Slightly Married by Mary Balogh

[meganbmoore]

When Lord Colonel Aidan Bedwyn’s close subordinate, Percy Morris, dies on the battlefield, Percy asks Aidan to deliver the news to his sister, Eve, in person, and to protect her. Even beyond her obvious grief, this puts Eve in a difficult position. According to the terms of her father’s will, his property was hers until a year after his death, at which point, it became Percy’s unless Eve married. If Eve is still single and Percy dies before then, the property and money is given to an unpleasant cousin. So, to fulfill his promise, Aidan proposes a marriage of convenience.

Though connected to two other Baloghs (the only ones I’ve read, actually) this is the first book in Balogh’s Bedwyn series. Based on the names (their mother was a history buff) and the personality of the head of the family, Bewcastle, I suspect these are at least partly inspired by Jo Beverley’s Georgian Mallorean books. I enjoyed this quite a bit-especially given the overused “marriage of convenience” setup-but didn’t find it as interesting as A Summer to Remember or One Night for Love. I liked Eve’s extreme stubbornness, and how Aidan managed to be so arrogant, but still managed to be charming. I think because he would realize he suffered from Foot In Mouth Disease almost the moment a symptom became evident.

One thing I’ve noticed is that while Balogh writes angsty romances and angsty heroes, her heroes tend to be nice, and not take their angst out on others, and so I like them more than I do a lot of angsty dramatic romances. I mean, I’m sure I’d like modern kdramas and certain shoujo more if angst weren’t used so often to justify the heroes’ jerky behavior to others, particularly their love interests.