70 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Balogh is still the best Regency writer on the market, April 2, 2007
This review is from: Simply Magic (Hardcover)
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.
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31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical Regency!, April 15, 2007
This review is from: Simply Magic (Hardcover)
"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!
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121 of 157 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Romance Prozac, March 28, 2007
This review is from: Simply Magic (Hardcover)
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.
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