The Red Rose (Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: Sweet early Balogh regency - not her best, but readable
Review: Edward, Earl of Raymore, has recently become the guardian of two young ladies, one who is the daughter of his predecessor as Earl (who was his uncle) and the other who is related to the late Countess. Rosalind Dacey, the latter of Raymore's wards, walks with a distinct limp as the result of a childhood accident; to Raymore's dismay, this makes her less marriageable as a result.

Raymore and Rosalind strike sparks off each other from the moment they meet. He wants to marry her off as soon as he can; she wants to be allowed to retire to the country and remain unmarried, thus escaping the humiliation of being found wanting by Society. He's an autocrat who dislikes women intensely, and so he expects her to obey his every order. She resents being ordered around and defies him openly on several occasions.

And yet on one occasion when she goes too far and he tells her off in his study, temper turns to irrestible attraction and he kisses her senseless.

However, someone does apparently find Rosalind attractive enough to want to marry her. But why does Raymore resent her engagement so much? Why does he seem to want to prove that her fiance isn't good enough for her? Can he simply put her out of his mind - and can she put him out of hers?

This is an enjoyable romance, but at times it does become obvious that it's one of Balogh's earlier works. There is rather too much informality between characters, which wouldn't have happened and which isn't Balogh's style in her later work. She also gets a title wrong; Raymore's unmarried cousin is several times addressed as Lady Marsh instead of Lady Sylvia, the latter being an earl's daughter and the former the wife of Lord Marsh.

Raymore's development from a misogynistic, autocratic boor to a sensitive and caring lover was not very well developed either. He went from doubting Rosalind's virtue as a result of the kiss she shared with him to (apparently) assuming that she had to be completely virtuous after all, with no real articulation of this change in his attitude.

All in all, while I enjoyed this book, I'd rather re-read another Balogh, such as A Certain Magic or Tempting Harriet.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful.
Review: I believe a book is commendable when the reader doesn't want to leave the story. In "Red Rose", Mary Balogh writes a beautiful romance, she fills the pages with touching words, thus encouraging her reader's attachment.

Some argue there is a fine line between love and hate; in these pages, Balogh capitalizes on this belief. Rosalind Dacey stands alone in life. Her outlook: single she is, and single she will remain, despite her guardian's plans. Edward Marsh, the new Earl of Raymore, has another outlook: it is his duty to marry his ward off, and marry her off he will. Two separate outlooks, two tug-of-war attitudes.

Mary Balogh sheds much light on the shaping of these two outlooks. Rosalind believes no man could tolerate her disability, her dark hair, and her unfashionable full-shapely figure. Edward Marsh hates all women, he wished to heaven he did not need them, unfortunately there is that bodily craving that has to be satisfied.

For women, the early part of the nineteen-century was complex. In the Regency era, men governed society and women had little control over their own lives. Mary Balogh does a fine job demonstrating this point to her reader. She wrote an interesting book that is both entertaining and enlightening.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful.
Review: I believe a book is commendable when the reader doesn't want to leave the story. In "Red Rose", Mary Balogh writes a beautiful romance, she fills the pages with touching words, thus encouraging her reader's attachment.

Some argue there is a fine line between love and hate; in these pages, Balogh capitalizes on this belief. Rosalind Dacey stands alone in life. Her outlook: single she is, and single she will remain, despite her guardian's plans. Edward Marsh, the new Earl of Raymore, has another outlook: it is his duty to marry his ward off, and marry her off he will. Two separate outlooks, two tug-of-war attitudes.

Mary Balogh sheds much light on the shaping of these two outlooks. Rosalind believes no man could tolerate her disability, her dark hair, and her unfashionable full-shapely figure. Edward Marsh hates all women, he wished to heaven he did not need them, unfortunately there is that bodily craving that has to be satisfied.

For women, the early part of the nineteen-century was complex. In the Regency era, men governed society and women had little control over their own lives. Mary Balogh does a fine job demonstrating this point to her reader. She wrote an interesting book that is both entertaining and enlightening.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.