A couple of things stop me from giving this book a perfect A, even though I have decided that this book is a keeper. And you can imagine the potential for disaster there, especially given Georgiana's character.The situation is resolved with some unlikely help from Ralph's cousin Roger, Lord Beauchamp who is wooing Georgiana's prickly older sister Vera. The other problem? Well, Ralph, you see, is a virgin hero.
GENTLE READER I MARRIED HIM HOW TO
The more mature and married Georgiana is not sure how to deal with her. One is Ralph's mother, now the Dowager Countess, who is used to getting her way and who makes her family dance attendance on her. Georgiana, originally miffed at the thought of being in the country, takes to life as a Countess both in the country and in town. He does think that his new bride has surprising depths of character, and if only she shared his interests, everything will be perfect. And Ralph falls in love with her.No, Ralph does not tumble to the truth. So Georgiana, a definite hoyden used to getting her way, agrees to play the demure maiden.
If she does not - well, she can spend the rest of her life buried in the country. Marriage, his mother, thinks will mature him - and also secure the succession.Miss Georgiana Burton is told by her angry father, after yet another scrape, that she must accept Lord Chartley's marriage proposal and behave with decorum until the marriage. Young Ralph is shy, gentle, diffident and completely unlikely his father or his younger brother. The hero Ralph, Lord Chartley, is urged by his mother and aunt to marry so that he may "grow" into his position, inherited from his father. This is not a spoiler, because it is obvious from the start. If you don't like the idea, you should probably avoid this book. It stands up pretty well in comparison even to her middle-period Regencies (including such masterpieces as The Notorious Rake) and her late Regencies (including Snow Angel and The Temporary Wife). I consider this book to be the best of her early traditional (or short) Regencies. While others prefer Red Rose, or The Wood Nymph, or The Trysting Place (among Mary Balogh's books published in or before 1990). Very enjoyable not quite a 5-star, but definitely a keeper! And why did Roger, considered a rake by his contemporaries, have such moral standards when it came to affairs? They were fascinating characters, and their story should have been a sequel to this one. Really, this should have been a book on its own I wanted to know what had happened to make Vera so cynical about men and so unwilling to believe that Roger might be interested in her. Nicely done! The second secondary romance, between Roger and Vera, was lovely - so much so that I wanted *more*. They did mature very nicely, and Ralph in particular turned out to be a hero I liked very much.Georgiana's solution to the problem of their marriage was ingenious, and not one I was expecting at all. I did find both Georgiana and Ralph rather immature at the start of the book, but then that's to be expected: he was barely 21 and she was 18. Gerald in A Precious Jewel was also a virgin, though there Prissy was the one with the experience. The virgin hero - Ralph, here - doesn't bother me in the slightest it's not the first Balogh I've read where that was the case. She's said all I would have said, and more. I'm not going to go into details about the plot of this book just read bookjunkie's excellent review below for that.
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