The Famous Heroine by Mary Balogh, Look What's in Storage aka Memories Schmemories, V

August 7, 2017
Another light-hearted story by Mary Balogh - that's two now.

http://www.marybalogh.com/
I will have to say I didn't find The Famous Heroine as funny as the Black Umbrella because it also has one of my pet peeves in it. The hero just cannot forget that other woman he

loved, even when the one in his arms is his perfect match. So, it took me a while to like Francis because he was still mooning over Samantha. By the way, Samantha was the heroine from Lord Carew's Bride. Both books are connected to the Stapleton-Downs stories. Just so you know, Mary Balogh's website has a break-down of all her connected books so you don't get lost. This book was released in 1996 and has been re-released as part of a 2-in-1 book with The Plumed Bonnet.

Cora Downes is a heroine - and I mean that in every sense of the way. She saved the young son of a duke from drowning. Now the grandmother of said child is so grateful that she has brought Cora to London as a reward. She thinks that being part of society is a great honor. Here's the thing: Cora is sort of accident prone and the saving of the young boy didn't really happen quite the way everyone thinks. In fact, he didn't really need to be saved, but oh well - now society has a heroine.

Cora is not comfortable hanging with the elite people. She doesn't fit in. When she meets our hero, Lord Francis Kneller, she is wearing shoes which are too small because everyone knows men like women with small feet. But now her feet hurt and she's tripping over everything. Francis saves her from embarrassment and she's ever so grateful. She feels perfectly safe with Francis and she jumps to the conclusion that Francis is a gay man. You see Francis wears brightly colored clothes, is sarcastic and has lots of female friends. She becomes very protective of him, especially when she thinks someone is slighting his character.

Francis on the other hand thinks Cora is amusing. She is just the distraction he needs to get over his boo-hoo heart. He is drawn to her, but that leads to two compromising scenes - the first one they survive, the second one forces them into wedlock. I liked Cora a lot. She's accident prone and has a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. She is also similar to the heroine from Black Umbrella because she is constantly saving things or maybe I should say she gets credit for saving things - poodles, horses, the Prince.

There is a pretty funny scene when Cora is surprised when Francis actually wants her in bed. They talk circles around each other for a while until it dawns on Francis just what Cora thinks - pretty amusing. By the way, he doesn't change how he dresses. This is pretty close to being a screw-ball comedy, and I would have liked it so much better if Francis would have stopped the Samantha/Cora comparisons sooner.

And, once again we have another recommendation for an old Mary Balogh's book.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot