Romance

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh

Karen Wheless


I’m enjoying this series, but I wonder if The Cosby Show was as big in Canada as it was here? I can’t help associating the name Huxtable with the Coz.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/8/2010
Grade: 4

At the age of 30, Margaret Huxtable isn’t sure she will ever marry. But an impulsive lie to an old love leads her into the arms of Duncan Pennethorne, the notorious Earl of Sheringford who shocked the ton 5 years earlier by runnng off with a married woman. Duncan is desparate to marry, but is there more to Margaret than convenience?

This book had the opposite problem of the last book in this series – this one started off great but fell apart in the end. Although the plotline of a marriage of convenience was very similar to the previous book, this one came to life in the first part of the story. The characters were interesting and well written, and it was interesting that the story hinged on the opinions of the ton and the hero’s situation as a social pariah who finds his way back. Unfortunately, the book started to get a little dull once the hero and heroine married. There were some nice moments, but for the most part, it was same-old-same-old. But that wasn’t too bad. The book really went off the rails in the last few chapters, when bizarre melodramas appeared out of nowhere. Some of the characters act in strange, out of character ways, and the plot was straight out of Catherine Coulter. The author might have made this very weird plot twist work if she’d spent half the book on it, but having it show up at the last minute, just to give the characters something to do in the last few chapters? It made very little sense and it really spoiled the book for me. This book was heading into keeper territory until this very odd turn of events near the end.

Is it worse to have a book that starts slow but ends well, or a book that is great up until a bad ending? I try to evaluate a book as a whole, but it’s hard to love a book that leaves you with a bad impression.

Karen Wheless

I've been reading romance since I discovered Kathleen Woodiwiss at age 12. I love all kinds of romances, especially emotional and angsty stories. I finally cut back my TBR pile from 2000 books to only 400, but I still have lots of books left to read!

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