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Irresistible Mary Balogh 9780515123678 Books

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Irresistible Mary Balogh 9780515123678 Books

Having read the first book in the "Horsemen" Series, I was surprised when I was able to order this book - #3, but was unable to find #2 out on Kindle. One can only guess at the reasoning. Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead and read this book while waiting on the second book in the series. I found Nathaniel's and Sophie's story to be somewhat boring, even though the storyline had great potential.

Sophie was well known to the band of brothers because she had followed the drum with her husband, Walter, who was a friend of the four horsemen. In fact, Rex, Kenneth, Nathaniel and Eden all considered Sophie to be one of the guys and had fond memories of hanging out with her and Walter but had not seen her since Waterloo. Walter died at Waterloo after sacrificing himself to save others others, including Wellington, which resulted in some fame for Walter and his widow, Sophie - to the point, the Crown presented her with a home and a pension. Can you beat that?

However, when the reader is first introduced to Sophie, she's undergoing a severe time of pressure due to mysterious "debts" that she has to pay. These debts are occurring more and more frequently and we are treated to the fact she has to wear the same couple of dresses when she goes about in Society - dresses that are now a few years old and quite out of style. When the debts become more and more frequent, she finally must sell her pearl necklace and wedding ring. Of course, we surmise it's blackmail that surely has to do with her time in the military and it doesn't take much imagination to realize the blackmailer has something on Walter, but what? It was obvious to me early on and I suspect it will be easily figured out by most readers.

Early on, Nathaniel and Sophie get together, although neither had planned this to happen. From then one, we are treated to all Sophie's insecurities about her looks and her lack of being good enough for Nathaniel to be truly interested in her as a wife. We know that sooner or later Nathaniel and Sophie will get it on, but when it happens, it never seems to be on an equal footing because Sophie has such a huge inferiority complex. Then, we have the nonstop thoughts coming from Nathaniel about how he really his tired and weary of having to be serviced by prostitutes and simply wants some other type of arrangement - not a regular mistress, nor anyone's wife, but someone with whom he can have an active sex life - yes, a lover. But, not marriage, definitely not marriage - no siree - definitely not marriage. Hence, this thing he has with Sophie would be perfect but oh how Nathaniel struggles with whether it will destroy the friendship he has with her.

Factors that hindered the storyline for me included Sophie's unwillingness to entertain any thoughts of assistance from four strong men who would have bent over backwards to help her. And, yet, when push comes to shove, she can straight talk with the best of them and stand up to all four of the horsemen - in fact, she does do so. Plus, she's willing to let all the friendships go down the drain rather than enlist the aid of people who truly care about her. I rarely confess to not liking a heroine, but I didn't care much for Sophie and although Nathaniel was a great guy in many ways, the storyline didn't do much for me.


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Irresistible Mary Balogh 9780515123678 Books Reviews

This was pleasant though not inspired. I would have liked to have seen this one all about Eden and Lavinia. They had pizzazz.

Nat and "good ol' Sophie" had their moments but I wasn't convinced they couldn't live without each other. And, Sophie seemed a bit too mousy for my tastes.

***SPOILER***

I was befuddled by why Sophia was beggaring herself to protect the reputation of her 'heroic' dead husband. He had certainly done her no favors. Why didn't she tell Nat or one of the others? They would have put paid to that blackmail in a flash. O/c that comprised most of the story of Nat and Sophia.

***END SPOILER***

The story of Nat and Sophia was nice. Lavinia and Eden added the sparkle.
I enjoyed this book better than the previous two. It is actually going high on my favorites list of Balogh books. There was very little I didn't like in fact.

The first of the trilogy had a strong plot and strong heroine but the hero was a bit too arrogant and self absorbed for my liking. The second of the trilogy had a strong hero and a potentially good plot but the heroine ruined the entire book (emphasis on ruin. I almost didn't finish the book because of her). This third book has a thoughtfully crafted plot, likeable hero, likeable heroine, humor, and impressively solid character development.

In the previous two books, I never got much of a sense of Nat and Ede. They always felt wooden, and I couldn't tell one from the other. In this book, however, the dialogue and personality of each was so well crafted that even without dialogue tags, I could have picked out the characters. I felt truly immersed with how strongly all of the characters were written. The dialogue throughout had me laughing out loud or sighing sentimentally.

The narration was my favorite aspect, oddly. I tend to prefer action scenes and sometimes feel tempted to skim lengthy exposition, but not so with this book. I actually preferred the narrative. I wish more writers had this skill or had a similar style for it seems so rare to find a writer who can craft a meaningful and rich narrative. It seems most writers will toss in some descriptions for the sake of it without any real purpose and then will have a dialogue heavy book where we jump from one convo to the next. This just isn't an accurate reflection of life. I loved how in this book we LIVE the lives of the characters, experiencing what they're going through and thinking so when dialogue and action does happen, it's more poignant--we can better understand the event from the character's perspective and even predict how they'll react.

