New Books Review

Book Review: First Comes Marriage: Mary Balogh, Anne Flosnik: BooksVanessa’s book -The Huxtable Quintet series,

By Misuzmama (New York, USA) -
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)
  

This review is from: First Comes Marriage (Mass Market Paperback)

The quaint village of Throckbridge in Shropshire is all abuzz with the news that a viscount is staying at the local inn. The gossiping tongues immediately start wagging and nearly every female sighs in delight when the devastatingly handsome -and eligible!- lord arrives at the annual St. Valentines assembly. Bored and agitated, Elliot Wallace, Viscount Lyngate, simply wants to fulfill his task and is impatient to remove himself from this backwater country as soon as possible. Plain and recently out of mourning widow, Vanessa Huxtable Dew, takes an immediate disliking to the arrogant aristocrat but is determined to make to best of the night despite being maneuvered into dancing with the disagreeable man. But her interaction with him is not so short lived for he calls upon her family the next day and shockingly informs them that their brother, a mere boy of seventeen, is the new Earl of Merton. Lyngate insists that his new ward must be immediately removed to Warren Hall in Hampshire (Merton’s principle seat) and begin tutoring/training for his responsibilities. As a close knit family, the three Huxtable sisters are determined to accompany their younger brother. Not pleased with the change of events Lyngate submits and looks grimly ahead to the daunting task of launching three women into society . Soon it becomes apparent that marriage to one of the sisters solves a myriad of problems on both sides. Lyngate fulfills his duty, and promise to his grandfather, in acquiring a bride. She, in turn, takes on the burden of preparing her sisters for the ton. But Lyngate is in for one more surprise. He has somehow gotten himself engaged, not to the oldest and prettiest sister, but to Vanessa, the plain unpleasant one who has sacrificed herself in her sisters place. Ultimately he resigns within himself to go forth with the wedding. After all how terrible could it be having a wife who promises complete loyalty and devotion?

Balogh is one of my favorite romance authors but I just didn’t really care for this first book in the Huxtable series. Although the writing, character development and historical details are top notch, it is the romance itself that I found to be less than appealing. I felt like Elliot and Vanessa were as mismatched as they come and unlike in other books (Slightly Dangerous for example) there was no spark, no passion between these two. I do not mind a slow moving love story if it comes to a satisfying conclusion. In the end, however, I had the distinct impression that they had settled into a content marriage, far less than the wedded bliss I’ve come to expect. Vanessa exudes delight and laughter bringing joy to everyone around her but not Elliot. She claims that it will be her mission to please him and make the humorless man laugh. But he seems unaffected by her charms until nearly the end. I also found it tiresome that Vanessa’s lack of beauty was referred to over and over again -nearly every twenty pages. And I longed for duty-minded Elliot to come to his senses and finally admit that their marriage had come to mean much more than convenience. He kept flip-flopping back and forth in his mind which was irritating. And when he finally did admit his feelings it happened altogether too quickly and lacked a certain sincerity.

A less than satisfying romance, hopefully the rest of the series will be better.

My Balogh romance shelf keepers (besides the above Slightly Dangerous):
The Notorious Rake
Heartless
Truly
More than a Mistress
Simply Love

First book in new series,

By Helen Hancox “Auntie Helen” (Essex, England) -
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)
  

  

This review is from: First Comes Marriage (Mass Market Paperback)

‘First Comes Marriage’ is the first in a new series by Mary Balogh following the fortunes and loves of three sisters and one brother. At the start of this book we meet the Huxtable family, eldest sister Margaret, youngest sister Katherine, young brother Stephen and the middle sister, Vanessa Dew. Vanessa is a widow, having married a neighbour who died a year and a half ago. Although Vanessa still lives with her in-laws, her three siblings live in a small cottage and make do with minimal money.

When a viscount comes to stay in the local inn the village is intrigued, especially when he attends the assembly dance. However the Huxtable family are astounded the next day when they discover that their lot is going to change significantly. As they find themselves moving to a new area and preparing to be introduced to polite society, it seems that Viscount Lyngate is planning to ask the eldest sister, Margaret, to marry him. But Vanessa knows Margaret still carries a torch for her young love, serving overseas in the army, and so she persuades Lyngate to marry her instead.

As Vanessa and Elliott settle down to married life, she has to come to terms with his rather sober and unsmiling demeanour and he with her feelings for her dead husband. Some of his past actions may come back to haunt him, along with a former good friend who may well be a rogue, and Vanessa has to cope with her own poor self-image. Can they find happiness and love in a marriage of convenience?

