Helpful Score: 1
~ A good start to Balogh's new series - not as strong as the Bedwyn kick-off, but enjoyable (3.5 stars) ~
I am an almost-always faithful Balogh fan and I was not disappointed in Book 1 of the Huxtable Quintet, FIRST COMES MARRIAGE. Though I had some complaints which I have detailed below, on the whole I found the book very enjoyable and worth a quick rush to the bookstore (forgive me, Amazon.com) and the postponing of my schoolwork.
HUXTABLE FAMILY:
The Huxtable family is made up of four siblings; both of their parents are deceased (for 8+ years). Margaret Huxtable is the eldest at 25 years old and her story is in Book 3 (AT LAST COMES LOVE). Vanessa is the second eldest at 24 and she's featured in this book; she is technically no longer a Huxtable as she married Hedley Dew and is now Mrs. Dew, a widow (for details about her marriage, scroll down). Katherine is 20 years old and is the heroine of the next book (THEN COMES SEDUCTION). And finally there is Stephen, the youngest and the only boy; he's 17 years old and is the hero of the final book in the Huxtable Quintet (SEDUCING AN ANGEL).
MAIN CHARACTERS, Vanessa and Elliott:
Mrs. Vanessa Dew (24) has been a widow for over 1.5 years when we meet her. She's considered "the plain one" in the family - her siblings are all very good-looking. At first I found her difficult to get a handle on, which is not usually the case with Balogh characters. In the end I found her very likable, however. I do tend to be drawn to the unusual or quiet heroines, and the "plain Jane" aspect definitely delivers that. Vanessa is wonderfully forthright though and I greatly appreciated that when a problem or misunderstanding arose between her and Elliott, she addressed it and talked to him about it instead of letting the issue fester.
Balogh writes her as a very happy, cheerful woman who finds joy in making others smile and laugh and is almost always doing one of those herself. She also spars sometimes with Elliott and from the beginning will not let his airs effect her - and makes him know it. This combative side of her seemed to me to sometimes clash with her character of cheerfulness personified (which is at times a little much), and I think that some of these inconsistencies are what made it difficult for me to get attached to her right away. I'm not sure whether the disparity lessens as one reads on or I just stopped paying as much attention, but either way in the end I did like and enjoy her as a heroine.
Elliott Wallace, Viscount Lyngate and heir to a dukedom (29), is not a very likable hero at the beginning of the book. He comes of as a condescending and quite pompous a** - though Vanessa quite wonderfully keeps him in line at times and in such an innocent and forthright manner so that it doesn't even seem like that's what she's trying to do, but rather she's just being honest and speaking her mind (*great* setdown speech on p73!). He's serious and isn't very light-hearted; he used to be more so, but in the last few years various shocks and realities of life have changed him into a pretty dour and unsmiling man.
Balogh repeats certain scenarios and characters and in the hero and heroine of FIRST COMES MARRIAGE one sees similarities to her past creations. For those of you have read (and *LOVED* of course, because how could one not?!) SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS, the last book in the Bedwyn series, you will recognize Christine Derrick in Vanessa. You will also see traces of Bewcastle and Aidan Bedwyn (the hero of the first Bedwyn book, SLIGHTLY MARRIED - also SO *great*!) in Elliot. I liked all three of those characters, but Balogh would either have to write Vanessa and Elliott just as vividly or she would have to write them differently enough to not make comparison inevitable, and she did neither.
COMMENTS:
~ Several laugh-out-loud moments; good chemistry between the hero and heroine and I did think they were well-matched. Not Balogh's best characters or pair, but still very strong and resulting in a good read.
~ The secondary characters were well-written and I am much looking forward to the other Huxtable siblings' love stories. I liked Lady Lyngate, Elliott's mother, and Vanessa's ex-parents-in-law were very sweet.
~ The "marriage of convenience" premise between Elliott and Vanessa is very, very weak - what propels them into marriage is not really reason enough to do so, however such a marriage is necessary for the plot and one feels like that's more of the grounds for having it than anything else. Basically, just don't examine it too closely, but rather suspend belief (and enjoy the scene where it's decided upon, since it's *highly* enjoyable and laughable!!).
~ I DO like heroines who are not drop-dead gorgeous (or gorgeous at all), but it definitely was repeated far too often and by far too many people that Vanessa was plain, not pretty, not beautiful, etc. The exchanges between her and Elliott on the subject were sweet (once he stopped continuously expressing amazement in his thoughts that he was attracted to her) and not de trop, but the 20 billion other mentions by almost every character in the book ...
VANESSA'S PREVIOUS MARRIAGE:
I'm ashamed to admit it and I know that it is so unlike real life (which is why I'm reading these books, lol), but I don't like there to have been a strong previous claim on the hero or heroine's affections/heart, so for those of you who are wondering about Vanessa's first marriage ... they were married for a year; he was sickly the whole time (they knew he had consumption before they married); though Vanessa did love Hedley, it was not a passionate romantic type of love.
