A Rogue’s Downfall by Mary Balogh
The Anniversary: After the Earl of Reardon, one of London’s most notorious rakes, ruined the virtue and reputation of a young lady at a masquerade ball on Valentine’s Day, he did the honorable thing and married her before settling her at his country estate and abandoning her there. Now, one year later, he has returned home to his wife and young son, wondering if it is too late to woo her properly and make amends for a year of shameful neglect.
The Wrong Door: During a dull evening at a particularly tedious house party Viscount Lyndon, a notorious rake, makes an assignation to spend the night with a willing widow. In the darkness, however, he opens the wrong door and enters the wrong room. He soon finds himself honor-bound to offer for the young lady who was the unfortunate victim of his error. She, however, does not react with predictable meekness. Instead, she sets out to bring him to his knees.
Precious Rogue: Miss Peabody and her mother are ecstatic when Mr. Bancroft, London’s most elusive bachelor, accepts an invitation to a house party at their country estate. They boast that he is about to offer marriage. However, it is upon Patricia Mangan, the quiet, unremarkable, impoverished niece Mrs. Peabody treats more as a servant than a relative, that Mr. Bancroft finds himself turning his attentions, surprising himself as much as he surprises her and everyone else.
- File Name:a-rogues-downfall-by-mary-balogh.epub
- Original Title:A Rogue's Downfall
- Creator:Balogh, Mary
- Language:en
- Identifier:2928990652
- Publisher:Class Ebook Editions, Ltd.
- Date:2017-05-02
- File Size:264.036 KB
Table of Content
- 1. Dear Reader
- 2. Copyright Page
- 3. Praise for Mary
- 4. Title Page
- 5. The Anniversary
- 6. The Wrong Door
- 7. Precious Rogue
- 8. More by Mary Balogh
- 9. Biography
- 10. Also by Mary Balogh
Once again, posting my review had some outlandish print showing up. Sorry for the huge print. I don't know why epub does this sometimes.
The Anniversary was about Lady Amy Richmond, Countess of Reardon, and her husband, Lord Hugh Richmond, the Earl of Reardon, one of London’s most notorious rakes who had ruined her the year before, only to marry her and exile her for the past year at his country estate, only visiting once during the nearly year since they had married, and then for only three weeks, during which time they hardly spoke or even saw each other. He had only visited long enough to witness the birth of their son, name him James, and then leave again. He had married her because, at a local Valentine's masquerade ball, he had taken her innocence when they were both intoxicated, gotten her pregnant, and then forced her to marry him. They were both now and had been for two years, in love, yet neither knew of the other's love. They both remembered their one night together in different ways, only to finally come together a year later and remind the other what really happened the night their son was conceived. A year's worth of drama, agony, angst, pain, rejection, self-recrimination, abandonment, self-condemnation, loathing, and finally, joy, peace, and love. What an emotional rollercoaster ride.
I'm not sure how I felt about this particular novella.
The Wrong Door was about Alistair Scott, Viscount Lyndon, a notorious rake, and Miss Caroline Astor, sister to Lord Royston Astor, Baron Brindley. Alistair had been invited to a house party that was being held in honor of his friend's great aunt. While there, he had been propositioned by a local widow to visit her room late one night. Following her very vague directions, he entered what he thought was her room. After several amorous overtures on his part, he came to realize he had found not the room of the widow, but the room of Caroline, who was a member of his friend's family. Realizing he had compromised Caroline, he then went to her brother to do the honorable thing of offering to marry her. What he didn't think would happen is that she would decline his offer.. After arguing with her over the right thing to do, they entered into a wager. Whoever could get the other to fall in love within the next 24 hour period, the winner would win 50 pounds. There was a good amount of chemistry between the two as they waged their emotional war on each other. The passion was just as powerful. There wasn't a great deal of drama for the story took place quite fast.
The only thing I didn't get was that, until Alistair entered her room by mistake, he hadn't really noticed Caroline. In fact, in one of his introspective chats, he said to himself that he didn't really know which one of the unwed ladies he had been introduced to. How do you go from that kind of attitude to being in love within 24 hours?
Precious Rogue was about Mr. Joshua Bancroft, heir to a barony and London’s most elusive bachelor, and Miss Patricia Mangan, the daughter of Reverend Samuel Mangan, and the quiet, unremarkable, impoverished niece of Mrs. Peabody and cousin of Miss Nancy Peabody. Mr. Bancroft was attending a house party at the home of Mrs. Peabody, who was hoping he would be asking for her daughter, Nancy's hand in marriage by the end of the party. While he had paid Nancy a great deal of attention in London during the Season, he wasn't interested in marrying her. Josh's only reason for attending the house party was to bed any and all available widows, married women whose husbands looked the other way, and maids in service of the hosts. Josh wasn't picky and he had no problem bedding multiple women throughout the day and night, so much so that he silently complained about getting very little sleep and of being exhausted. Talk about a man-whore. There were at least 3 women he was bedding, while supposedly courting the cousin of Patricia. While talking with a married woman at a lily pond at the party, he realized he had been caught by Patricia while arranging an assignation with the other woman. Patricia had been up in a tree well before the two had arrived below her. After the other woman left, he and Patricia. For Josh to have spent at least three weeks bedding every skirt he could, then the final two days of the house party tell her he fell in love with her at their first meeting? Really? It made no sense. He fell in love at first sight...but bedded everyone BUT the woman he was supposedly in love with?
There was a tremendous amount of hatred, animosity, anger, (from the Peabody women), humiliation, dread, despair, pain, anxiety, lust (on Josh's and the other women's part) throughout this book. What wasn't there was chemistry or passion between the two main characters. Josh had hardly anything good to say about Patricia. He didn't even think she was pretty. The only positive thing he had to say (or think) was that he liked her. She was easy to talk to, and she was also kind. That's not enough to build a relationship upon.
With those three reviews given, I can't really say that any of them made any sense. I guess they made for easy reads, but they had no depth, no continuity. The characters weren't very well developed. With the exception of Hugh, the main male characters were a-holes. Hugh's only saving grace was that he had been in love with Amy for two years. Where he erred was in abandoning her for the better part of a year. At least he was there at the most important moments.
Easy and sweet reading