Slightly Wicked by Mary Balogh
Aug. 23rd, 2009 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreHer family having been all but beggared due to her brother’s debts, Judith Law is being sent to live with her aunt and uncle and be an unpaid companion to her grandmother. Along the way, however, her coach is overturned in an accident, and she accepts a ride to an inn from Rannulf Bedwyn, who comes across the accident. Faced with decades of being a poor relation foisted off on various relatives, Judith lies and claims to be an actress so that she can have an affair with Rannulf, who also lies about his own identity. Later, she’s surprised to learn that the noblewoman her flighty cousin hopes will propose to her is the man she had an affair with.
While reading this, I realized that all four Baloghs I’ve read had plots I typically dislike. There was the fake engagement, then the wife returning from the dead as her husband is about to marry someone else, then the marriage of convenience, and now the relationship that starts with sex and deceit, though it’s acknowledged as mutual deceit from the start, and established as soon as they learn the truth that neither has a leg to stand on, which almost immediately makes the trope far less annoying than usual. Slightly Wicked also has the ever-popular trope of a heroine who is gorgeous by contemporary standards who thinks she’s ugly, but salvages that by not having her realize she’s pretty because a guy thinks she’s hot, but by learning what about her family’s past led them to insult her looks. (I long greatly for her grandmother’s story, just so you know.)
Despite the plot types that I don’t care for, however, I’ve liked all her books, which is always a sign of a good author. Her heroines fit the standard types without being pushovers or “feisty,” and her heroes, so far, are nice no matter how angsty they are, and the Bedwyn men, so far, manage to make authoritative arrogance charming. Judith and Rannulf are less angsty than the other Balogh leads I’ve read about, but that’s ok. The plot, while straightforward, is muddled by the standard tropes such as matchmaking relatives, troublesome siblings, and conniving third parties that make trouble, leaving less time for the character arcs that were more prominent in the other Baloghs I read. Not that it stops the book from being better than most of its kind.
I think Freyja’s book is the next Bedwyn, and I’m a bit concerned about that. Mostly, I’m worried that she’ll be “tamed” (blegh) and I find it hard to imagine someone she’ll be happy with. I also tend to find her attitudes about other women interesting. Society tends to mold both men and women of her class into something that she finds dull and insipid, but allows more room for men to step out of the mold than women, though I don’t think she’s particularly impressed by any men she isn’t related to. I also tend to be amused by her attitude regarding Lauren, because I suspect it has less to do with Lauren marrying the man Freyja wanted to marry, and more to do with the fact that Freyja doesn’t know how to deal with calm, controlled people. They probably remind her too much of Wulfric.
While reading this, I realized that all four Baloghs I’ve read had plots I typically dislike. There was the fake engagement, then the wife returning from the dead as her husband is about to marry someone else, then the marriage of convenience, and now the relationship that starts with sex and deceit, though it’s acknowledged as mutual deceit from the start, and established as soon as they learn the truth that neither has a leg to stand on, which almost immediately makes the trope far less annoying than usual. Slightly Wicked also has the ever-popular trope of a heroine who is gorgeous by contemporary standards who thinks she’s ugly, but salvages that by not having her realize she’s pretty because a guy thinks she’s hot, but by learning what about her family’s past led them to insult her looks. (I long greatly for her grandmother’s story, just so you know.)
Despite the plot types that I don’t care for, however, I’ve liked all her books, which is always a sign of a good author. Her heroines fit the standard types without being pushovers or “feisty,” and her heroes, so far, are nice no matter how angsty they are, and the Bedwyn men, so far, manage to make authoritative arrogance charming. Judith and Rannulf are less angsty than the other Balogh leads I’ve read about, but that’s ok. The plot, while straightforward, is muddled by the standard tropes such as matchmaking relatives, troublesome siblings, and conniving third parties that make trouble, leaving less time for the character arcs that were more prominent in the other Baloghs I read. Not that it stops the book from being better than most of its kind.
I think Freyja’s book is the next Bedwyn, and I’m a bit concerned about that. Mostly, I’m worried that she’ll be “tamed” (blegh) and I find it hard to imagine someone she’ll be happy with. I also tend to find her attitudes about other women interesting. Society tends to mold both men and women of her class into something that she finds dull and insipid, but allows more room for men to step out of the mold than women, though I don’t think she’s particularly impressed by any men she isn’t related to. I also tend to be amused by her attitude regarding Lauren, because I suspect it has less to do with Lauren marrying the man Freyja wanted to marry, and more to do with the fact that Freyja doesn’t know how to deal with calm, controlled people. They probably remind her too much of Wulfric.