Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh (2009) is the fourth book in the Huxtable series released in hardcover and published by Dell. The following review was written by fellow reader and contributor, Senetra. Enjoy.
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Stephen Huxtable, the Earl of Merton, first appeared as a 17-year-old young man in First Comes Marriage, then aged a few years in each subsequent book, and now he is 25 and the hero of his own story. Over the course of the previous books, Stephen seemed to have it all, a loving family, wealth, a title, and good looks. He was a complete Mary Sue; I can’t remember too much unhappiness on his part once he became the earl. Before I read the book, I tried to figure out what the conflict between the hero and heroine would be, but couldn’t think of anything that didn’t involve either a complete rewrite of his character, or some disfiguring incident that left him some combination of angry, bitter, scarred, and crippled. Stephen’s still hale and hearty, and I don’t recall Mary Balogh writing a simple Boy meets Girl romance, so all the angst and drama comes from the heroine.
Cassandra Belmont, Lady Paget, is a widow rumored to have killed her husband with an axe. The truth is that he was shot, but no one has come forth as a witness to say what actually happened, and as long as Cassandra left the estate and did not press her claim to it, her stepson was willing to let her go. This means that Cassandra is destitute, with now way to support her household, consisting of her former governess, Alice, a maid-of-all-work, Mary, and Mary’s daughter Belinda. They move to London where Cassandra is determined to set herself up as a rich man’s mistress. She spies Stephen in the park, and is attracted to his angelic looks and she decides he will make a good protector. In order to introduce herself to him, she crashes a ball, not realizing that the Earl and Countess of Sheringford are related to Stephen. Knowing all about social ostracism, they make her welcome, and she eventually convinces Stephen to come home with her. After a somewhat lackluster performance in bed, Stephen falls deeply asleep, only to awake the next morning and find Cassandra ready to negotiate a contract. Once he realizes just how poor Cassandra is, and figures out that her husband abused her, Stephen agrees to the arrangement, but is determined to have more than a wholly sexual relationship. Cassandra does not wish for emotional intimacy and tries to put the focus back on the sex.
Stephen manages to ignore Alice’s distaste for his relationship with Cassandra, but his conscience gets the better of him when he finds that Belinda lives in the house as well. Not wanting to taint her home, he ends the sex part of the contract, but tells Cassandra that he wants to get to know her better. This occurs in fits and starts, and Cassandra begins to piece her life back together, finally deciding to fight for her part of the estate and mending fences with her brother.
After reading this book, I’m not sure how much I like or know either of these characters. Cassandra is only three years older than Stephen is, but she sometimes tries to keep him at a distance treating him as if he’s a teenaged boy with a crush on her. I know this is part of her defense mechanism, but it got tiring, and at times, it felt as if Stephen’s feelings were more about lust than anything else. Yes, he fell in love with her, but I still can’t figure out why.
While I wasn’t as interested in this story as I was in the previous ones, I did want to find out how it wraps up for the siblings. This book had cameos by the sisters and their husbands, but it also felt very short, and after reading it, I decided that with some editing of the plot, this novel would have fit nicely in a two-author anthology instead of being a stand-alone hardcover release. There were some plot points and character interactions that felt more like padding than actual story development, and one that came out of what seemed like nowhere, and I’m still not sure if I buy it.
Grade: C
Note: Apparently this is a quintet? Look for another hardcover soon.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m waiting on Con’s story, too, and have been making up scenarios in my head for why the whatever-it-was went missing.
This one looked so interesting and yet somehow I could could NOT get into it. Hope I will later.
There will be a fifth book, BTW, Con’s story. I think the tentative title is something like Tempting the Devil. He’s such a fascinating character, I hope the story will do him justice!
This quote is exactly how I feel. I was riveted by those early full length regencies she wrote.
I’ve read two of the first three Huxtable books and have been dithering over buying the HC (and annoyed at the publisher for ending the series in HC) and now feel comfortable waiting for the paperback release. Good review.
Oh, I agree with that! I couldn’t get into her Bedwyn series and to be fair, I only tried the one book. In the 90’s she was cranking out hit after hit with me with her historicals, Heartless, Thief of Dreams, Indiscreet and I loved her traditional regency titles, The Temporary Wife, Snow Angel, etc, to name a few. The few stories I’ve read from her within the past 5 years has been dull and flat. More misses than hits these days but I plan to read this series and I love the covers.
I do agree with your assessment of this book, Senetra. I was very removed from it as I was reading it and found that I really didn’t care much how it would end. In all honesty, I enjoyed only the very first book of this series. I thought it was very well done, but felt the others didn’t hold my interest as Balogh wrote their stories. Unfortunately, she’s become one of the most inconsistent authors for me. Or should I say “consistent,” in that she’s not delivering as she once did–at least IMO.
I remember Jane mentioning that the hero in here aged rather quickly and made it difficult to read or even believable. I still want to read this series but probably won’t get to it anytime soon. Thanks Senetra!