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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A certain magic exists when Mary Balogh writes!,
By
This review is from: A Certain Magic (Paperback)
A CERTAIN MAGIC is surely one of the best regencies or historicals I've read so far.Alice and Piers have known each other since she was fourteen and he was twenty. Piers started falling in love with her when he saw her again at age fifteen. But as Piers was getting up the nerve to admit to his feelings, his best friend Web confessed to Piers that he was in love with Alice and intended to marry her once she was old enough. From that day on, Piers kept his love of Alice to himself as he did not want to have to fight his friend who he loved like a brother over a woman. Furthermore, he was sure Alice would rather have Web. Web didn't get into trouble in his youth like Piers did and was more reliable and stable than Piers. Piers thought Web deserved Alice a thousand times more than he did. To even think he was worthy of Alice would be like reaching for the stars. He kept consoling himself with this fact for the next 15 or so years through his own marriage and Alice and Web's marriage. This is where the book starts off. Piers is 36 and his Allie (his own nickname for Alice) is 30. They are both widowed with no surviving children. They've continued to remain good "friends" all this time and both are determined that they just remain "friends" since each would rather have some part of the other in their lives instead of admitting to their true feelings in fear of offending the other forever by having crossed the line. Yup, Allie's been in love with Piers since she was fourteen! Mary Balogh could've taken the low road like I've seen many mediocre romance authors do by making stories like this a weepy "bring out the hankie, oh the poor Hero/Heroine" type of book but instead, she paves her own high road with her excellent writing that's full of fun, laughter, and passion. The conversations between Allie and Piers are so tightly written that you can almost feel the ... tension between these two as they do everything but admit to their true feelings. (yes, this is a regency category novel but it does have mild (but passion filled)sex so be warned to those of you that go crazy at the thought of there being ... in a regency series)(I'd rate the sexual content as PG) I've read almost all Mary Balogh books and loved them all but A Certain Magic and Silent Melody surely surpasses even her usual high plateau. I paid more for A certain magic than I have for any new Mary Balogh books but now having read the book, I would have paid even more. These used book sellers definitely know the market and I now understand why A Certain Magic is so marketable. If you are a Mary Balogh fan, this book is a definite MUST but A Certain Magic is for anyone who believes in true love and likes to read about it.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Friendship... and a certain magic,
By "kaethel" (France) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Certain Magic (Paperback)
I've become more and more impressed by Mary Balogh's books, and this one is no exception to the rule. Friendship turning to love is a familiar theme in romance novels; in fact, Balogh's Irresistible dealt with a similar subject. However, despite some similarities (the heroine is a young widow who has always been secretly in love with her best friend), the characters are unique and very much attaching. I certainly didn't feel like I was re-reading the same novel again.Alice Penhallow has been a widow for two years, and she lives a somewhat empty but still enjoyable life in Bath, until her brother requests her presence in London to tend his sick children while his wife deals with the coming-out of their eldest daughter. But by coming to London, Alice finds herself face to face with a childhood friend that is as dear to her as he was to her late husband. Piers Westhaven has come to London during the Season with the intention to find a bride and marry again. The death of his wife Harriet in childbirth left him haunted by feelings of guilt he can't completely shake off, especially when he's perfectly aware that he never truly loved her. But to please a mother pining for grandchildren and a worried Lord Berringer looking for a secure succession, he agrees to do the reasonable thing and seek a suitable bride. The future heir of an estate attracts many women, and despite his age, Piers finds himself surrounded by female interest. As he always has in the past, Piers runs to Alice for advice. But despite Alice's warnings to Piers, it's the extremely shy but very pretty Cassandra Borden, niece of a man who made his fortune in trades, who manages to wrap him around her little finger and forces a marriage offer from him. Mary Balogh once again draws very touching and attaching characters. Piers hides his true persona behind a facade of superficiality and a witty sense of humour. Alice dissimulates her feelings for Piers in their true friendship. And as the likeliness of Piers' wedding to Miss Borden becomes more certain, Alice keeps her sadness in check and doesn't hides her distress from Piers. She reassures herself by pretending that it's Piers' happiness that she has at heart when she fails to rejoice in his upcoming union with Cassandra Borden. Until the night when Piers knows he has to offer for Cassandra's hand and comes to Alice's house to say goodbye... This story points out the difference between mutual fondness and that little spark that makes everything different in a relationship. What Alice once describes to Piers as love, the mixture of friendship and physical attraction tainted with that unexplainable something, that "certain magic" that turns a relationship into passion, is what the characters experience in this beautiful and very romantic novel. Alice and Piers' struggle towards happiness is enthralling, and in turns poignant and funny. A wonderful mix to make this book another keeper!
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartwrenching story of best friends in love,
By
This review is from: A Certain Magic (Paperback)
Another wonderful out of print Balogh, worth getting at almost any price. Alice Penhallow has known Piers Westhaven almost all her life. They were children together: she, Webster Penhallow and Piers. At seventeen, she married Web, and not long after Piers himself married. But Piers' wife died in childbirth, and Allie herself is now widowed.In London to visit her family, she meets Piers again and he confides in her that he has decided to remarry. He has his eye on several young debutantes, and Allie despairs because he's making the same mistake as he did the first time: thinking of marrying a young featherhead he has nothing in common with. Piers jokes at one point that he should marry Allie, but before she can give any kind of embarrassed reply he assures her that he didn't mean it; he tells himself that he wouldn't degrade her like that. This is one of the earliest clues that Piers and Allie's feelings for each other are not as straightforward as we're led to believe. And soon it's confirmed: she's been in love with him since she was fourteen, and he fell in love with her a year later. But she thought that he would never look twice at her, and he thought that he was too wild and unconventional for her. And anyway, his best friend was also in love with her, so Piers let Web court her instead. And now they're both so used to hiding their real feelings that neither realises the truth. Piers, having been amusing himself with a young and apparently shy debutante, suddenly discovers one night that he'd been suckered well and truly: baited and hooked and reeled in on a trap which could have been set by a professional. He has compromised Cassandra Borden, and will have to propose marriage to her. Shocked, horrified and very sad, he finds himself outside Allie's house late at night. She sees him and invites him in; he confesses what happened and, in a very poignant scene, they recognise that they have to say goodbye. Once he's married, their friendship cannot continue. But a hug goodbye turns into something more, and suddenly Piers is in Allie's bed, and they are both discovering lovemaking as neither has ever known before... In the morning, though, nothing has changed. Piers still has to marry Cassandra, and Allie leaves for Bath; they manage to persuade each other that it meant nothing more than the comfort of old friends for one another. But inwardly, it meant everything to both of them. Must they be separated again, permanently? This is a very moving, as well as amusing in places, story of best friends who shoud have been lovers long ago, but missed out. It's also a story about how love can sometimes be even better when it comes somewhat later in life. And this book is most definitely a Balogh classic. If you can get your hands on it, don't let it go! wmr-uk
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