Customer Reviews

A Chance Encounter

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Elizabeth Rossiter is a governess working in a small town in the south, well away from London and polite society. And that's the way she likes it. Nothing unexpected ever happens; she takes care of her charges, who will soon be launched into Society, and her employers treat her as a member of the family. She's safe.

Even when the new owner of the local big house, Ferndale, arrives to view his property, Elizabeth has no notion that her life is about to be completely disrupted. And why should it? William Mainwaring, the new owner, is perfectly polite and amiable, if a little shy in company. Interestingly, he seems to show a partiality for Elizabeth, despite her position as governess.

But Mainwaring has company on his visit to Ferndale, and one of his guests happens to be Robert Denning, Marquess of Hetherington - a man whom Elizabeth had hoped never to see again. And she'd been successful for more than six years. Until now; until he'd appeared without warning in the place where she'd found sanctuary. And then he seems to be around everywhere Elizabeth goes, giving her disapproving looks, making pointed remarks about mercenary behaviour and even, at one point, warning her off Mainwaring in such terms as make it clear that Hetherington believes that she's only after Mainwaring's money. And, even more insulting, Hetherington even tells Elizabeth that if she needs money she only need apply to him and he will supply it - the implication being that he would be relieved to be able to pay her off.

What was Hetherington and Elizabeth's past relationship? Why does he hate her so much? Why are her feelings for him so clearly torn between hatred and a deep, deep longing? What about Mainwaring's interest in Elizabeth?

Balogh's talent as a storyteller, always obvious, is even more clear in A Chance Encounter. She keeps readers guessing about Elizabeth's past and what Hetherington has to do with it, and when the truth was revealed some way into the book I was stunned. Nothing I had read so far had led me even to suspect the revelation, and yet when I re-read the earlier portion of the book nothing argued against it either. It was a masterful piece of writing.

Balogh is also an expert at writing stories which pull on the readers' emotions, and this book is a classic example. It's angsty, it has moments of humour, it's suspenseful and it's heartwrenching. I couldn't put it down from the moment I started it.

Unfortunately, like most of Balogh's early Regencies, it's out of print; until her publisher sees sense and starts to re-release her earlier work, the only way you can get hold of it is to pay an inflated price to get it second-hand. And yet it's worth it! Oh, and if you do get a used copy, it won't be mine - that's staying right where it is!

Elizabeth Rossiter lives a peaceful life as a Lady companion in Granby, far from the stifled scandal that drove her away from London six years earlier. Taking care of the young Cecily Rowe is all she needs for an uneventful and pretence of a somewhat happy life...

... until shadows of her past come back to haunt her unexpectedly.

They come in the shape of the local manor owner, William Mainwaring, who arrives at Ferndale to get acquainted with the neighbourhood and possibly make Ferndale his main residence. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, Mr Mainwaring brought a party with him, and most especially his best friend Robert Denning, the Marquess of Hetherington, who is obviously involved in whatever drove Elizabeth to leave the high society six years earlier and seek employment.

The first half of the book is purely fascinating. Balogh keeps dropping hints at what happened between Elizabeth and Robert to make them both so cold and cruel to each other. Each of their encounters makes a chill course down the reader's spine, and the hatred between them is extremely well portrayed. Besides, William Mainwaring's behaviour towards the heroine opposes a nice contrast to Robert's iciness.

However, after the high peak of the story, which appears about halfway through (a stunning and very clever revelation that was actually very unexpected, but made a lot of sense), I felt that the plot was dragging on. Until the big revelation, I had been thoroughly enthralled, and the thirty pages immediately following it were probably the best part of the novel. However, what came afterwards seemed to me like unnecessary means to keep the main characters apart. I became increasingly frustrated with Elizabeth' stubbornness not to *talk* with Hetherington, when it was so obvious that talking would solve a lot of things.

The writing style, focused entirely on Elizabeth' point of view, should have been a great strength of the book; alas, it enhances even more obviously the main weakness behind the premise: since as a reader, I didn't have any more knowledge about what had happened than Elizabeth let out, I couldn't blame my frustration with her blindness on extra knowledge I might have of Hetherington's character.

There was still some interesting character development afterwards, but the main premise behind the whole novel seemed entirely too predictable to me. I read on with the hope that Mary Balogh would surprise me in the very last chapter, but unfortunately she didn't, and so the denouement was a bit of a disappointment.

After reading a series of outstanding Balogh romances over the past few weeks, I was expecting a lot from this one - maybe too much. The characters are attaching, which makes up for my frustration, yet I couldn't help but feel that the novel could have been solved in a much more satisfying (albeit still predictable) manner if it had ended seventy pages sooner.

Elizabeth Rossiter is a governess working in a small town in the south, well away from London and polite society. And that's the way she likes it. Nothing unexpected ever happens; she takes care of her charges, who will soon be launched into Society, and her employers treat her as a member of the family. She's safe.

Even when the new owner of the local big house, Ferndale, arrives to view his property, Elizabeth has no notion that her life is about to be completely disrupted. And why should it? William Mainwaring, the new owner, is perfectly polite and amiable, if a little shy in company. Interestingly, he seems to show a partiality for Elizabeth, despite her position as governess.