I am an almost-always faithful Balogh fan and I was not disappointed in Book 1 of the Huxtable Quintet, FIRST COMES MARRIAGE. Though I had some complaints which I have detailed below, on the whole I found the book very enjoyable and worth a quick rush to the bookstore (forgive me, Amazon.com) and the postponing of my schoolwork.
HUXTABLE FAMILY:
The Huxtable family is made up of four siblings; both of their parents are deceased (for 8+ years). Margaret Huxtable is the eldest at 25 years old and her story is in Book 3 (AT LAST COMES LOVE). Vanessa is the second eldest at 24 and she's featured in this book; she is technically no longer a Huxtable as she married Hedley Dew and is now Mrs. Dew, a widow (for details about her marriage, scroll down). Katherine is 20 years old and is the heroine of the next book (THEN COMES SEDUCTION). And finally there is Stephen, the youngest and the only boy; he's 17 years old and is the hero of the final book in the Huxtable Quintet (SEDUCING AN ANGEL).
MAIN CHARACTERS, Vanessa and Elliott:
Mrs. Vanessa Dew (24) has been a widow for over 1.5 years when we meet her. She's considered "the plain one" in the family - her siblings are all very good-looking. At first I found her difficult to get a handle on, which is not usually the case with Balogh characters. In the end I found her very likable, however. I do tend to be drawn to the unusual or quiet heroines, and the "plain Jane" aspect definitely delivers that. Vanessa is wonderfully forthright though and I greatly appreciated that when a problem or misunderstanding arose between her and Elliott, she addressed it and talked to him about it instead of letting the issue fester.
Balogh writes her as a very happy, cheerful woman who finds joy in making others smile and laugh and is almost always doing one of those herself. She also spars sometimes with Elliott and from the beginning will not let his airs effect her - and makes him know it. This combative side of her seemed to me to sometimes clash with her character of cheerfulness personified (which is at times a little much), and I think that some of these inconsistencies are what made it difficult for me to get attached to her right away. I'm not sure whether the disparity lessens as one reads on or I just stopped paying as much attention, but either way in the end I did like and enjoy her as a heroine.
Elliott Wallace, Viscount Lyngate and heir to a dukedom (29), is not a very likable hero at the beginning of the book. He comes of as a condescending and quite pompous a** - though Vanessa quite wonderfully keeps him in line at times and in such an innocent and forthright manner so that it doesn't even seem like that's what she's trying to do, but rather she's just being honest and speaking her mind (*great* setdown speech on p73!). He's serious and isn't very light-hearted; he used to be more so, but in the last few years various shocks and realities of life have changed him into a pretty dour and unsmiling man.
Balogh repeats certain scenarios and characters and in the hero and heroine of FIRST COMES MARRIAGE one sees similarities to her past creations. For those of you have read (and *LOVED* of course, because how could one not?!) SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS, the last book in the Bedwyn series, you will recognize Christine Derrick in Vanessa. You will also see traces of Bewcastle and Aidan Bedwyn (the hero of the first Bedwyn book, SLIGHTLY MARRIED - also SO *great*!) in Elliot. I liked all three of those characters, but Balogh would either have to write Vanessa and Elliott just as vividly or she would have to write them differently enough to not make comparison inevitable, and she did neither.
COMMENTS:
~ Several laugh-out-loud moments; good chemistry between the hero and heroine and I did think they were well-matched. Not Balogh's best characters or pair, but still very strong and resulting in a good read.
~ The secondary characters were well-written and I am much looking forward to the other Huxtable siblings' love stories. I liked Lady Lyngate, Elliott's mother, and Vanessa's ex-parents-in-law were very sweet.
~ The "marriage of convenience" premise between Elliott and Vanessa is very, very weak - what propels them into marriage is not really reason enough to do so, however such a marriage is necessary for the plot and one feels like that's more of the grounds for having it than anything else. Basically, just don't examine it too closely, but rather suspend belief (and enjoy the scene where it's decided upon, since it's *highly* enjoyable and laughable!!).
~ I DO like heroines who are not drop-dead gorgeous (or gorgeous at all), but it definitely was repeated far too often and by far too many people that Vanessa was plain, not pretty, not beautiful, etc. The exchanges between her and Elliott on the subject were sweet (once he stopped continuously expressing amazement in his thoughts that he was attracted to her) and not de trop, but the 20 billion other mentions by almost every character in the book ...
VANESSA'S PREVIOUS MARRIAGE:
I'm ashamed to admit it and I know that it is so unlike real life (which is why I'm reading these books, lol), but I don't like there to have been a strong previous claim on the hero or heroine's affections/heart, so for those of you who are wondering about Vanessa's first marriage ... they were married for a year; he was sickly the whole time (they knew he had consumption before they married); though Vanessa did love Hedley, it was not a passionate romantic type of love.
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