Historical Romance
Finally Gwendoline, Lady Muir gets her story. I have wondered about her since she
first appeared in One Night For Love.
She has had bit parts in many of book that followed. She has always been portrayed as happy
with her life as a widow but there has been a bit of a mystery about her
marriage and how it ended. We find
out the truth in The Proposal.
Mary Balogh has woven a story that touches on issues that
are still important today and set them in a believable historical setting. Hugo, Lord Trentham is a war hero who
is still suffering for the effects of the Napoleonic wars. He is one of six
veterans who healed together and meet once a year. He is from a working class background his father having made
a fortune and left it all to Hugo.
He does not like or trust the upper class.
Guin is from the upper class. She also has trauma in her
past. When they meet there is
instant attraction but both feel it will not work because they come from
different backgrounds.
It is fun to see how they work around all of their problems
and how they help each other continue to heal.
If you have read all of the Simply and Slightly series you
will see some of the previous protagonists make brief appearances in The
Proposal. I had to check out who
some of them were as I did not remember their rank only their names.
This is not my favorite Mary Balogh book. It did not catch me as some of the
others have but it is still a good story.
That being said I was glad to finally get Gwen’s story. This is the first book in a new seven book series titled The Survivors' Club Series. The other six books
will be about the other veterans who we meet in The Proposal. That should keep us supplied with our
Mary Balogh fix for the next several years.
Delacorte Press published The Proposal by Mary Balogh in 2012.
I received an ARC of The Proposal from Amazon Vine.
I like Mary Balogh's writing. I am often intrigued by her choices of heroine and hero. The Proposal is one of those that made me turn my head to the side. Sometimes she seems to champion the less-than-perfect heroine or hero.
ReplyDeleteHere she's set up what I hope will be a series of the less-than-perfect. She's created a group of veterans (with one widow of a veteran) who came together for healing. They still come together in a yearly reunion. Hugo is at this reunion. He needs the company of friends after a trying year in which his father died. He is now a very wealthy manufacturer as well as a titled lord. That title came at a great cost during the War and plays a large part in his self-esteem issues.