Mary Balogh is, in my opinion, one of the finest writers of Regency romances today. ‘First Comes Marriage’ has all her trademark skills, including deep characterisation, flawed and yet appealing characters and historical accuracy. She falls unexpectedly into a trap laid by Georgette Heyer who coined in her own books the term ‘Cheltenham Tragedy’ (which appears twice in this book) and which Heyer used for a plagiarism lawsuit against another author who used the phrase. There were also times in this book where it did feel very much like the start of a series; there was a great deal of scene setting at the beginning and we followed some of the other characters (to be featured in further books) more closely than one might normally expect for a standalone novel. I also felt that the falling-in-love aspect of the book was perhaps a little more rushed than it might have been. Despite these minor comments I found this to be another excellent read which had emotion, action and character in abundance.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009

A good start to Balogh’s new series - not as strong as the Bedwyn kick-off, but enjoyable (3.5 stars),

By Philippa J. (United States) -

This review is from: First Comes Marriage (Mass Market Paperback)

I am an almost-always faithful Balogh fan and I was not disappointed in Book 1 of the Huxtable Quintet, First Comes Marriage. Though I had some complaints which I have detailed below, on the whole I found the book very enjoyable and worth a quick rush to the bookstore (forgive me, Amazon.com) and the postponing of my schoolwork.

HUXTABLE FAMILY:
The Huxtable family is made up of four siblings; both of their parents are deceased (for 8+ years). Margaret Huxtable is the eldest at 25 years old and her story is in Book 3 (At Last Comes Love). Vanessa is the second eldest at 24 and she’s featured in this book; she is technically no longer a Huxtable as she married Hedley Dew and is now Mrs. Dew, a widow (for details about her marriage, scroll down). Katherine is 20 years old and is the heroine of the next book (Then Comes Seduction). And finally there is Stephen, the youngest and the only boy; he’s 17 years old and is the hero of the final book in the Huxtable Quintet (Seducing an Angel).

MAIN CHARACTERS, Vanessa and Elliott:
Mrs. Vanessa Dew (24) has been a widow for over 1.5 years when we meet her. She’s considered “the plain one” in the family - her siblings are all very good-looking. At first I found her difficult to get a handle on, which is not usually the case with Balogh characters. In the end I found her very likable, however. I do tend to be drawn to the unusual or quiet heroines, and the “plain Jane” aspect definitely delivers that. Vanessa is wonderfully forthright though and I greatly appreciated that when a problem or misunderstanding arose between her and Elliott, she addressed it and talked to him about it instead of letting the issue fester.

Balogh writes her as a very happy, cheerful woman who finds joy in making others smile and laugh and is almost always doing one of those herself. She also spars sometimes with Elliott and from the beginning will not let his airs effect her - and makes him know it. This combative side of her seemed to me to sometimes clash with her character of cheerfulness personified (which is at times a little much), and I think that some of these inconsistencies are what made it difficult for me to get attached to her right away. I’m not sure whether the disparity lessens as one reads on or I just stopped paying as much attention, but either way in the end I did like and enjoy her as a heroine.

Elliott Wallace, Viscount Lyngate and heir to a dukedom (29), is not a very likable hero at the beginning of the book. He comes of as a condescending and quite pompous a** - though Vanessa quite wonderfully keeps him in line at times and in such an innocent and forthright manner so that it doesn’t even seem like that’s what she’s trying to do, but rather she’s just being honest and speaking her mind (*great* setdown speech on p73!). He’s serious and isn’t very light-hearted; he used to be more so, but in the last few years various shocks and realities of life have changed him into a pretty dour and unsmiling man.

Balogh repeats certain scenarios and characters and in the hero and heroine of First Comes Marriage one sees similarities to her past creations. For those of you have read (and *LOVED* of course, because how could one not?!) Slightly Dangerous, the last book in the Bedwyn series, you will recognize Christine Derrick in Vanessa. You will also see traces of Bewcastle and Aidan Bedwyn (the hero of the first Bedwyn book, Slightly Married - also SO *great*!) in Elliot. I liked all three of those characters, but Balogh would either have to write Vanessa and Elliott just as vividly or she would have to write them differently enough to not make comparison inevitable, and she did neither.

COMMENTS:
~ Several laugh-out-loud moments; good chemistry between the hero and heroine and I did think they were well-matched. Not Balogh’s best characters or pair, but still very strong and resulting in a good read.
~ The secondary characters were well-written and I am much looking forward to the other Huxtable siblings’ love stories. I liked Lady Lyngate, Elliott’s mother, and Vanessa’s ex-parents-in-law were very sweet.
~ The “marriage of convenience” premise between Elliott and Vanessa is very, very weak - what propels them into marriage is not really reason enough to do so, however such a marriage is necessary for the plot and one feels like that’s more of the grounds for having it than anything else. Basically, just don’t examine it too closely, but rather suspend belief (and enjoy the scene where it’s decided upon, since it’s *highly* enjoyable and laughable!!).
~ I DO like heroines who are not drop-dead gorgeous (or gorgeous at all), but it definitely was repeated far too often and by far too many people that Vanessa was plain, not pretty, not beautiful, etc. The exchanges between her and Elliott on the subject were sweet (once he stopped continuously expressing amazement in his thoughts that he was attracted to her) and not de trop, but the 20 billion other mentions by almost every character in the book …

VANESSA’S PREVIOUS MARRIAGE:
I’m ashamed to admit it and I know that it is so unlike real life (which is why I’m reading these books, lol), but I don’t like there to have been a strong previous claim on the hero or heroine’s affections/heart, so for those of you who are wondering about Vanessa’s first marriage … they were married for a year; he was sickly the whole time (they knew he had consumption before they married); though Vanessa did love Hedley, it was not a passionate romantic type of love.
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