Simply Love by Mary Balogh

One problem with a long-running series is that many authors seem to think that readers are as familiar with the books and the characters as the author is. Maybe the fan girls can recite Bedwyn family genealogy back three generations, but I've read a lot of other books, in between reading the Balogh books, and my memory isn't that good. So, when an author starts throwing in characters that date back 8 or 10 books ago (including secondary characters), I only have the vaguest memory of who they are. It's like being at someone else's family reunion and having Aunt Tallulah run up and grab you, saying "you remember me, don't you?" Uhhh, no.

Simply Love by Mary Balogh
(2006, Regency Historical) 9/20/08
Grade: 4

After having a child out of wedlock, Anne Jewell was relieved to have a job as a teacher. But when she takes her son to visit the Bedwyn family in Wales, she is unexpectedly attracted to Sydnam Butler, the steward who was badly injured in the war. He lives almost as a recluse, hiding his injured face and body from the world. But Anne makes him dream of more.

When I read the description on the back of the book, I knew where this book was going, and I almost decided not to read it. But I went ahead anyway, and I’m glad I did, although the book wasn’t as wonderful as it could have been. I really loved the hero and heroine. Both of them were well characterized, particularly Sydnam. (Although, the heroine was treated in a pretty modern way - I find it hard to believe that an unwed mother would be accepted as readily in Regency England.) The book gave them a lot of time to simply talk and explore their relationship, my favorite kind of book! However, the main problem with the book was the “Bedwyn family reunion” atmosphere. The author managed to shoehorn in just about every character from her previous books (even the most minor), and this crowd of characters intruded on the story (and even though I read most of the previous books, I had a hard time remembering who was who. It was annoying.) This became such a distraction from the main story that it made me mark down the grade. But still, it was a lovely romance.

How realistic do we want our historicals to be? In the last book, I was a little put off by the imperious way the hero and heroine treated the servants at the beginning of the book. And yet, that's surely realistic to the times. Here, the realism was a little Disney-fied. Would an unwed mother really be treated so kindly, at a girls school for the upper classes? Even as little as 40 years ago here in the U.S., unwed mothers were considered so scandalous that the mothers were almost always pressured to give up their babies. (I was adopted under such circumstances.) It's a nice thought, that "single mother" Anne would be loved and accepted by all, but I suspect it's a fantasy.