Then Comes Seduction

Perhaps I have read a different book than some reviewers here, but I have to say the book I read, Then Comes Seduction, was a wonderful book. I absolutely loved it. I will say right up front that I am not a Mary Balogh fan as I have not read many of her books and the ones I did were usually so angsty that I could hardly finish them. Then Comes Seduction started slowly as we were introduced to Jasper( he was introduced to me--maybe he was in earlier books, IDK) and the setup of his meeting with Katherine. After that, this book just took off. I have just finished reading Deanna Raybourn's Julia Grey series and Then Comes Seduction was a perfect book to read after those. It had a lovely story and was not crammed with sex scene after sex scene. I loved the descriptions in this book. I could just picture the scenes and could see in my mind the scene with Katherine and Jasper in the glass gazebo that preceded all their trouble. The story was spellbinding, I loved the characters. Katherine's family were especially likable to the extent that I am going to read the other books in this series. I want to read Vanessa and Elliott's story and am anxious for Margaret and Stephen's. Lucky for me that they are available soon. The excerpt at the back of the book really whetted my appetite for Margaret and Duncan. That brings me to Jasper. What a guy!! There were so many layers to him. At the beginning, I thought he was just a typical jerk rake. But as the layers were peeled back, I couldn't believe how much I liked him. He was a young man who had been terribly scarred emotionally by his stepfather. But, with Katherine's love, he was reborn. Watching them realize they loved each other was fantastic. People gush over Mary Balogh's writing and her stories. I have to say they are right. At least with this series. I am going to check out her backlist. Maybe I will chance upon books I will like as much as I liked this one.

What makes this story so memorable is the ability of the author to take a much used storyline and turn it in to something very very special. Forced into marriage to Jasper Finley, Katherine Huxtable is devasted that her dreams of marrying for love have been lost because of his treachery and her foolishness. Not only do they not want to marry they are angry and bitter at each other and society for landing them in this situation. Yet... as they go through the first month of their marriage they discover that marriage is more than either thought it could ever be. You see both have come to this wedding day and night with very different views of what is important ..for Jasper it is all about lust and his freedom, while for Katherine it is all about love. Listen in to some of Jaspers thoughts as they are traveling in his coach after the marriage, but before they have consumated the marriage. These thoughts are predicated on the overpowering guilt he is feeling over his part in trapping Katherine into a marriage she did not want. "If my eternal punishment was to be a beach to be cleared of sand one grain at a time for every time I can make her laugh during our life together, it will take me a million, no a billion years." And later just after the marriage has been consumated listen first to Katherine and then Jaspers thoughts. Katherine ... after shattering into a million pieces she asks herself " how could I have felt like that without love... was love essential... does it even exist that which I have dreamed of all my life... is it to be only pleasure without love".... and now Jasper "Well old boy you took a virgin to the pinnacle... my friends would be clapping me on the back ... but she turned away from me as soon as it was over, why am I feeling so restless and standing naked at this window." So on and on it goes with page after page of enthralling dialogue and a slowly developing understanding and love betweeen them. Forget villians, lots of action and secondary characters that sometime steal scenes. This is a purely character driven LOVE not LUST story Balogh style. Each sentence is to be savored and in some cases read a second time to be sure you don't miss what they are really saying to each other. In the end Katherine does find her true love that she has dreamed about all her life and Jasper finds his true mate, the one person who can bring peace and stillness to his battered soul and spirit. Just a beautiful love story so full of romance and memorable characters. BRAVO Ms. Balogh for sharing your gift of weaving emotional and meaningful stories of the mystery that is the human heart!

At first I wasn't sure I would like this book, just from reading the preview (even though I liked First Comes Marriage very much), but I guess you can't judge a book by one chapter, since once I got through the premise, I enjoyed this book very much. The male (Jasper) at first seemed quite unlikeable, but by the end, he was much more hero-like (actually had some principles). The heroine (Katherine) wasn't exactly my favorite right away (not terribly fond of overly beautiful, seemingly silly types), but she ends up looking more intelligent as the story enfolds. The Huxtables are turning out to be a very interesting family & I am looking forward to Margaret's book!(Am glad that the discerning majority of Mary B's readers are liking this series and are realizing the joys of normal, quieter romances.)

I read a lot, and this book stands out over the last 6 months as a truthful reflection of love. Mary Balogh has an amazingly subtle approach to romance - she focuses her stories on establishing the characters and the relationship between them and their families. Then Comes Seduction is a slow, seducing look into an unlikely, but completely destined couple. This story is not about grand passion, and predictable scenes; it's a gentle, and heartwarming look into true love, and I loved it. The story was refreshingly modern, and thrillingly real. ENJOY!

A new Mary Balogh book is always something to look forward to, especially when a new series is released in consecutive months. 'Then Comes Seduction' follows 'First Comes Love' which focused on the middle sister of the Huxtable family, Vanessa, who found love after a marriage of convenience. 'Then Comes Seduction' has, in some aspects, a similar overall theme. In this story love comes after marriage, but the marriage isn't that of convenience but one that is required when a scandal brews. Katherine Huxtable knows that Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is a rake, but he's an amusing conversation partner and rather handsome with it. However when he leads her into a side path at Vauxhall and introduces her to passion, he informs her it is all because of a wager - that he can seduce her within a fortnight. Something in Montford's conscience means that he doesn't go through with the seduction but they are both so embarrassed by the episode that they avoid each other for the next three years. However, when they meet again and Jasper's young half sister Charlotte takes a shine to Katherine and her sister Meg, they are thrown together. Unfortunately, the social world knows that Montford is a rake who never shows any partiality for ladies of quality, and a scheming relative may see a way to hurt Jasper. When marriage is the only option, both Jasper and Katherine fear their future. Can she survive in a marriage with a man who will not love? Can he ever overcome his awful childhood with an unloving and cold stepfather? As always with a Balogh book this is well written with in-depth characters, some moments of lightness as well as some of high emotion. Montford perhaps seemed fairly unrakish after the first few chapters, and Katherine's naïveté wasn't always that appealing. I also found the initial seduction scene unconvincing, I was sure that she would have put a stop to events before they got to the situation they were in, but this was a minor quibble within a book that otherwise I enjoyed, particularly the vignettes into life in the country and putting on a fête for local villagers. Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009