Tag Archives: Mary Balogh

REVIEW BY JANET: Mary Balogh’s SOMEONE TO TRUST

Posted in Janet Webb, Review by

someone_to_trustHappy Saturday, everyone! I’ve stocked the fridge and ensured a plenteous tea supply, getting ready for a winter storm chez MissB. I’m reading a wonderful book and will be posting a review soon. For today, I have a treat for you: Janet Webb’s review of Mary Balogh’s Someone To Trust (Westcott #5). Read Janet’s review below!

Mary Balogh writes books that once you start, sleep is optional until you utter a happy sigh at the end. I’m invested in the Westcotts, a close, intertwined family who invite readers into their charmed circle.

Balogh does widows who’ve had a crummy first marriage very well. Some causes are abuse, be it emotional and/or physical, or the consequences of dealing with a husband’s mental illness. Lizzie aka Elizabeth, Lady Overfield, is the latest widow-with-a-troubled-past. She shares characteristics that reoccur in Balogh’s depiction of widows, like a stiff upper lip, an almost preternatural serenity, and a tendency to be self-effacing.
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Three-Day Quote Challenge: Day One

Posted in Favourite Romance by

Willaful from A Willful Woman nominated Miss Bates for this challenge and Miss Bates sends her heartfelt thanks. The idea is to post favourite quotations over three days and nominate three more bloggers to the challenge. Miss Bates is going to take her cue from LizMc2 from Something More and echo that she’s not sure she knows nine bloggers either.

Notorious_RakeMiss Bates will use the three-day quote challenge to write about, what else, her favourite genre, romance! And one of her literary obsessions, the opening line to a novel, especially a romance novel. Opening lines can make or break a novel for Miss Bates. The author has to grab her from the start. She’s giving a nod to the opening lines of some of her favourite romances. The first is from a much beloved romance author, Mary Balogh and her Notorious Rake:

The thunderstorm was entirely to blame.

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Miss Bates’ Favourite Christmas Romances

Posted in Connections, Impressions by

Christmas_IvyMiss Bates loves Christmas: stars, trees, lights, baking, candle-lit church services. Carols! She decorates; she cuts out gingerbread people. She even mails Christmas cards. And, with Mrs. Bates, they haul a beautiful sapin de Noël up the narrow staircase to her apartment and spend happy hours with tinsel, glitter, garland, and ornament. Early December finds her ribbon-cutting the season by bringing out her Christmas tea mugs. Every year, on November 25th, the feast day of St. Catherine, patron saint of spinsters (also lace-makers) Miss Bates embarks on a month-long reading of Christmas-themed, Christmas-set romances. The genre presents her with a plethora of choices and the covers are sentimental favourites. She’s read some duds and she’s read some wonders. Here are her wonders; if you’re a Christmas-romance fan, you might have read them, or you might consider reading one, or two 😉 this year. Continue reading