Not Quite Enough

I was casting around for something to read, and I realized that I never read one of Mary Balogh's last Regencies, A Christmas Bride. Surprising, since it's the sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, A Precious Jewel. So I reread two of the prequels - The Ideal Wife and A Precious Jewel, and then finally read A Christmas Bride.

I read The Ideal Wife many years ago, so I had vague memories of it. The opening setup is almost identical to The Temporary Wife. I know several people who prefer The Ideal Wife, but for me, it doesn't have the emotional depth of The Temporary Wife. (Perhaps it's unfair to compare, but it's hard not to, when the situations are so similar.) It's a fine book, but not something I'd turn to again and again, the way I do with some of Balogh's books.

A Precious Jewel was lovely, as always. I've read it at least half a dozen times, and every time, it touches my heart. One of the things I liked best about A Christmas Bride was the reunion with Gerald and Prissy. In most cases, I don't really need to know what happens after the "happily ever after" but I wanted to know more about what happened to Gerald and Prissy, and I was pleased that Balogh acknowledged what they sacrificed (acceptance in society) for each other.

A Christmas Bride by Mary Balogh
(1997, Regency) 7/29/07
Grade: 3.5

Balanced between the worlds of cit and ton, Edgar Downes has decided to find a wife. Although he intends to marry a suitable young ladies, he ends up in bed with 36 year old widow Helena Stapleton - and when that night has unexpected consequences, he finds himself with a Christmas bride - a prickly, unhappy bride who needs his help to find forgiveness.

Although I normally like Regencies, this story could have used more space. The setup for the story (Edgar and Helena going to bed together) doesn’t really work. Supposedly Helena was carried away, but it didn’t seem consistent with their emotional states - the author didn’t really convince me that Helena changed her mind so abruptly, or that she was overwhelmed by lust. Helena wasn’t a particularly likeable character, and it took Balogh such a long time to set up the situation that I didn’t feel that I got to know either the hero and heroine until over half the book was over. It definitely got better in the second half, althogh Balogh has done the “charming rural Christmas” scenes in a lot of other books. The final reconciliation between Helena and Gerald was very touching, and because of that, I gave this book a slightly higher grade. But I think Balogh could have done more with these characters, if she hadn’t spent so much of the book setting up an “interesting situation”.

Helena's character was frustrating in this book. On one hand, I like characters who aren't the typical "nicey-nice romance heroine". But I had a hard time warming up to Helena, maybe because so much of the book was taken up by other things. I just felt like this book was missing something.