At Last Comes Love
by Mary Balogh
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Book Reviews of At Last Comes Love
Book Review: Book Three, Huxtable Family series
Summary: 4 Stars
Duncan Pennethorne, the infamous Earl of Sheringford, left London five years ago after jilting his fiancé on their wedding day and running off with a married woman, Mrs. Laura Turner. Now Laura has been dead several months. Duncan plans to move into Woodpine Park in Warwickshire. Duncan has no doubts that his son, Toby, will love growing up there as much as he did. However, Duncan is cut off from his grandfather, the Marquess of Claverbrook, and Duncan returns to London to discover why. It seems Duncan has forgotten that he had promised he would wed before his grandfather's eightieth birthday. Unless Duncan weds a respectable lady within fifteen days, Woodpine Park would go to his cousin instead.
Margaret Huxtable is the sister of the young Earl of Merton. Margaret had only been a girl herself when their father died and she promised to take over the care of two younger sisters and one younger brother. Now the sisters have grown and are happily married. The brother has grown too and will soon be searching for a bride. Thirty-year-old Margaret has fulfilled her promise, but is now considered a spinster. While at the Tindell's ball, Margaret meets up with Crispen Dew, the man who had betrayed her and wed another. Now a widow, Crispen believes Margaret will jump at the chance to still wed him. Unfortunately for him, Fate steps in. Margaret collides with Duncan in the doorway, where he asks her to dance and to marry him - all in one sentence. A lie to Crispen has Margaret accept Duncan's offers for the dance and the proposal, on one condition: Duncan must woo her.
**** This is the third story of the Huxtable Family series. It is terrific to finally see the responsible sister get her own story told. (The brother's story will be next.) Over half the book deals with the fifteen days between Duncan and Margaret. The rest of the story is set at Woodpine Park, where a subplot that is read about in London takes off to become the main focus. This deals with the newly wed couple settling in and with Toby. I cannot say anything about that without major spoilers though. However, in my opinion, it is even more interesting than the time spent in London. The main characters from the previous titles of the series appear as secondary characters in this one, so if you have read those stories you will get to see how they are doing. This makes the story even more believable. I look forward to the brother's story! ****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
Book Review: Did I read the same book?
Summary: 1 Stars
I had to write a review of "At Last Comes Love" because I was dismayed while reading it that the novel received such a high rating.
I'll skip summarizing the story, as others have done it so well here, and instead just list the reasons I think it merits a MUCH lower rating.
First, let me say I LOVE Mary Balogh's books. In fact, there are only a few of her novels that I didn't thoroughly enjoy, and unfortunately two of those have been from the Huxtable family series.
My main problem with the Huxtables is that they are just plain boring. The are beautiful and honest and forthright and kind and virtuous and blah, blah, blah...
My problem with At Last Comes Love, specifically, is that it seems to be simply a rehashing of themes and scenes from Balogh's previous works. Margaret Huxtable is a blander version of Lauren from A Summer to Remember. And Duncan feels very similar to lot of her Bedwyn heroes.
Both Margaret and Duncan have been hurt badly, and are very unwilling to risk loving and trusting another person. This would have been a fine premise if at least one of the characters had overcome these feelings halfway through the novel. Instead, both Duncan and Margaret spend the ENTIRE novel talking and thinking ad nauseum about how they've been hurt, can't trust, don't know if they can fall in love... Perhaps this is more realistic, but when I'm reading a romance novel, I want romance! I want to see the characters falling in love--not hear them talk about why they can't fall in love. Even worse, Duncan acknowledges to himself that he doesn't even like Margaret for more than half of the novel.
This was my problem with Vanessa's story in "First Comes Marriage," as well. Elliot, the hero of that novel, keeps calling the heroine unattractive and still wonders why he has so much fun in bed with her throughout almost the entire book. Yuck!
If you're new to Mary Balogh, I highly recommend skipping the Huxtables and reading the Bedwyn or "Simply" series, instead. If, like me, you are a huge Balogh fan and read all of her previous books, let's all cross our fingers and hope that Stephen's story isn't nearly as sleep-inducing!
Book Review: Best of the first three Huxtable books
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked all three of these books (First Comes Marriage, followed by Then Comes Seduction), although for some reason I expected not to. Mind you, the collection of inter-connected stories of the Bedwyns, the schoolteachers, and their various connections was becoming unwieldy, although the individual stories (for the most part) were still quite good. It's nice to be in a smaller world, where main characters from other novels don't have to make walk-on appearances.
