The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh is the second book in The Survivors’ Club Series. This is the story of Vincent Hunt, Lord Darleigh, and Miss Sophia Fry. I loved this novel!
One of the most unexpected aspects of this book is that the hero is permanently blind. He can’t see anything. This was a war wound, when a cannon blast on the Napoleonic battlefields went off too close to him. His struggles are so realistically presented. He had an overbearing family, which annoyed me greatly. His mother, grandmother, and sisters all were trying to rule his life and shove a suitable bride in his path, while moving, uninvited, to his home.
He flees his home and goes to a place he though he will have a quiet time. But soon he almost fells into a marriage trap and, by being saved by Sophia, he is compelled by his sense of duty to offer her marriage. I loved how their relationship evolved. It was lovely and heart-warming.
What I did not enjoy in the book was the extended family, both his and hers. Their relationship with them was annoying most of the time. It’s true Vincent was young, as in his 20s, but that does not justify meddling and neither being presented in an acceptable, as it is “for love” kind of way. It didn’t bother me enough to give the book less than 5 stars though.
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
Details about the picture: –
My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Piatkus
Year it was published: 2013
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): Regency
Pages: 366
About the author: Mary was born in Wales in 1944. After graduating from University in 1960s, she moved to Canada. There she was a high school teacher. She got married to the Canadian Robert Balogh and they had three children. Besides writing, she also loves music, knitting, watching tennis and curling.
Mary Balogh started writing as a hobby, in the evenings. Her first book, A Masked Deception, a Regency love story, was published in 1985. After 20 years of teaching, in 1988, she retired from teaching to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then. Her best known series are the New York Times bestselling ‘Slightly’ sextet and ‘Simply’ quartet. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
Website & Social Media Links: marybalogh
There are not many disabled main characters in romance books. Apart from Mr Rochester I can’t think of any male protagonist who would go blind. And I can imagine in the 19th C the attitudes to people with disabilities were pretty awful. Sounds like a good book to read.
The attitudes are presented quite realistic, although a bit white-washed, it is a regency book, so it keeps inline with the expectations. I am eager to read the rest of the books in this series.
Ah, meddling family …ugh. I have enjoyed this author and have this on my wish list. I am delighted to see you enjoyed it 🙂
Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer recently posted…Wyrd Gere by Steve Curry
I have spent a few minutes each day trying to rationalise my Goodreads ‘Want To Read’ list and have deleted quite a few books, although there are still many hundreds left on there. Some of them have been there since the year dot, as I used to add just about every book my friends reviewed which caught my eye. I shall never have enough time left to me to read them all, so I now aim to only add books which are scheduled for read and review with dates allocated!
Right! that’s the theory of it anyway – So then folks like yourself come along with a new series or book which really catches my eye, and I just can’t resist hitting that ‘Want To Read’ button. Historical romance is not a genre I read too often, but they do serve to lighten the tone of things every now and again … What the heck, they are going o the list!! 🙂 🙂
Take Care Xx
Ha Ha Ha! I know, I have a very long list of books to read. Because I am reading books on heavy subjects, like wars, I need to “balance” them with light reads and Mary Balogh is really amazing for this kind of books. They are light and fun and have a happy ending, but, at the same time, they are shallow.