A Christmas Bride

A Christmas Bride Mary Balogh Grade: B Sensuality: Warm

The sole trad Regency I read in 2007 was Mary Balogh's A Christmas Bride. When it was released in 1997, I remember the discussion about the heroine having been a villain in a previous release, and, of course, it won in our annual reader poll for Best Trad Regency of 1997, beating out Cupid's Mistake and With This Ring. So I'm not quite sure why I waited this long to read it, but as I wrote in my year-end wrap-up ATBF column after having read it, "I realized how happy I am that I've still got a stash of Balogh's trads left to read when the mood strikes."

We ought to include a drawing of Lady Helena Stapleton atop our Tormented Heroines List. Her behavior many years in the past left her as tortured as the most tortured of tortured heroes, and ever since, she's punished herself as being entirely unworthy of love. She is also a Fake Rakess, with a cultivated but undeserved reputation as a widow who has taken many lovers.

Edgar Downes is a wealthy cit looking for a wife. He's promised his father he would wed a titled lady by Christmas. When the two meet at a ball, Helena cannot believe her reaction to him; she brings him home with her that very night and the two make passionate love to the point of "pleasure-pain", the term Romantica authors use frequently in their books. Both are shocked by the encounter; Helena has never experienced an orgasm, and Edgar has never treated a woman as masterfully and strongly as he did Helena.

Folks, this is yet another instance of Mary Balogh writing a brilliant love scene that is never superfluous. Coming as it does near the beginning of this book, its intensity and sensuality shocked me, and their behavior that night set the scene for the entire book. While Helena enjoyed their night together, she determines not to like Edgar, not only because he's a cit, but because of the power struggle he creates within their "relationship", if you can call it that initially. As for Edgar, he's not at all sure he likes Helena, who treats him with disdain, but the passion he feels for her, along with the hurt he believes lies behind her cruelty to him, lingers even as he courts younger, more marriageable women.

He doesn't end up with a younger wife, though; circumstances lead to Helena and Edgar marrying. The power struggle between the two continues, and continues in the bedroom, where Helena refuses to be loved, but will accept "comfort". Edgar determines to discover her secret, all the while watching her quietly. He notices her contradictions; for instance, though she says she dislikes children, she actually has an affinity for them. All of this leads Edgar to want to make things right for his Christmas Bride.

Although Helena is the more flashy of the two leads, Edgar, in his intelligent, confident, and quiet way, captured my heart. His manner of dealing with things, his assuredness and under-the-radar watching of his bride remind me of no one so much as my own terrific husband.

But back to Helena...writing a character who behaves badly can inspire different reactions among readers. When a character behaves badly after having been done wrong, readers often feel sympathy. But when a character behaves badly after having done somebody else wrong, empathy among the reader is a likely result because we can all identify with them. And wouldn't you rather read a character who, underneath it all, is empathetic rather than sympathetic?

Mary Balogh has never reached DIK status for me, but she's come very, very close. When I look over my favorites among her books, it occurs to me that I might actually have rated one of them - The Temporary Wife - too low. And though two of Mary Balogh's trads earned C range grades for me, if you click the links for them, you'll find that both were intriguing reads nonethless.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit