, Longing, The Christmas Bride, No Man's Mistress) and many solid, wonderful Regency reads but Slightly Tempted isn't one of them. If you must read it (as I find I must read every Balogh book) wait for it at the library.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Slightly long and drawn out
Review: This is the first and last book I will read from this author. I couldn't get into it and I found myself skimming the pages until I finally had to replace it with another novel. It was a well written book but not the book for me. Maybe because I like humor and romance. I look to be uplifted from my reading material and this book failed on that score for me.


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