Book Review: Simply Love by Mary Balogh

Title: Simply Love
Series: Simply Quartet #2
Author: Mary Balogh
Published: February 27, 2007
Genre(s): Romance: Historical
Page Count: 418
Rating:

Summary from Goodreads:

Anne first spied him in the deepening dusk of a Wales evening—a lone figure of breathtaking strength, his handsome face branded by a secret pain. For teacher and single mother Anne Jewell, Sydnam Butler is a man whose sorrows—and passions—run deeper than she could have ever imagined. As steward of a remote seaside manor, Sydnam lives a reclusive existence. Yet he senses in Anne a kindred soul, and between these two wary hearts, desire stirs. Unable to resist the passion that has rescued them both, Anne and Sydnam share an afternoon of exquisite lovemaking. As scandal looms, suddenly the unwed mother and the war-scarred veteran must make a decision that could forever alter their lives...

Mary Balogh writes quiet, internally-focused romances about mature adults dealing with real-life problems (even if said adults are usually wealthy and titled). It’s a brand of romance I enjoy, and Simply Love typifies exactly what this author does best. It’s not her best book, or even a great book in general, but it’s quiet, slow-moving, and very light on drama of any kind. It’s a very, very understated romance—to the point where it’s so understated as to be a little bit flat.

The most dramatic (and annoying) thing about this book is…IT’S THE FUCKING MARY BALOGH REUNION BOOK. Characters from eleven (yes, eleven) other books parade themselves through the pages of Simply Love. This includes all six of the blissfully-happy Bedwyn siblings, their spouses, and their horde of screaming, sticky toddlers. Ay. Why did this need to happen? Answer: It didn’t. It was completely unnecessary to parade all of those characters around Wales in order to titter and gossip about the actual protagonists of the book, Anne and Sydnam.

Anne and Sydnam themselves, were…okay. I honestly didn’t feel there was much interpersonal drama between them; rather, the progression of their relationship was slow and steady, and filled with a lot of thoughtful conversations while the two strolled around to look at Welsh scenery. We do know Sydnam as the hero’s disfigured brother from A Summer to Remember, but luckily Sydnam’s disability wasn’t made too much of an issue here. Likewise, Anne has her own trauma as a single mother whose son was conceived when a former employer raped her. Bad enough in the modern day—in Regency England, such a situation is akin to social suicide.

While both protagonists’ pasts come into play over the development of this relationship, it is maybe Anne’s previous assault that affects her relationship with Sydnam the most. The sex, when they have it…isn’t good (for pretty obvious reasons). Sydnam thinks Anne doesn’t like sex because of his disfigurement, and Anne is too busy thinking that her sexual responses are permanently broken, so there’s a semi-large misunderstanding going on there for a good portion of the book. Personally, I really enjoyed that Mary Balogh was willing to discuss this after-effect of rape in a romance novel—too often we see that sex with the hero magically “cures” any heroine’s previous trauma. Rather, Balogh shows that previous negative experiences can and do affect positive relationships in the present, and neatly avoids inflicting upon her readers my least favorite romance trope: The Magical Peen.

Anyway, yes. I’ve always said that I love Mary Balogh’s books because they’re quiet and authentic and don’t get so caught up in drama that they forget about real people and real people’s issues. Simply Love stays true to this, but does get a little too caught up in other things (Family Reunions, orgiastic descriptions of Wales, etc.). This is a story of two broken people finding love together, and while it’s not anything showy or remarkable, it was still a solid novel.