A Promise of Spring (Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: Another touching story by Mary Balogh.
Review: There are 2 things that make Mary Balogh such a great writer (to me). First is her ability to create stories with original plots and conflicts. Never once have I started a Balogh book knowing, just from pure experience as an avid Regency reader, what her story is going to be about or how the conflict is going to be resolved. With so many Regency romance novels out there, that alone is a very huge feat. A Promise of Spring is a story about the marriage between a woman matured through the years by very painful experiences and a man 10 years her junior. Given that in the period she writes, marriages between women and men much much older than them were the norm, the backward approach Balogh takes in this novel is a pure original.

The second thing that makes Balogh such a wonderful writer is her ability to delve into the characters' beings, to portray them to the reader in a way that makes them real and believable. Her characters are never EVER flat. She deftly takes us into the minds and the hearts of her players each and every time, so that we the readers can understand and sympathize with them and their dilemma. That's why her stories are always so moving (I couldn't name a single Balogh title that didn't form tears in my eyes), because we feel what the characters feel. Or perhaps it's the other way around--Balogh creates her characters so fully, so convincingly, giving them all the emotions and vulnerability of a normal human being like you or me, that the characters are no longer just players in a fiction--they are the representatives of real people, they feel what WE feel. In that, we get the sense that the author understands us, which in turn makes it that much easier for us to empathize with the characters in her book.

This is vintage Balogh at her finest. The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that I reserve that for the extra EXTRA good books that not only have depth of character and originality but also wit and humour, something Balogh's books tend to lack. Which isn't to say that this book isn't worth the read--it is!

Rating:
Summary: Another touching story by Mary Balogh.
Review: There are 2 things that make Mary Balogh such a great writer (to me). First is her ability to create stories with original plots and conflicts. Never once have I started a Balogh book knowing, just from pure experience as an avid Regency reader, what her story is going to be about or how the conflict is going to be resolved. With so many Regency romance novels out there, that alone is a very huge feat. A Promise of Spring is a story about the marriage between a woman matured through the years by very painful experiences and a man 10 years her junior. Given that in the period she writes, marriages between women and men much much older than them were the norm, the backward approach Balogh takes in this novel is a pure original.

The second thing that makes Balogh such a wonderful writer is her ability to delve into the characters' beings, to portray them to the reader in a way that makes them real and believable. Her characters are never EVER flat. She deftly takes us into the minds and the hearts of her players each and every time, so that we the readers can understand and sympathize with them and their dilemma. That's why her stories are always so moving (I couldn't name a single Balogh title that didn't form tears in my eyes), because we feel what the characters feel. Or perhaps it's the other way around--Balogh creates her characters so fully, so convincingly, giving them all the emotions and vulnerability of a normal human being like you or me, that the characters are no longer just players in a fiction--they are the representatives of real people, they feel what WE feel. In that, we get the sense that the author understands us, which in turn makes it that much easier for us to empathize with the characters in her book.

This is vintage Balogh at her finest. The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that I reserve that for the extra EXTRA good books that not only have depth of character and originality but also wit and humour, something Balogh's books tend to lack. Which isn't to say that this book isn't worth the read--it is!

Rating:
Summary: Opposites attract, and so do older women!
Review: Thirty-five-year-old Grace Howard has kept house in the village of Abbotsford for her younger brother, Paul, the vicar, for nine years. The Howards seem to have no other family. Unbeknownst to the villagers, Paul and Grace left home after an acrimonious family quarrel, occasioned by the accidental death of Grace's out-of-wedlock child. Now Paul is dead, also the result of an accident involving great heroism: he saved a farm laborer's child and lost his own life. Grace has no one to turn to, think Paul's friends and his parishioners, so one of them, Sir Peregrine Lampman, offers to marry her. Grace agrees, but only after she tells him her tragic story. It will be a marriage of convenience, but Perry is fond of her, and she of him, though he is ten years her junior. He is also an outwardly jolly, gently flirtatious man who adores women...of all ages...and they, him. By contrast, Grace is quiet, of a serious bent, almost severe. And so begins this romance of a seemingly mis-matched pair who overcome family estrangement and the sudden appearance of Grace's old lover from the past and begin, slowly, to forge their own happiness. They have been right for each other all along, despite the age and personality differences. Sweet and gentle, and one of Mary Balogh's most heart-rending, poignant love stories, this is also one of her most unforgettable Regency novels. It was a daring move to make the heroine so much older than the hero, but Balogh---in her inimitable fashion--- makes it work!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Regency romances
Review: This is my favorite short Regency by Balogh. When his friend dies, leaving his sister destitute and alone, Lord Perry marries her, despite being ten years her junior. To their surprise, in a marriage began in kindness on his part and gratitude on hers, Grace and Perry begin to find real love, a love that is put to the test when secrets from Grace's past are revealed. This is a sweet, touching story about two good people who discover love despite the odds.