Only Beloved by Mary Balogh

Posted May 5, 2016 by Literati Lovers in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Only Beloved by Mary BaloghOnly Beloved by Mary Balogh
Also by this author: Only a Promise, Only a Kiss, Someone to Wed, Someone to Care
Published by Penguin on May 3rd 2016
Genres: Fiction, Romance, General, Historical, Regency
Pages: 400
Format: ARC
ISBN: 9780698411326
Goodreads
four-stars
four-flames

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From the legendary New York Times bestselling author of Only a Kiss and Only a Promise comes the final book in the rapturous Survivor’s Club series—as the future of one man lies within the heart of a lost but never-forgotten love...
For the first time since the death of his wife, the Duke of Stanbrook is considering remarrying and finally embracing happiness for himself. With that thought comes the treasured image of a woman he met briefly a year ago and never saw again. 
Dora Debbins relinquished all hope to marry when a family scandal left her in charge of her younger sister. Earning a modest living as a music teacher, she’s left with only an unfulfilled dream. Then one afternoon, an unexpected visitor makes it come true.
For both George and Dora that brief first encounter was as fleeting as it was unforgettable. Now is the time for a second chance. And while even true love comes with a risk, who are two dreamers to argue with destiny?

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#NewRelease #Historical #Regency #Romance by @MaryBalogh #SurvivorsClub published by @PenguinRandom

 

Karen’s Review

It has been a long heart felt journey to get to the end of the Survivors’ Club with Only Beloved by Mary Balogh.  I was both happy and sad to see the last of the Survivors’ Club original participants George Crabbe get his story told.  It is one that we as readers of the series thought we knew, but assumptions should never be made when it comes to Balogh and her characters.  There were more than a few shocks in the novel, and George, who has been rock of the Survivors’ Club, was revealed to have some very deep and dark secrets.  The book starts off right with George feeling lonely and separate from the other members of the group, as they have all strived to make new lives for themselves.  Well George, being a commanding Duke, decides to rectify his loneliness.  He decides that a marriage of companionship and friendship would suit him.  So he goes about pursuing his goal in getting married, to a spinster music teacher and sister of one of his friend’s wives; so begins the start of this last Survivor Club novel.   This all happens in the first chapter of the book, so I am not giving anything away.  It is what comes after the proposal that make this such a substantial read in the series. I as a reader got to know George more than I ever had.  He was always the solid foundation that the other Survivor’s of the Napoleonic War came to rely on.  Like the old saying goes “Still waters run deep”, well George is a still water who was living for everyone else, and at forty eight years old, he is going to start living.   His lady love is Dora Debbins, who was a minor character in Only Enchanting, she is wonderfully forthright as she is a spinster of thirty nine and all her prospects of every marrying have long since fled.

I loved George and Dora, together it was the quiet comfort of a love that starts as one thing and morphed into something deeper.  I will be honest and did not feel the emotional toile in this book that I did in Only a Kiss, but George’s and Dora’s past was one that was carried on in its own solitude.

The best way to sum up this book and this series is “They all lived happily ever after’….. but happiness doesn’t always mean there are not bumps along the road.

It should be noted that this book though part of a series, can be read as a standalone, as Balogh does a superb job in catching her readers up to the depths of her series in a few pages.  This is why Balogh is one  such a marvel in the field that you can pick up any of her books and be in the thick of the actions with out ever missing a beat.

four-stars

About Mary Balogh

Mary Jenkins was born on 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high-school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting. She also enjoys watching tennis and curling.

Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including 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, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rating Report
Plot
four-stars
Characters
four-stars
Writing
four-half-stars
Pacing
four-stars
Cover
four-stars
Overall: four-stars

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