The story handled a tough subject masterfully. So easily it could have been botched and by any less skilled of a writer I believe it would have been botched. The topic needed to be balanced from both the historical perspective and the modern perspective, not to mention cultural--how to stay true to the time and place to show just why the blackmail was worth sacrificing everything and even kept secret afterwards while not offending modern readers who would have a vastly different take on the subject. Masterfully handled all around.

The heroine's struggle to accept the hero made sense through and through, which doesn't always happen in these books. Quite often I'm scratching my head as to the conflict which usually ends up being something silly or a secret that didn't need to be a secret or a misunderstanding that could have been resolved with one frank convo. This conflict makes sense. Sure I wanted to strangle her a few times but I found her likeable as a heroine and I understood her perspective and likely would have acted similarly if I had been her.

The only aspect I didn't like was the ending (as in final few pages) which felt too contrived to me. At that point her resistance made no sense, and then suddenly she unveils happy news that didn't really fit and felt forced. I'm still trying to figure out how she convinced herself she knew how not to conceive when she had no previous experience in doing so. Both the happy unveiling and the secret to stop conception didn't fit with the story, in my humble opinion. I would have been content if they had sorted out their troubles in the gallery after her honest confession. Perfect opportunity and no silliness of the last couple of pages. The ending, however, is my only compliant. I loved the book. It will go in my to be re-read stack for sure.
Much as I enjoyed the first in the Horsemen series, this one was a big letdown. It was very wordy --- lots of introspection, waay too much of it -- and the chapters went on and on with very little to show for them. I did NOT understand Sophie's reaction to the blackmail I get that it had to be kept a secret but to go without clothes and to sell her jewelry and her house and never even go to her husband's brother for help/advice just seemed stupid and self-defeating. The part that irked me the most was the strange business of breaking off relations with all the horsemen and their families; it just seemed like a useless plot twist that did nothing for the story but just added pages. I didn't feel any chemistry between Sophie and Nathaniel and much preferred Eden and Lavinia's story which had some sparkle to it. I skimmed a LOT after the halfway mark. I'd pass on this one.
Having read the first book in the "Horsemen" Series, I was surprised when I was able to order this book - #3, but was unable to find #2 out on . One can only guess at the reasoning. Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead and read this book while waiting on the second book in the series. I found Nathaniel's and Sophie's story to be somewhat boring, even though the storyline had great potential.

Sophie was well known to the band of brothers because she had followed the drum with her husband, Walter, who was a friend of the four horsemen. In fact, Rex, Kenneth, Nathaniel and Eden all considered Sophie to be one of the guys and had fond memories of hanging out with her and Walter but had not seen her since Waterloo. Walter died at Waterloo after sacrificing himself to save others others, including Wellington, which resulted in some fame for Walter and his widow, Sophie - to the point, the Crown presented her with a home and a pension. Can you beat that?

However, when the reader is first introduced to Sophie, she's undergoing a severe time of pressure due to mysterious "debts" that she has to pay. These debts are occurring more and more frequently and we are treated to the fact she has to wear the same couple of dresses when she goes about in Society - dresses that are now a few years old and quite out of style. When the debts become more and more frequent, she finally must sell her pearl necklace and wedding ring. Of course, we surmise it's blackmail that surely has to do with her time in the military and it doesn't take much imagination to realize the blackmailer has something on Walter, but what? It was obvious to me early on and I suspect it will be easily figured out by most readers.

Early on, Nathaniel and Sophie get together, although neither had planned this to happen. From then one, we are treated to all Sophie's insecurities about her looks and her lack of being good enough for Nathaniel to be truly interested in her as a wife. We know that sooner or later Nathaniel and Sophie will get it on, but when it happens, it never seems to be on an equal footing because Sophie has such a huge inferiority complex. Then, we have the nonstop thoughts coming from Nathaniel about how he really his tired and weary of having to be serviced by prostitutes and simply wants some other type of arrangement - not a regular mistress, nor anyone's wife, but someone with whom he can have an active sex life - yes, a lover. But, not marriage, definitely not marriage - no siree - definitely not marriage. Hence, this thing he has with Sophie would be perfect but oh how Nathaniel struggles with whether it will destroy the friendship he has with her.

Factors that hindered the storyline for me included Sophie's unwillingness to entertain any thoughts of assistance from four strong men who would have bent over backwards to help her. And, yet, when push comes to shove, she can straight talk with the best of them and stand up to all four of the horsemen - in fact, she does do so. Plus, she's willing to let all the friendships go down the drain rather than enlist the aid of people who truly care about her. I rarely confess to not liking a heroine, but I didn't care much for Sophie and although Nathaniel was a great guy in many ways, the storyline didn't do much for me.