Unforgiven [Paperback]

Mary Balogh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

The Woodfall and Hayes families have been bitter rivals for nearly a century. Now after eight years, Kenneth returns home and realizes his underlying love for Miss Moira Hayes. For her, he is willing to forget the past. But can she? (Fiction--Romance)

Product Details

• Paperback: 315 pages
• Publisher: Jove; First Edition edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515122068
• ISBN-13: 978-0515122060
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #683,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Balogh is the New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Slightly novels: Slightly Married, Slightly Wicked, Slightly Scandalous, Slightly Tempted, Slightly Sinful, and Slightly Dangerous, as well as the romances No Man's Mistress, More than a Mistress, and One Night for Love. She is also the author of Simply Love, Simply Unforgettable, Simply Magic, and Simply Perfect, her dazzling quartet of novels set at Miss Martin's School for Girls. A former teacher herself, she grew up in Wales and now lives in Canada.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'forced marriage' novel with quite a twist!, November 19, 2000

By 

Dr W. Richards "wmr-uk" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unforgiven (Paperback)

This is the sequel to Balogh's Indiscreet, and worth reading for that reason alone, since Indiscreet introduced the 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', as Rex, Kenneth, Nat and Eden were known during the Peninsular war. For those who wanted to know more about all four characters, this book gives you what you were looking for.

At the end of Indiscreet, we're left with quite a cliffhanger concerning Kenneth: he has to return home to marry a woman who is having his baby and whom he says he dislikes more than he has ever disliked anyone in his life (and this can't be a spoiler, since it's part of the plot summary on the cover of Unforgiven and on this site!). I, for one, was desperate to find out exactly how this had come about.

Kenneth and Moira, we learn right at the start of the book, have known each other for years, but their families have been estranged for generations. We learn that Moira, Kenneth and their respective siblings were friends in secret as children, but it's apparent that something happened which not only tore apart those friendships and the burgeoning love Kenneth and Moira felt for each other, but also renewed the family quarrel with a vengeance.

Moira has just agreed to marry her distant cousin, a prosy, pompous, self-important bore who also happens to be the heir to her family home, at the point when she meets Kenneth again. It's very clear to the reader that their mutual dislike hides a very mutual attraction. However, both suppress it very heavily indeed, and more might never have come of it had Moira not attended the Christmas ball at Dunbarton and overheard some comments about herself spoken by Kenneth's mother and sister. She foolishly goes out to walk home alone in heavy snow...

I have to admit that the circumstances in which the child was conceived made me raise an eyebrow; I still find it a little difficult to accept that Kenneth would propose, and Moira would accept, that particular course of action in those particular circumstances. Nevertheless, that's the premise Balogh went with, and I was able to ignore my reservations and concentrate on the story.

The way in which two stubborn people who did not want to be married to each other, and who can't seem to be able to speak to each other without causing yet more misunderstandings, come to realise that they do actually love each other - and that they can actually *tell* each other that fact - is very well told by Balogh. She does do misunderstood lovers very well indeed.

Unlike some reviewers, I didn't find Moira's behaviour childish, although Kenneth accuses her of that more than once. She's certainly stubborn. And she believes, as we find out later, that she has very good reason to hate him, and therefore she resents the need to ask him for anything at all - and his own imperious, occasionally domineering Earl of Haverford manner doesn't help. As for her refusal to accept at first that she was pregnant, how many of us can exist in a state of denial over something we would rather wasn't happening? And she did face up to the truth eventually.

I did like this book a lot, and will be reading it again. Now for Nat's story in Irresistable!

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Childish heroine, good hero, February 17, 2000

By 

Aislinn Jones (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unforgiven (Paperback)

Miss Moira Hayes, the heroine in this novel is a bit too childish for my tastes. She is tempermental and is prone to deliberately taking everything the hero says in the worst possible manner. There are even points of the story where is seems that Balogh is aware of the snippity, self-invovled nature of this heroine and seems to be apologizing for it, as if the heroine's actions were beyond her control. I also did not like how Moira did not ever take charge of her life. She ignored her pregnancy for months and outright lying to the hero about it because she just could not bring herself to *do* anything. The result of her not caring about herself or her child was a miscarriage -- I found it difficult to be sympathetic to Moira at this point; her lack of gumption and childish behavior had led to it. However, I did like Kenneth's character and found him to be a charming and strong hero. Why he ever wished to stay with a brat like Moira, I have no idea. There seemed to be a lot of reliance on their childhood romance, and too little explanation of what he had in common with her and why they loved each other now. It was a decent read, because it was a Balogh, but I will not be re-reading it again.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Clever Title., February 6, 2004

By 

MaryGrace Meloche (Ontario, Canada.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unforgiven (Paperback)

This is romance? Try full-blown alienation. These two people do not like each other. I don't care how much the author tries to proclaim their love. I couldn't find the love scenes -- they waltz together and he appreciates her height? Ok . . .

Skillfully titled, these two characters cannot and will not "forgive" one another. A misunderstanding during their adolescence has developed into hatred. Ms. Balogh urges the reader to consider the characters' inner thoughts -- wishing us to believe these two quarrelsome people love each other! Unfortunately, the message is not delivered! Even at the story's end, the reader reads the love declarations with uneasiness.

Briefly summed -- the tale of a future earl, Kenneth Woodfall, and a wild, independent, free-spirit, Moira Hayes. Throughout one ill-fated summer, our lovers share an obsession, meet in secret, and fall in love. However, something goes terribly wrong and they replace youthful love with aggravated mistrust and betrayal.

Found in these pages is one of the most unconventional consummation scenes ever read in romance reading. They say if you live long enough you will experience it all -- add a new experience to this lady's life.

Mary Balogh may have faltered with the storyline but her writing is still first-rate. Moira's denial of her pregnancy and her waning health are quite believable. The author favorably portrays the book's secondary characters. Balogh has written Moira's betrothed, Sir Edwin Baillie, as a pompous, silly, flabbergasting man -- reminiscent of Jane Austen's Mr. Collins from "Pride and Prejudice". The reader will cherish the brief hilarious scenes featuring this absurd person -- anything to avoid spending time with our two love fragments.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.