One Night for Love Book

I'm on a Mary Balogh kick.

This was good. Four stars in some places.

The heroine stops the hero from marrying another woman literally at the altar, but it's no cutesy scene. The consequences are devastating for the other woman and even the heroine.

Lily is an illiterate, fun, sweet gyspy-ish girl as she was raised traveling with the British army with her Sargeant father. There's a hint of Mary Sue about her, but she's not annoying. The hero had married her to protect her, but thinks she is killed shortly after they consummate their marriage. It's now 18 months later, and he is now an Earl getting ready to marry a childhood friend. Too bad he never mentioned he was married as everyone is horrified that he's jilted pretty and perfect Lauren as well as the fact that Lily is no lady. Social and class issues run amuck. The H's mother's reaction is pretty understandable and not too OTT, but two characters reactions are and really colored my enjoyment.

Lauren, the martyred, jilted fiancee is understandably bitter, but her admission even to me as the reader that she wants the heroine dead was a little much. The real kicker is the H's sister, Gwendoline, the heroine from The Proposal. If you liked her in that book, I would seriously suggest NOT reading this one as she goes on a ripping tear and announces she wished the heroine dead, etc and so forth. It's a minor issue, but I think I noticed it all the more having read/re-read so many of the Survivors Club series recently where Gwen is sweetness and light.

Anyhoo, that unpleasantness aside, the H is thrilled to have Lily back, but the conundrum is she is miserable in Regency England upper society. Illiterate, more comfortable with the servants than the Earl's family and friends and unencumbered by the social restrictions of the others, she knows she is a fish out of water and a potential embarrassment. In fairness to the H he doesn't want to change her, and there lies the crux of the breakup.

Turns out the marriage wasn't legal so the heroine leaves with one of the hero's relatives to be a companion. In London, she quickly starts to gain some of the polish and skills to fit in. The hero follows.

There is a secondary plot regarding someone who tries to kill Lily as well as a secondary romance.

Four stars for Lily as well as the love between the H and h, but the hero's efforts just don't measure up times. He says all the right things, he loves Lily for who she is, but he seems a little too beta for me. His name is Neville after all. Plus my HUGE side eye to Gwendoline and Lauren. Be gone witches.

Off to read Lauren's book and see if she redeems herself somehow or if there is a fictional whitewash that sometimes happens when a character jumps books…cough Diana Palmer heroes.