In the course of my life-long search for an author to be compared to Georgette Heyer, I have come across Mary Balogh, and I now notice that I have half a shelf of her work above my metre-long row of G.H. There must be a reason to this. I don't love her books, but I must say I like them.
Ms. Balogh, though there is humour in her texts, is not a wizard of sparkling wit (compared to G.H. nobody is). On the other hand, her persons are psychologically coherent and believable, and they develop in a very endearing way during the course of the book. This goes for A Summer To Remember, too. Kit Butler is a wild and rakish, funny and sexy care-for-nobody who is shown to have a deeper, darker side hidden from the world, a side that he has to learn to handle before being able to live his life as a happier person. Lauren Edgeworth is beautiful and "perfect", and the greatest marvel about this book is how Ms. Balogh can make out of this very controlled and reserved person (as such totally contrary to my poor self) someone so thoroughly sympathetic and deserving my warmest regard. She doesn't suddenly change into a wildly romantic and hilariously witty person after coming to contact with Kit, whom at first she despises and little by little learns to like and trust; instead I seem to learn to understand her while she learns to understand herself. She allows herself to breathe more freely and finds ways to let herself love herself and her Kit, and this happens without a total change in her fundamental personality. On the other hand, this personality, in the beginning of the book unsympathetic, has during the course of the book become something lovable and understandable to me. Is this evidence of good authorship? I think that it is.
So as not to frighten away people searching for a good Regency romance with generous splashes of eroticism in it, I must say that actually this is just such a book and not a psychological novel; on the other hand, it is a better novel than many other romances. Ms. Balogh's heroes and heroines tend not to be the standard protagonists, which in my opinion makes them more interesting. Of course I (as always) find it peculiar that protected maidens of the 19th century so willingly part with their virginities, but that is neither here nor there, and it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy reading about it, as Ms. Balogh is never clumsy writing the erotic scenes.
A Summer To Remember is one of the best by Ms. Balogh I've read so far. I am eagerly waiting for the story of Kit's brother, Sydnam Butler, to appear in paperback.