Customer Reviews

Simply Magic (Center Point Platinum Romance (Large Print))

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

It pains me to read the other reviews of this book because I feel that poor Mary Balogh is held to a higher standard than other Regency writers. She is still by far the best writer concentrating on the Regency era. She still captures the atmosphere, the mores, the dialogue, and the thinking of that time period better than any other writer on the market. And, the characters are always different. While some of the reviewers didn't like these specific characters' traits or reactions to events, they are not taking into account the fact that Balogh created their distinct personalities years ago. The character of Peter, Viscount Whitleaf, showed up in a book written five years ago! That's impressive to me. She can create characters in her mind and keep a running thread of their traits through many books and many years. Their personalities may be too mild for some readers, but I enjoy the fact that Balogh sees the world through very differing kinds of eyes. She has written many of the archetypical dark, tortured heroes in her day and will definitely do so again, but this hero happens to be outwardly kind and flirtatious. What is wrong with that? He is still interesting.

The story, to me, is compelling as well. How can the reviewers find tepid the idea of a young woman falling in love (but trying not to) with the man who is linked to the cause of her father's suicide?! I think that Balogh does create "angst" (as one reviewer wanted) in the conflict that their love will always be tainted by the reasons for her father's suicide. They must find a way to overcome that dilemma.

Her books are politically correct as one reviewer stated (her heroines do always seem to need some career or self-sufficiency in their lives before they agree to love the hero) but that is, in all probability, a decision made by the editors and publisher, not necessarily just Balogh. I still think that a Balogh book is ten times better than any of the other ridiculous, amateurish, poorly written books in the Romance section of the bookstore these days.

"Simply Magic" is a dramatic and sensual story about two individuals who fall in love, only to discover their love is complicated by a disturbing interwoven past. Peter Edgeworth, Viscount Whitleaf has been a perfect gentleman of the ton, while avoiding all of the eligible marriageable young ladies his mother has put in his path. It is on a walking path on the estate of a friend that he meets the beautiful and independent school teacher Susanna Osbourne, saying to himself, "There she is." Struggling with unrecognized love at first site, no matter how much Peter attempts to avoid Susanna, he constantly finds himself drawn to her. They quickly become close friends, walking the estate paths and discussing many topics, while at the same time fighting a growing desire for each other. The innocent Susanna realizes as a viscount there can be no future with Peter, but she is also saddened as he does not seem to recognize her from the past as a young girl when she lived at a nearby estate where her father was a steward. But many do not recognize the beautiful Susanna as the young twelve year old girl who suddenly disappeared after the sudden suicide of her father. She has lived with the pain of this secret for years, growing in beauty and intelligence as a teacher at the very school she attended as a charity pupil, due to the kindness of none other than one of the famous Bedwyn family. Having a holiday with friends is a delightful vacation that becomes a bit disconcerting and she finds herself counting the limited days she can spend with Peter. When friendship turns to desire that builds to an intense afternoon of passion, Peter takes her innocence. When he offers carte blanche instead of marriage, Susanna runs back to her school, but finds she cannot run from her heart. Simon misses his dear friend and realizing his mistake and that he loves Susanna, he creates a plan to earn back her friendship and love. But soon their intertwined intense past is revealed. Will their love be strong enough to overcome the shocking revelations?

There is nothing simple about Mary Balogh's "Simply" Series. Once again she has proven that she is the modern Jane Austen in this beautiful and heartwarming tale. For Regency romance fans, Ms. Balogh has the talent to take readers back to the Regency Period, making them feel they are there and intimately involved with the characters. Each book builds from previous stories and dearly loved characters return to be interwoven with new. Simply Magic is a truly pleasurable read like many of the other Balogh Regencies. A romance fan's delight would be a long vacation alone with a stack of Balogh Regencies reading them in order, enjoying an arm chair travel back in time to the Regency period!

I'm afraid this is going to be the last Mary Balogh book I buy. It's painful to admit this to myself because, since discovering her novels (my first was No Man's Mistress) and then glomming all her back titles from the last 20 years, I've spent many a happy hour in her Regency romance world.

