Tina's Reading Books

This was a nice capper to the Survivor's series. On the whole this is a quiet, more reflective series than say, her Slightly series that features the Bedwyn family.

We got a hint of George and Dora's early attraction in Only Enchanting - Mary Balogh  the book that features Dora's sister, Agnes. This book is in some ways a continuation of that one as this book also finishes a narrative thread that began in that book, namely the sisters' tentative reconciliation with their scandalous mother.

But beside all that, this is a rather low conflict romance. George asks Dora to marry him, out of the blue. All the other Survivors are married he feels it is time for him to move forward too. They are happy for him and we get a a good bit of face time with the rest of the Survivors.

So this is a less a story about a romance, but more about a marriage that turns into love. Even though George and Dora themselves don't have a lot of internal conflict, there is a bit of a mystery about George's dead wife and son. Allegations of murder and why is the dead previous wife's cousin so intent on harassing them?

Although George himself wasn't a Survivor of the wars, he has scars and this book exposes them so they can heal.

And he and Dora are pretty sexy together!

Mary Balogh is a comfort read for me, even her new stuff is "comfortable" because I trust her storytelling. This book worked very well for me in that sense.

Also it had a wonderful epilogue!

This review is based on an ARC received from the publisher