I'm back from my excursion to Ohio - and that better be it. Do you here me Fate? Do you hear me Various Higher Powers? No more news. I'm full up. I'm done. Seriously, it's breaking up my comfortable rut.
Various happenings have left me far behind in my reading. It's so bad that it's looking like I'll be lucky to start, let alone finish, The Trouble With Angels by Debbie Macomber which my staff book group is set to discuss on Thursday.
I also have 200 more pages to Slightly Tempted by Mary Balogh. Admittedly it took me forever to read the first 75 pages of this book. Slow, slow, slow. The characters were great, and Balogh is a great writer - I just kept waiting for the plot to show up. It finally does around page 75 when the Battle Of Waterloo gets underway.
The story? Lady Morgan Bedwyn is enjoying her first Season and coming out in Brussels when she catches the eye of Gervase Ashford, the disgraced and rakish Earl of Rosthorn. Gervase has been in exhile from England for 9 years thanks to a disgrace that Morgan's older brother, the Duke of Bewcastle, played a part in. When Gervase realizes who Morgan is (and more importantly who she is related to), he decides she's the perfect means to his end.
Then everything changes thanks to Waterloo. Gervase and Morgan find themselves living history in the making, and they become friends. They both like each other tremendously, although their friendship is raising more than a few society eyebrows. When intimacy occurs, scandal erupts, and decisions must be made.
Of course by this point, Gervase is beginning to rethink his revenge plans - for the Earl has fallen for the Lady (even if he doesn't know it yet). The trick will be convincing Lady Morgan. While I wouldn't say she's "ahead of her time," I would say she's exceedingly practical. She knows her mind, speaks it fairly freely, and isn't about to bend to society's will just because "they" think she should to save face.
This is my first Mary Balogh novel and the 4th in her series about the Bedwyn family. While this book is so far not a keeper for me (I'm exceedingly picky), it's very good and probably the best written romance I've read in a long, long time.
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