But Balogh's titles of the past six years--the "Slightly" and "Simply" books--have all disappointed me and Simply Magic is, sadly, the worst of the lot. I continued to buy and read Balogh, in spite of my disappointment, because I'd hoped she was in a slump from which she'd emerge. But after reading Simply Magic, I'm giving up that Balogh will ever again write the heart-rending, angsty gems (The Temporary Wife, The Notorious Rake, Heartless, Dancing With Clara, Lord Carew's Bride, et al.) that made her reputation.

Where to begin with what's wrong with this latest effort? With the uninspiring beta hero (among the most irritating I've ever encountered in the genre) who's unbecomingly dominated by his morally-challenged mama (and who sheepishly admits to the heroine his knees shake when he has to give his steward an order)? Or the emotionally stunted heroine whose behaviour seems like that of someone clinically depressed throughout most of the story--complete with a sort of disassociation of her mind with her body when it comes to sex? And then there's Balogh's unfortunate penchant, which has become more and more pronounced in her recent works, to clog the story with so many extraneous characters and tidbits about their lives that the reader feels the need to take notes.

The biggest problem I have with this book, however, is that it reveals Balogh's abandonment of what I believe is THE crucial premise of the romance story. Balogh spends a great deal of energy on making the point to the reader that the "love story" is not the cake in her heroine's life but the frosting. In her recent novels she takes pains to show the heroine doesn't require the masculine essence of the hero, in its highest form of romantic love, for her emotional, spiritual and physical completion. Her recent heroines are emotionally self-sufficient, have employment they love, and while it would be ever so luscious and easy-around-the-manor to be married, it's not a core, primal necessity for their life's fulfillment.

There's always a moment in Balogh's recent books where the hero has this epiphany, when he "gets it" that the heroine will be just fine without him. The story is not allowed to move on, in fact, until the hero has that bit of feminist-tinged dogma firmly implanted in his head. I suppose all of us modern types are supposed to nod in agreement but, in a romance novel, I find the whole presentation dreary to the max. (Can we not escape the death of romantic love anywhere? Not even in its supposed last bastion, the pastel cover romance novel?)

I read romance novels to experience the archetypal wonder of romantic love between a man and a woman--a love that torments and creates upheavel but also redeems, completes, saves. Romantic love is full of messy dependency, jealousy, and a lot of shadow--that's what makes it romantic. It gives a vision, a much needed vision, that continues to persist and inspire--and has great power to explain the behaviour of men and women toward each other. Balogh used to write books that glorified that archetype. Often employing the stock characters of the genre--the dark, tortured hero, the empathetic, nurturing heroine. But then she "saw the light" (or something) and her works have devolved over the last several years into neat, passionless feminist samplers that have more than a politically correct whiff to them--and all the depth and complexity of a "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" column--or worse, the Regency equivalent of a Glamour magazine editorial about balancing career and "relationship."

Simply Magic reminds me of a kind of romance prozac. It calms, tones down, erases and tames the wild beasts of the masculine and feminine romantic archetypes. I don't want that drug. I want to feel.

What in the world has happened to Mary Balogh?

As I busily tear into her marvelous backlist, I am saddened at how formulaic her work has become. It goes from the Meet Conflicted to Uneasy Rapprochement to Sex Where the Hero Can't Help Himself--Stop Me (insert heroine's name) to Separation to Reconciliation. SIMPLY MAGIC was no different in its adherence, except with a more pronounced level of tedium.

I blame the phenomenum I call Literary Incest, where the writer (and most likely the publisher with pitchfork in hand) feels driven to write a follow-up about every character introduced in the first book. Since 2003 Ms. Balogh has written eleven books that are Bedwyn related. Folks, that is a span of only five years. The revenues must be great but at what cost? And we the readers must share the blame because we keep buying and are willing to accept the diminishing returns in the loss of originality. The late, great Georgette Heyer learned her lesson after trying three on a match with AN INFAMOUS ARMY, one of her less appreciated works at the time. But eleven?

It's been a real drought for me because I have found the Bedwyns by blood to be either repellent or boring, though they tended to marry interesting. I'm even willing to suspend my objection to books series for one instance in the case of the Butlers. They were the truly interesting family.

