At Last Comes Love

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this 3rd installment in the Huxtable sibling series. It was a great summer read--entertaining and light but with enough substance that I wasn't wincing or rolling my eyes. I did guess most of Duncan's big secret, but I did not predict the twist at the end.

Margaret Huxtable and Duncan Pennethorne are both 30 years old, which is a welcome change from the norm of historical romances and their 20-year-old heroines. They both need to find a spouse in a hurry: Margaret, because she unwisely boasted to her ex that she had a secret engagement, and Duncan, because his grandfather is going to cut off his income if he's not married within 15 days. Some secrets are kept a little too long; others are leaked too soon. And at last comes love. (*groan* Sorry! I couldn't resist.)

View all my reviews >>

Then Comes Seduction

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second in a series of four historical romance novels centered on the Huxable siblings, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a perfect summer escapist novel.

Katherine's story begins just after the end of the first book and then skips ahead three years. At the start of this book, she's 20 years old and the focus of a drunken bet: Jasper Finley bets his buddies that he can seduce her within two weeks. It's a wager that comes back to bite them in the backsides three years later when his half-sister's cousin and aunt try to use it as leverage to get control of his sister and her fortune.

There is no real advancement in solving the mystery of Constantine's behavior (a plot thread held over from book #1--First Comes Marriage), but you do see more of him in this volume. I am hoping that book #3 (At Last Comes Love or even #4 (Seducing an Angel) delves into that storyline and resolves it.

It was a fun read, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the quartet.

View all my reviews >>

First Comes Marriage

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a little while to really get into this novel, but I enjoyed it once I did. It's not my favorite of her books, although I very much appreciated the novelty of a heroine who was NOT stunningly beautiful--she's consistently described as "plain." Vanessa is, however, cheerful and kind and full of laughter, despite being such a young widow, and she marries Elliott so her older sister won't have to (the older sister pines for a man who left her to become a soldier several years earlier).

This is the first in a series, so all sorts of things are left hanging at the end. (I won't say what because that might spoil it for you.)

View all my reviews >>