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Title: Gentle Conquest by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0-451-15099-6 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 December, 1987 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $2.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The best of Balogh's early Regencies.
Comment: While others prefer Red Rose, or The Wood Nymph, or The Trysting Place (among Mary Balogh's books published in or before 1990). I consider this book to be the best of her early traditional (or short) Regencies. 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).
Gentle Conquest features a virgin hero. Let us get that out of the way. If you don't like the idea, you should probably avoid this book. This is not a spoiler, because it is obvious from the start.
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. Young Ralph is shy, gentle, diffident and completely unlikely his father or his younger brother. Marriage, his mother, thinks will mature him - and also secure the succession. [She however exhibits a decided preference for Ralph's younger brother Stanley].
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. If she does not - well, she can spend the rest of her life buried in the country. No balls, no parties, no new dresses. So Georgiana, a definite hoyden used to getting her way, agrees to play the demure maiden. And Ralph falls in love with her.
No, Ralph does not tumble to the truth. He does think that his new bride has surprising depths of character, and if only she shared his interests, everything will be perfect. Georgiana, originally miffed at the thought of being in the country, takes to life as a Countess both in the country and in town. There are just a couple of problems. 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. The more mature and married Georgiana is not sure how to deal with her. The other problem? Well, Ralph, you see, is a virgin hero. 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.
A couple of things stop me from giving this book a perfect A, even though I have decided that this book is a keeper.
Firstly, it is almost inconceivable that Ralph (or his relatives) would not have heard about Georgiana's reputation before their marriage. No, she was not promiscuous, but she had a reputation for being somewhat wild (fast, in Regency speak). Is it possible that no one on Ralph's side (barring his cousin Roger) would have learned of this before or even after the marriage?
Secondly, the author employs the same trick used in her first book A Masked Deception, to bring the resolution of the conflict between Georgiana and Ralph about. That resolution is more successful here, than in A Masked Deception for several reasons. However, I have to admit that I found that I had to swallow my sense of the real to accept that.
Also, since I liked the tone of the first half of the book (where we see both Ralph and Georgiana mature after their marriage), I found the second half a bit jarring. The first half reminded me strongly of Carla Kelly's books and heroes, the second half put a Kellyesque hero in a Balogh setting which felt odd. Although I liked the secondary romance between Vera and Roger, I wanted more of Ralph and Georgie.
There were small errors with titles which Balogh does not usually make in her later books, but these were negligible.
This book is out-of-print and pretty expensive, but it is worth a read if you are fond of Balogh, or if your tastes run to character-driven quieter romances. Keep in mind that GENTLE CONQUEST is not the typical Balogh; the heroine is a Balogh heroine to a large degree, but the hero is most untypical for the usual Balogh hero. The conflict that drives the story is not grand intrigue or petty jealousy and lack of trust, but rather the shyness and uncertainties between a newly married couple who do not know each other well.
Rating = A-
Note: I am writing this review, along with one other (to be posted later) because I had long promised some people to share my impressions of these books. In effect, this is an overdue review, which has not been polished up.
Rating: 4
Summary: Very different Regency
Comment: I'm not going to go into details about the plot of this book; just read bookjunkie's excellent review below for that. She's said all I would have said, and more.
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. Gerald in A Precious Jewel was also a virgin, though there Prissy was the one with the experience. 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. 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. Nicely done!
The second secondary romance, between Roger and Vera, was lovely - so much so that I wanted *more*. 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. 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.
Very enjoyable; not quite a 5-star, but definitely a keeper!
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Title: A Certain Magic (Signet Regency Romance) by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451169166 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: The Red Rose (Regency Romance) by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451141571 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: A Promise of Spring (Regency Romance) by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451164040 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 January, 1990 List Price(USD): $3.50 |
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Title: The Constant Heart by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451148835 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 July, 1987 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: The Wood Nymph by Mary Balogh ISBN: 0451146506 Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 January, 1987 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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