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Book Review
Jan. 3rd, 2024 09:32 pmSimply Love
by Mary Balogh
This historical romance concerns two deeply wounded and lonely people who find great love together, albeit not without a bit of struggle. Anne Jewell is a teacher at a girls' school, where she also lives with her nine year old son, David. Alas, David is the product of an assault and Anne was rejected by her family and then struggled to find her place in a time that is very unkind to unwed mothers. Sydnam Butler, steward at a Welsh estate, fought in the Napoleonic Wars and was left without his right eye and arm, as well as scarred and burned along his right side. Anne and Sydnam meet when she is invited to join a benefactor's family at the estate for a month. They grow to be friends, briefly lovers, and then marry when Anne conceives. It is at that point that they each have to confront and deal with their own and each other's deep emotional wounds, and where their love truly takes hold.
Balogh is really good at portraying characters with trauma and psychological wounds and at looking at the ways love can heal, and that aspect of this book is very well done. Sydnam and Anne both have a lot to deal with, and their feelings about their past traumas are complex, but they are also both resilient and determined people. I liked that falling in love did not magically fix anything and that they still had to work to heal and to make their marriage a success. When the healing and happy ever after emerge, they both feel earned and real. I do feel like Anne forgave the family that had rejected her too easily, but that wasn't a big hurdle to enjoying the story.
by Mary Balogh
This historical romance concerns two deeply wounded and lonely people who find great love together, albeit not without a bit of struggle. Anne Jewell is a teacher at a girls' school, where she also lives with her nine year old son, David. Alas, David is the product of an assault and Anne was rejected by her family and then struggled to find her place in a time that is very unkind to unwed mothers. Sydnam Butler, steward at a Welsh estate, fought in the Napoleonic Wars and was left without his right eye and arm, as well as scarred and burned along his right side. Anne and Sydnam meet when she is invited to join a benefactor's family at the estate for a month. They grow to be friends, briefly lovers, and then marry when Anne conceives. It is at that point that they each have to confront and deal with their own and each other's deep emotional wounds, and where their love truly takes hold.
Balogh is really good at portraying characters with trauma and psychological wounds and at looking at the ways love can heal, and that aspect of this book is very well done. Sydnam and Anne both have a lot to deal with, and their feelings about their past traumas are complex, but they are also both resilient and determined people. I liked that falling in love did not magically fix anything and that they still had to work to heal and to make their marriage a success. When the healing and happy ever after emerge, they both feel earned and real. I do feel like Anne forgave the family that had rejected her too easily, but that wasn't a big hurdle to enjoying the story.