And while I was able to find at least something to enjoy in the other books in the series, this one bored and pained me. Mary Balogh, the innovator and risk taker of the Regency genre, has left the building.

Let me preface this review by saying that Mary Balogh is my all-time favorite Regency writer. And I have problably read about 30 of her books. No one writes wittier dialogue and compelling Regency romance better. That being said, I was greatly disappointed with "Simply Magic."

The whole plot and premise was forced formula romance for me. Frankly, as some other reviewers have said this was boring. I did not care about the characters and I could definitely put this one down. Ms. Balogh seems to have written to satisfy a deadline and that is all. Try some of her older works. Even her "Slightly" series is overall a much more entertaining lot than any of the "Simply" series.

I did enjoy Simply Magic maybe for some of the same reasons that other reviewers did not. I liked that Susanna had a more cerebral approach at times to the relationship and was a person in her own right. I personally relate more to that characteristic in a heroine. To me there was a subtheme that love isn't happily ever after-there is work and growth to people and therefore to relationships which I found refreshing compared to other books. Peter wasn't the typical hardened alpha male either but had some growing up to do. Again, these may be the same reasons others didn't enjoy the book as much as I did. Was it the best, most compelling romance I ever read? Absolutely not...but for an enjoyable afternoon of light romance with a little twist from the normal, it was perfect for me.

Thank goodness I got this book from the library because it was SOOO boring. It took me two weeks to get through the first 30-40 pages and I only finished it because I felt obligated to do so. I found myself hoping Viscount Whitleaf would just have his merry way with Susanna Osbourne and be done with it so she could live out the rest of her days as a boring spinster school teacher. And (PLOT SPOILER AHEAD) I'm sorry, but if I found out that your mom had an affair with my dad, was going to insinuate rape and then my dad killed himself over it, guess what, we are NOT hooking up for rather boring sex in the Dower House, end of story!

As a long-time Balogh fan, I was hesitant to buy this book after some of the extremely negative reviews. I'm glad I did. A self-effacing, kind, charming, cheerful hero and a buoyant, energetic, loving heroine, both intelligent and striving towards maturity, are lovingly portrayed in all their insights and lack thereof. Granted, the book is more a study of individual emotional evolution than action, but the couple is charming, their development believeable, and, as always, Ms Balogh brings it all together with the most complete of happy endings--something THIS reader of romances truly appreciates. Unless you just have to have serious threats, conflicts, crimes and mayhem in your romances, you'll enjoy it!

This story is unique because you don't have the typical ALPHA-MALE hero. Instead you have a very easygoing, uncomplicated handsome man. A breath of fresh air from the brooding, aloof, Alpha-male types in most other regency romances. And, their love genuinely starts out as friendship and you truly get to experience them getting to know each other and falling in love step by step along the way(Unlike in most romances where the love could easily be lust and you only figure it's love because the author said so). I think this is a more realistic portrayl of real life....you never see brooding, Alpha male, Bodice-Ripper men nowadays!

In "Simply Magic", the romance novel from the Regency era, the heroine is Susanna Osbourne, a teacher from the boarding school for girls in Bath. Susanna, orphaned at the age of twelve, was a charity pupil at the same school and then was offered a post as a resident teacher by the schoolmistress, Claudia. There were four resident teachers who became good friends - Claudia, Susanna, Anne and Frances. This story starts when Frances, who married a rich aristocrat, invites Susanna for a holiday. To her surprise, Susanna learns that the party includes, among other guests, Peter Edgeworth, Viscount Whitleaf. Susanna has an allergic reaction to this name, reminding her of the fall of her family... Of course, the Viscount is irresistible, handsome and witty, and he falls in love with Susanna, so the couple meanders inevitably among numerous obstacles towards the happy end and eternal love, meanwhile revealing the mystery of Susanna's and Peter's family entanglements.

I was surprised, but I liked this simple historical romance story. Although predictable, it is entertaining enough to be a good, relaxing read, especially when you are tired, not in a mood for anything more challenging, and need to pass some time. I have not read any of the other Mary Balogh books so perhaps others are better (I doubt I will have a chance to find out), but this one was fine for what it promised. It fulfilled my expectations, as I did not reach for it to find a great, unforgettable, sophisticated novel.