But Mainwaring has company on his visit to Ferndale, and one of his guests happens to be Robert Denning, Marquess of Hetherington - a man whom Elizabeth had hoped never to see again. And she'd been successful for more than six years. Until now; until he'd appeared without warning in the place where she'd found sanctuary. And then he seems to be around everywhere Elizabeth goes, giving her disapproving looks, making pointed remarks about mercenary behaviour and even, at one point, warning her off Mainwaring in such terms as make it clear that Hetherington believes that she's only after Mainwaring's money. And, even more insulting, Hetherington even tells Elizabeth that if she needs money she only need apply to him and he will supply it - the implication being that he would be relieved to be able to pay her off.

What was Hetherington and Elizabeth's past relationship? Why does he hate her so much? Why are her feelings for him so clearly torn between hatred and a deep, deep longing? What about Mainwaring's interest in Elizabeth?

Balogh's talent as a storyteller, always obvious, is even more clear in A Chance Encounter. She keeps readers guessing about Elizabeth's past and what Hetherington has to do with it, and when the truth was revealed some way into the book I was stunned. Nothing I had read so far had led me even to suspect the revelation, and yet when I re-read the earlier portion of the book nothing argued against it either. It was a masterful piece of writing.

Balogh is also an expert at writing stories which pull on the readers' emotions, and this book is a classic example. It's angsty, it has moments of humour, it's suspenseful and it's heartwrenching. I couldn't put it down from the moment I started it.

Unfortunately, like most of Balogh's early Regencies, it's out of print; until her publisher sees sense and starts to re-release her earlier work, the only way you can get hold of it is to pay an inflated price to get it second-hand. And yet it's worth it! Oh, and if you do get a used copy, it won't be mine - that's staying right where it is!

wmr-uk

2.5 stars.

Sigh. I hate to rate this book as low as I do because really, it is not a bad book. But it is definitely an infuriating one. I give Balogh a bit of a pass because this is one of her early books.

The book starts in a smallish village where a Miss Elizabeth Rossiter is the governess/companion of a beautiful young lady. The village is abuzz because the owner of he largest, most prosperous property is coming for a stay and is bringing some sophisticated friends from London.

As is usual in these books, the local gentry want to have a series of social rounds with the visiting nobles and marry off various children.

One of the visitors is Robert Denning, Marquess of Hetherington. And it is soon obvious that he and Elizabeth have a past. And oh yeah, he hates her.

The first part of the book is all question marks. Why does Robert despise Elizabeth so? What is the nature of their past relationship?

Slowly, Elizabeth reveals their relationship through flashbacks. And at the midpoint of the book, Robert throws down a bombshell.

And this is where I find the book really infuriating. Everything that has happened in the past and even going forward, hinges on the Grand Misunderstanding. It gets to a point where Elizabeth's intransigence just makes you want to slap her.

And it doesn't help matter that the entire story is told 100% from Elizabeth's POV. Robert is really enigmatic. His responses to her, his reactions and even some of his words are incredibly cryptic.

So this book was just frustrating. I would not rec this to newbies to Balogh. I'd probably only recommend it to Readers who are familiar with her work and who are interested in completing her backlist

I think Mary Balogh is a great writer and I'm always pleased to be able to get hold of some of her out of print earlier novels. 'A Chance Encounter' appeared at my local library so I settled down to read it with great expectation.

As I read through I kept finding similarities with various Jane Austen books, particularly Persuasion and Pride & Prejudice (of course). The story starts off in a rather P&P manner when the new owner of Ferndale Manor comes to stay, bringing some friends with him - including a titled man and another woman who's got her sights set on the man. All very Mr Bingley/Mr Darcy/Miss Bingley. Our heroine in this story isn't a daughter of a local family but is instead a governess/companion who is down on her luck. Elizabeth Rossiter didn't think she'd ever see Robert Denning, Marquess of Hetherington, again - they used to be in love but then he let her down badly. Yet Elizabeth finds herself in company with Robert, among others, and is surprised by the animosity he seems to hold toward her. Might there be something more in their past which is causing their differences? Can she rely on Robert to help her when facing a family emergency? Can they learn to trust each other again and overcome the misunderstandings?

Although I enjoyed reading this book I didn't feel that it was up to the standard of most of Balogh's offerings. It relied rather heavily on misunderstandings and people not explaining themselves properly, hero and heroine weren't always entirely likeable and the ending felt perhaps a little rushed. Still, Balogh not at her best is still better than many other authors and it's worth a read if you can find it.

Once again, a story by Balogh that should be reread many times. Elizabeth Rossiter separated from her beloved husband due to interferance from their respective families, is now a governess/companion. A chance meeting between the couple, sets the stage for heartache and then... reconciliation. Getting to that point is told flawlessly and with great compassion. Highly recommended!!!

I have to say I enjoy Mary Balogh's earlier works. Like another reviewer mentioned, it is unfortunate that we can only buy her earlier works at much inflated prices from 2nd-hand book stores.
This particular story has a nice twist in the middle. Mary Balogh's usual approach of misunderstandings between the hero and heroine works still for this book. Her heroines tend to be headstrong or stubborn to a point close to being stupid but then there would be no story if the hero and heroine fell in love and went on to live happily ever after.

The story might be worth three stars, but the whole book is undermined by the author's lack of familiarity with the process of divorce in Regency-era England. It simply wasn't so casual.