Review of Someone to Love (Westcott #1) by Mary Balogh
Someone to Love is the first book in the series Westcott.
Humphrey Westcott, Earl of Riverdale, has died, leaving behind a wife, two daughters, a son... and a daughter no one knew existed.
Anna Snow grew up in an orphanage in Bath, and a mysterious benefactor has supported her in her life. She's now twenty-five and a teacher at the orphanage, beloved by all. Then a solicitor appears with a strange letter requesting her to journey to London.
There she meets a large group of aristocrats and all of them are shocked to hear that Anna is in reality the sole heir of Humphrey Westcott's fortune, casting his wife and children into outer darkness. The rest of her newfound family gather round to form her into the aristocratic woman she was born to be.
Avery Archer, Duke of Netherby, is the guardian of Humphrey's only son. In his attempts to come to grips with what has happened, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to the woman who first showed up in his house in a cheap dress, plain bonnet and cloak, and severe hairstyle. She is meek, but she is not a woman to be underestimated. He's fascinated, and, even as he's not sure why, he wants to know more.
The new life threatens to overwhelm Anna, and Avery steps in to help, opening himself up to vulnerability and emotions he'd long suppressed.
In some ways, this book was good, and in other ways, it was merely okay.
Anna was an interesting character, and her rags to riches story was fun to read. However, her character, while mildly layered, was largely superficial in conflict and struggle. There was not much depth to her, and she wears her heart on her sleeve enough that there was not a lot of inner conflict, though Mary Balogh tried to make it out that Anna did not wear her heart on her sleeve. Show vs. tell.
Avery was more interesting, and he had more depth. He exuded boredom and haughtiness, but inside he was insecure as much as he was calm and assured. He had pain in his past that was delved into enough to realize it was there, and he had a mentor who made him into the confident man he was. This is far more detail than I saw in Anna.
The plot itself was a fun dive into the upper reaches of the upper class in Regency England. It was a long way from Anna's childhood and young adult years, and she was thrust into it without warning. Her desire to connect with her new family was touching, and her rejection by her half-siblings was sad to read. Avery's involvement with Anna was convoluted, and his mystified attitude toward his attraction to Anna was a little entertaining. He seemed to accept her just the way she was, unlike her family who were all trying to form her into Lady Anastasia Westcott, her birth name and birthright. I liked the way Anna stood her ground and claimed her likes and dislikes in her appearance, not caring what others thought about her, and the consternation of her relatives made me smile.
My main issue with the book is that there was no deep passion in the emotions, dialog, or plot that would really make the book pop. I felt the attraction between Anna and Avery, but there was no deep passion between them that would make a pairing make sense, and since the two POVs were Avery and Anna, the reader automatically knows it will happen. Avery exuded disinterest and boredom, but with a POV at her disposal, Mary Balogh could have capitalized on that inner voice to show a passion for Anna, even if he was unsure of his own feelings. It was the same with Anna. Neither of them showed much emotion, even internally, and where Mary Balogh tried to show deep emotion, it felt forced and unnatural.
This problem may just be the author having trouble connecting with the characters. She is a prolific author, and this may just be one of her inevitable struggles in production.
Mary Balogh's descriptions were merely okay. I didn't have a great grasp on places, but people were better. Actions were done pretty well, and there was one action sequence in particular that required great description of where people were and what they were doing. I followed that scene and any others with ease.
Dialog was done well. Characters spoke differently, and there was a definite difference between Avery and Anna. That's something I greatly struggle with in my writing, so I appreciate when authors do it because I understand the difficulty. There could have been more done in this area, but it was better than many books I read. The dialog itself was mostly smooth with only a few rough patches, and very little cheese. Cheesy dialog would have been out of character for the couple, so I was glad to see little of it.
Overall, it was a fun book that was an easy read with little substance.
Comments
Post a Comment