Winky-dink Alert
http://www.marybalogh.com/
Thank goodness Mary Balogh’s old books are being released again; in this case a bunch of
her novellas have been electrified. But this isn’t just a release of a bunch of old books. What Ms. Balogh’s is doing is grouping her novellas together by their themes. The first group of novellas A Rogue’s Downfall is all about our favorite kind of character – the rake. Yes, my little Petunia’s, those hot, manly-men who pepper our pages - rakes!The three short stories in this anthology are: The Anniversary - 1994, The Wrong Door - 1993, and Precious Rogue - 1995. These were quick reads and I enjoyed all three of them, although I did like one better than the other two.
The anthology opens with The Anniversary. This is a story of the Countess of Reardon and her husband, Hugh. The story is all about misunderstandings. Tons of them. Our couple have been separated for a year, they both love each other – however they never actually told each other of that love. Before their quick marriage, they had been drooling over each other from a distance until one evening at a ball under the influence of alcohol they caved into their passion. A few months later - surprise! His seed has taken root and now they are forced to marry. Hugh is with his wife for the birth of the child, but then they separate. She remains in the country and he returns to London where we are led to believe he resumes his life of dissipation. Well, a year passes and Hugh returns to the country and his wife. As one might imagine this is a pretty angst filled story, maybe not quite made for the short story format. He feels guilty, he calls what they had together rape, although I’m really not sure that's what I’d call it. I would call it two intoxicated people having sex. While I'm not a believer in "the alcohol made me do it," I also don't think there was any force used in their encounter. At least that's my take on it. I know Ms. Balogh has used rape in a few of her early books, but I don't think this one falls into that category. However, whatever one calls it, there is plenty of guilt to go around, plus all the misunderstanding and jump to conclusion moments. Most of the story is about Hugh trying to woo his wife and overcome their misinterpretations of what is really going on. This was an interesting story, but the characters were a little hard to like and it would have been better in a longer format. B-
Next is my favorite story in the bunch, The Wrong Door. Well, it seems as if our intrepid rake, Alistair, is on his way to a rendezvous with a luscious widow when he makes a wrong turn. Oops! He ends up in the room of Caroline Astor, a sweet young thing who also happens to be the host’s daughter. Well, of course they must marry – maybe. Caroline has been in luv with Alistair forever and isn’t really keen on a marriage which is lopsided. There would be nothing worse for her than to be the only one in a relationship who is in love. Through some of Ms. Balogh’s maneuvering, Alistair and Caroline enter into a wager - who will fall in love first. Even though you may not believe it, this story was fun and I smiled almost all the way through it. All of this happens over a weekend, but it seemed as if they were together longer. And, Alistair did some wonderful about face movements in this story. A
The last story in this anthology, Precious Rogue is about Joshua Buchanan. There is no way around this, Joshua is a real rake. He’s not a pretend rake, but a real one – in fact, during the party he is attending, he goes to bed with at least three women and is working on a fourth by the end of the story. And, he’s doing all of that while courting another woman. He has no conscious, he doesn’t’ care one thing about the woman he’s courting and he intends to embarrass her and her mother before he leaves. I was a little concerned for his health. He was so realistically written that I just knew his winky-dink was either diseased or ready to fall off. The heroine of this story is Patricia Mangan, but she isn’t the woman Joshua is courting. In fact, she’s none of the women he’s interested in. She is the cousin to the woman he’s courting. She is little more than a drudge to her family. They treat her horribly. She spends her free time in a tree enjoying the peace it gives her. It is during a tryst with another woman under that tree that Joshua first encounters Patricia. Joshua and Patricia slowly become friends, which eventually turns into love. Spoiler warning: for all of you fidelity purists, Joshua does not stop his sex-capades once he meets Patricia. He continues on being himself. Patricia on the other hand knows exactly what he’s doing. I thought it was refreshing to have a man continue his dalliances even after he encounters the heroine. It isn’t until he realizes he has grown to love her that he stops. The one thing that made the grade of this story a little lower was the revenge silliness at the end of the story – I didn’t like the path the revenge traveled down. A-
I do recommend this anthology.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm
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