Simply Love by Mary Balogh
No Stereotypical Heroes In Balogh's Tales...
New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh returns to the elegance
and sensuality of Regency England as she continues the enthralling story
of four remarkable women–friends and teachers at Miss Martin’s School
for Girls. At the center of this spellbinding novel is Anne Jewell, a teacher
haunted by a scandalous past…until she meets a man who teaches her
the most important lesson of all: nothing is simple when it comes to love.…
She spies him in the deepening dusk of a Wales evening–a lone figure of
breathtaking strength and masculinity, his handsome face branded by a
secret pain. For single mother and teacher Anne Jewell, newly arrived with
her son at a sprawling estate in Wales on the invitation of an influential
friend, 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
far from the pity and disdain of others. Yet almost from the moment Anne
first appears on the cliffs, he senses in this lovely stranger a kindred soul,
and between these two wary hearts, desire stirs. Unable to resist the
passion that has rescued them both from loneliness, Anne and Sydnam
share an afternoon of exquisite lovemaking. Now the unwed single mother
and war-scarred veteran must make a decision that could forever alter
their lives. For Sydnam, it is a chance to heal the pain of the past. For
Anne, it is the glorious promise of a future with the man who will dare her
to reveal her deepest secrets…before she can give him all her heart.
From the Hardcover edition.
Personal Review: Simply Love by Mary Balogh
This is the only one of Mary Balogh's novels I struggled in reviewing, and
not for the reasons one might imagine. Indeed, I find no flaw worth
mentioning, though I suppose there must be one or two. Simply Love is
true to Balogh's gentle, steady style, and the characters are comfortably
familiar, even if you haven't read all the tales in the "Simply" or the Slightly"
series.
I find reviewing this book difficult because I know, far more intimately than I
might like, what it feels like to be "damaged" and to have given up on any
chance for love. I have lived it, and I can tell you, Balogh's insights into the
heart, soul and mind of emotionally scarred Anne and physically maimed
Sydnam are dead-on. The book could almost have been sub-titled "Simply
Given Up on Love."
To those few human beings who have been chewed up and spat out by life
experience, the struggle with pain, loneliness and isolation can become,
inexorably, the ubiquitous fabric of their existence; slowly, insidiously, like
the frog in the pot of heating water, they lose their sense of hope and
optimism for their future.
Balogh has captured this subtly hidden malady of the human spirit and
infused her main characters with it. Anne's herculean efforts to hide her
fear, sadness and pain will stab at your heart. Sydnam's desperate,
tenacious struggle to hold on to the limited physical ability and
independence he retains in the aftermath of horrific torture as a prisoner of
war literally made me weep. No fluffy, witty romance here to be sure, and
yet...
We begin to see as the pages turn that Anne and Sydnam may be the only
two people in the bright, gay world they inhabit who, as a direct result of
their own personal, private anguish, have the unique ability to understand,
accept, heal and ultimately, love one another. And so they do.

Make no mistake, Balogh is not offering a smooth, sweet, tidy love story.
The intimate encounters between Anne and Sydnam are at worst
awkward, and at best poignant and wrenching, rather than erotic.
However, this is perfectly fitted to the storyline. After all, this is a man who
has lost his right arm, bears horrific burn scars from cheek to knee and is
half blind. It would be ludicrous (not to mention insulting to the reader) to
offer sophisticated, suave and graceful loveplay.
And this is exactly what makes this such a special romance. The author
wants her readers to know that there IS hope and optimism and love, even
for those people most unlikely to have it. And I, as one of them, would like
to say, Thank You, Mary, for writing a beautiful story----about us.
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