TEST
The Temporary Wife is one of those perfect romances, where the emphasis is on romance rather than a lot of extracurricular activity. And within the scope of the category-sized story, Balogh delivers a master class on how to write a Marriage of Convenience plot.
Anthony Earheart, the Marquess of Staunton looks for a wife under the guise of advertising for a governess. He interviews a meek woman with a quiet voice who’s well past her first bloom of youth, and offers her marriage wife on the spot. Staunton is bent on revenge and wants to marry a nobody in order to spite his father. Staunton’s whole family is set against him, because many years ago, he left home in high dudgeon and in disgrace.
Charity Duncan is opinionated but desperately wants to please. Her father has left her and her siblings destitute and encumbered with debts, so she knows she needs to make a good impression if she is to secure the post. She is stunned at the windfall that greets her: a title, a marriage in name only, a quick separation, and an income of six thousand pounds a year. She accepts Stauton’s offer without hesitation. And so they embark on their mad adventure, each with trepidation in their hearts but stalwart resolution in their purpose.
I loved seeing how Charity, with her tender concern and her innate sense of fairness and goodness, starts to turn the family members towards each other while drawing closer to Anthony at the same time. All is not smooth sailing, however. Emotions run high, and Anthony has a tendency to run roughshod over those who oppose him. But by degrees, he starts paying attention to Charity, and by osmosis, her calm and goodness seep through his defenses. This is such a lovely book!
Grade: A Sensuality: Subtle
A Promise of Spring is a fabulous story of a young ingénue, a marriage of convenience, and a spouse who is ten years older – but the hero is the young innocent and the heroine the older and more experienced of the two. This book is a true commentary on how a couple, who’ve known each other peripherally but are now yoked together, negotiates marriage.
Peregrine Lampman is society’s golden boy, flirtatious with women both young and old and always ready with a quip and a smile. But when his closest friend dies, he offers marriage to his sister, a stoic, unemotional woman ten years older than he is. He doesn’t balk from his decision even when she tells him that she had previously had a child out of wedlock who subsequently died.
Grace and Perry grow to respect each other, find comfort in each other, and learn to love each other. Love doesn’t always have to be accompanied by earthshattering passion; a quiet love where the participants are mutually satisfied, but have much in common outside the bedroom and hold each other in trust is a beautiful thing to behold. A Promise of Spring is a gentle story where the emphasis is on all the work that goes into making a marriage of equals, where jealousy and possessiveness play no part. It is supplanted by a belief in the other person’s right to choose what they want to do in life even when a figure from Grace’s past reappears and looms ominously over their happiness.
This is a powerful, powerful story with moments of such tenderness. A must read!
Grade: A Sensuality: Subtle
Both The Temporary Wife and A Promise of Spring are two previously-published books that have been reprinted in an omnibus edition. They’re quintessential traditional Regencies and by such a talented author; I loved the time I spent reading them and plan to re-read soon.
Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K
Grade: A
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 12/07/17
Publication Date: 02/2012
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I’m an amateur student of medieval manuscripts, an editor and proofreader, a choral singer, a lapsed engineer, and passionate about sunshine and beaches. In addition to reviewing books for All About Romance, I write for USA TODAY Happy Ever After and my blog Cogitations & Meditations. Keira Soleore is a pseudonym.
Related Reviews
I found TTW very moving. By the time Anthony works out what has happened within his family and wants Charity to know how much she means to him, she’s left. It made me ache with tears for all his thoughtless comments and missed moments. This is one of my favorite Mary Balogh books, too. I think I’ve read nearly all of them. They take up many shelves in my library.
Yes, his self-involvement in spitting in everyone’s eye makes him miss the treasure he had under his eyes until she leaves. I loved how Ms. Balogh built up Anthony and Charity’s relationship and then rent it asunder, leaving it to him to understand, mature, and repair. Wonderful!
You have such wealth on your shelves!
I think Charity is 23, so not sure I’d characterize her as past the first bloom of youth. From my vantage point (even my youngest child is now older than that), it seems quite young to me. TTW is one of my favorite books by Balogh, which means it is one of my favorite romances. Among other things, while Balogh is not known for steamy sex scenes, she is Very Good at showing how sex fits into the arc of a relationship — much better than some who simply describe tab A fitting into slot B. The resolution of the bitter relationship between Anthony and his father is a bit pat, but I loved the book despite this shortcoming. The rest is so good it more than makes up for it.
I agree, she’s only 23, but during that era where the emphasis was on marriage before 21, 23 was deemed a mature woman, no longer an ingénue.
I agree that Anthony’s relationships with all his family members do get resolved without too many hitches, but I gave Balogh a pass there because of the brevity of those novels. The resolution was believable if a tad too fortuitous.
I own this two-for-one reissue. I’ve only read The Temporary Wife (which I very much liked) but not A Promise of Spring because, frankly, I saw so many bad reviews of the latter. But now you make me want to read it, thank you!
BTW, for those who enjoyed The Temporary Wife, I can recommend Balogh’s A Christmas Promise and The Plumed Bonnet, if you have not yet read them. Both similar to TTW in that you have a woman who marries above her station and encounters challenging circumstances (that ultimately resolve into a satisfying HEA, of course).
I enjoyed TTW, and A Christmas Promise is one of my favourite Baloghs – one of my favourite HRs actually.
I really liked A Promise of Spring. It is an uncommon book, a gentle book, where trust plays such a big role in the relationship.
Thank you for your recs! I’m off to look for them on Amazon now. Balogh’s older Regencies are so good.