Book Review
Oct. 31st, 2022 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariSomeone to Hold
by Mary Balogh
This satisfying romance novel is the sequel to Someone to Love. Camille Westcott is now living in Bath with her sister and grandmother, trying to figure out herself and her life in her much changed and reduced circumstances. She decides to start teaching at the orphanage where her half-sister Anna was raised. There she meets Anna's old friend and fellow orphan Joel Cunningham, now a talented painter. Camille and Joel initially clash but as they get to know each other, they develop a good friendship that quickly turns into something more.
Someone to Hold is quieter, more subtle, and a bit less steamy than the fare I usually gravitate towards, but Balogh excels at emotional development and a slower burn. Camille is rather unpleasant in the earlier book, but I came to love her here. Her character development is so well done. She starts out as a prickly woman who has spent her life striving to be the perfect lady and now that her change in status renders that goal unobtainable, she is left at sea. As she figures out her new life, she also learns how to unbend and let herself truly experience both the world around her and her own feelings. I really liked the way she and Joel develop such a solid and honest friendship before the romance blooms, and how their story is as much about building a life together as it is about love and passion. Plus, Balogh writes the most romantic hugging scene ever.
by Mary Balogh
This satisfying romance novel is the sequel to Someone to Love. Camille Westcott is now living in Bath with her sister and grandmother, trying to figure out herself and her life in her much changed and reduced circumstances. She decides to start teaching at the orphanage where her half-sister Anna was raised. There she meets Anna's old friend and fellow orphan Joel Cunningham, now a talented painter. Camille and Joel initially clash but as they get to know each other, they develop a good friendship that quickly turns into something more.
Someone to Hold is quieter, more subtle, and a bit less steamy than the fare I usually gravitate towards, but Balogh excels at emotional development and a slower burn. Camille is rather unpleasant in the earlier book, but I came to love her here. Her character development is so well done. She starts out as a prickly woman who has spent her life striving to be the perfect lady and now that her change in status renders that goal unobtainable, she is left at sea. As she figures out her new life, she also learns how to unbend and let herself truly experience both the world around her and her own feelings. I really liked the way she and Joel develop such a solid and honest friendship before the romance blooms, and how their story is as much about building a life together as it is about love and passion. Plus, Balogh writes the most romantic hugging scene ever.