Over the last few years, I've been getting tired of some of my old favorite authors. Mary Balogh hasn't disappointed me yet. Of these first three books, the stories of the Huxtable sisters, I would say that this is the strongest, the first is the next strongest, and the middle one is the weakest (and even that book is quite good if you like this sort of thing).
So what kind of thing should you like in order to like this book? Well, you need to like well-written romance novels set in the Regency. You need to appreciate characters who are flawed yet appealing. You need to be willing to suspend disbelief somewhat -- although Mary Balogh always helps you do that by the sheer quality of the prose and the way she makes her characters come alive.
This book has a plot, and it's not one of the tried-and-true Regency plots, which is a point in its favor. More importantly, it's about loneliness and the difference between being very good at loving other people versus being able to accept love from another person. There's an interesting exploration of the difference between men's and women's dreams that doesn't set these differences down to fundamental sex differences, but to the possibilities for men and women in the time and place of the novel. There's a woman who is able to be in touch with her passionate self while still being very much a product of her social upbringing (and so sometimes lacking the vocabulary to describe, even to herself, what she is experiencing). And there's a rollicking good love story, with protagonists I found myself rooting for from the start.
This was a fun read, and a book I will undoubtedly reread from time to time.
Book Review: Strike Three in this series of four ....
Summary: 2 Stars
I again emphasize that I do not believe this series was written by Mary Balogh, at least not the same Mary Balogh under which her previous series have been published. These books are pure formula and the stories are almost identical, in plot and in execution; each contains an identical scene in which the couple makes love outdoors, for instance. The real Mary Balogh--if there is such a person--wrote with a sensibility of time and place in her earlier books. She would never, for instance, have had her heroes or heroines use the term "Hey" when addressing one another. A very 20th century word, "hey" was hardly a part of Regency speak, and yet it appears in two of the books in this series. Too bad the Huxtable books have become a part of the Balogh oeuvre, because they besmirch Balogh's earlier works, which were well written and worth reading, especially her Slightly series (my favorite is Slightly Dangerous, the Duke's story).
"At Last Comes Love," the third story in this series, is the worst of the lot. Our heroine, Margaret, the eldest Huxtable sister, is officious, bossy, and smug, especially for a 30 year old about to be left on the shelf (doubtful in itself, considering how beautiful she is said to be). Duncan, the Lord of Sheringford, and the man to whom she accidentally becomes betrothed, is more likeable, but his earlier behavior is unbelievable to the point of pathology. The biggest fault in this book, though, is that it is boring; almost nothing happens. Parts of it are pedantic, much of it is repetitive (enough talk already about "falling in love"--show, don't tell!) and there is little tension and no real surprises (especially if you've read the first two, since the villains and their actions are much the same in Book 1 and Book 3). The dialogue between Margaret and Duncan, toward the end of the book, is actually dull. It's as if they have nothing much to say to each other except to repeat the same phrases about their hope for the future.
I took a chance on "At Last Comes Love" but will cheerfully give No. 4--Stephen's story--a pass. Balogh--whoever she is--has lost her charm for me.
Book Review: Grown up love story
Summary: 5 Stars
I've now read the first three Huxtable books, difficult to get in the UK but as they arrived more or less together, I read them one after the other. I have read a lot of comment about these three books both here at amazon and on various other websites. I know there are mixed feelings and I have read the critical reviews carefully. I believe that the critical reviews have been of the most interest and much of what was said in them is arguably quite fair.
I am giving this book 5 stars because, although admittedly a MB fan, I found this third book to be the best of the three. It is always refreshing to read a story about a mature H/H and also, for me, about those who have suffered or sacrificed. Margaret's shift in circumstances (as for her brother and sisters) surely would have been traumatic. Certainly life for the family became vastly improved but these improvements did not bring Margaret instant happiness. Instead, she continued to stand aside, supporting the family and missing out on a lasting love for herself. Duncan is a man of hidden depths who has allowed himself to take the blame for others far, far more culpable than he. He did it in a graceful way, not attributing his ills to others but instead taking on very heavy burdens. I particularly like this set-up and it is a plot device I am fond of.
There are some flaws in the story; the nasty cousin and his particuarly vulgar wife were a bit two dimensional but as a plot device they were fine. It's just that they seemed to have no redeeming qualities as human beings and no one is 100% nasty.
So, 5 stars from me because grown up love stories are very rare and not always well done. Mary Balogh's writing style continues to be right up there at the forefront of the regency-set novel and she has a sure hand. I look foreward more to Con's story than Stephen's but will certainly read both.