Only Enchanting

I’ve enjoyed all of these books but this one was my favorite so far.

The romance was sweet and passionate but without overly descriptive scenes (yes, keep it up, Mary!) and I adored Flavian! He was the most fun of all the Survivors but he was also a troubled soul and I just wanted to hug him. Agnes was maybe a little less amazing but she was the rock he needed and it worked very well.

It was again a very comforting read with lots of easily digestible life wisdom. Both Flavian and Agnes needed to heal before they could build a future together and their journey was not always easy. There was no third act breakup though, because they decided that they would make it work despite their issues.

Only Enchanting
Flavian, Viscount Ponsonby, speaks with a painful stutter and suffers from memory gaps as a result of massive head injuries coupled with personal trauma. He develops a conviction that he must marry the ‘enchanting’ widow, Agnes Keeping, immediately. He doesn’t quite know why, but he knows she will keep him safe. Agnes, harbors family secrets, a lingering grief for her staid and boring marriage, and an irresistible lust for Lord Ponsonby. Flavian’s emotional memory recovery is intensely painful and surprisingly moving.

Flavian, who barely recovered from a head injury and madness during the Napoleonic War, knows that his fiancee broke their betrothal to marry his best friend, who has now died. He has never forgiven them, and has no interest in renewing the relationship despite the plans of his family and hers. Indeed, when he tries to remember the details, such as why he returned to the army when his beloved older brother was on his deathbed, he gets headaches. He visits a small village, where Vincent Darleigh has just had a baby, for a gathering of the Survivors Club, and meets Agnes Keeping, a friend of Vincent's wife.

Agnes has locked her heart away from passion, knowing that her mother abandoned her family to go with her lover. But when she meets show more Flavian, who is quite obviously a charming rake but has an inexplicable yearning for her, she reluctantly lets herself agree to his marriage proposal. Their incipient relationship is wounded by her discovery that he married her to avenge his former love, or as he inexplicably thought to himself, to be safe from his former fiancee. Flavian has already realized he does not want to live without Agnes, so in a wary truce they talk through his memories. They slowly discover that the fiancee tried to trap Flavian into marriage by lying about him seducing her, after purposefully breaking his brother's heart. His brother sent Flavian back to the army to try to save him from that trap.

Flavian hunts down Agnes' mother, against her wishes, and learns that she was basically driven out by her husband in a drunken and unjustified rage. Her mother made the one choice to not go back, and was divorced and has lived with regret ever since.

Another beautiful story of two broken people who are drawn together and heal each other. show less

This was lovely with probably a bit more angst, but I appreciate the time Balogh takes to get them to know each other with more of the unknown to come. Flavian and Agnes both had demons, but I loved to see them both there for each other and making it work; so good.

Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh is a 2014 Signet Publication.

This the fourth book in the Survivor's Club series.

Flavian, Viscount Ponsonby, suffered a brain injury which cost him his fiance' who quite abruptly married one of his oldest friends. Now, several years later, it seems the lady is a widow, and Flavian feels some guilt about having kept his distance from the couple all this time. But, the thought comes to mind that it could be his chance to rekindle the romance with the lady who once deserted him.

However, when Flavian meets Sophia's friend Agnes, he finds himself drawn to her. She is not like any lady he has ever spent time with. She is calm, sensible, and reliable. She makes him feel safe, and he wants her in his life. But, show more Agnes is not so sure that's a good idea for either of them. However, once he finally convinces her to marry him, she learns she is a pawn and that her husband is only using her. Is the marriage doomed or can Flavian convince his new wife that he loves her and only her?

This is a tender love story that will touch your heart. Mary Balogh is a master at writing Regency period romance, and this book is a solid example of her skills. I liked the mature characters, and although poor Flavian still has trouble with his memory and doesn't always say things in the most eloquent of ways, he is simply divine and so very charming, in spite of himself.

Agnes is a woman terrified of her own inner passions, and prefers an orderly, dependable, but predictable life. However, meeting Flavian ensures her of a life that will be none of those things. If Flavian can prove his love for Agnes, she will find her husband to be everything she needs and much, much more.

The story is a little understated at times, with the passion between the couple hanging in the atmosphere and not necessarily acted upon like two hormonal teens, but it's there and it's palpable. The tone is light, the banter is witty and sharp, and utterly delightful. This couple was most assuredly destined to be together and although they remain pragmatic about effusive happy ever afters, we all know they finally got theirs.

4 stars. show less

Another volume of the Survivor’s Club, this was the fourth of the series that I read. I enjoyed it as much as the others in terms of emotional content and the characters. However, there were some aspects that didn’t jib as well with me.

I really liked the leads of Agnes and Flavian. Agnes’ n-nonsense, practical approach synchs well with how I approach things. I liked how that pragmatic outlook on life actually makes her more vulnerable to be swept away by the pull of high passion and first real love. Having not experienced those high-rolling emotions before makes them all the more potent, I think. In the end, though, Agnes comes out all the better for them.

Flavian’s emotional response to life was a nice change of pace, too. show more He’s moved to tears more than once when faced with an emotionally charged encounter or situation. This is not the norm for a romantic hero, and I liked that difference. I like that his injury hasn’t made him your usual grim, brooding, mysterious male (though that’s not always a bad thing!). There is still some mystery and masks to him, but his passion for life and Agnes still comes through.

The main relationship made the book. Agnes and Flavian fill each other out so well that it feels like they were just meant to be. Their pairing illustrates that the old adage of “opposites attract” holds some truth. Agnes’ solid, steady persona and Flavian’s barely contained passionate nature caused occasional sparks to fly with a strong, gelled cohesion in the end.

The outside plotline of Flavian’s family situation and Agnes’ familial shame was enjoyable overall. I liked how Balogh wove in Flavian’s injures with these situations, giving it more weight later in the book. His lost memories became an important part of the story; not being able to immediately recall the past when it has so much baring on the present must have torn Flavian a part.

However, I do wish that more emphasis or weight could have been given to Flavian’s injures throughout the whole book, not just towards the end. His stutter, his lazy eyebrow, and his absence of memories almost seemed as more of a gimmick than anything else for the first half of the book. After seeing how the injuries of Vincent and Ben played such a leading role in the emotional journeys of the characters in books two and three, I was a bit disappointed to see Flavian’s sidelined until way into the story.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable installment to the Survivor’s Club series. Vibrant leads and a main relationship one can root for make for a strong romantic read. I liked the plot, though the diminishing of Flavian’s situation in the beginning was a disappointment. I’d still recommend this one to lovers of the series and author, though. The emotional pull is still there. show less

Mary Balogh continues her Survivor’s Club series with a fourth installment and in it another survivor, Flavian, gets his own happily ever after. And what a story it is. After I was done reading his story, I wondered which one I loved [notice I didn’t say “like” and that’s because you just don’t “like” this authors stories. You either LOVE them or the opposite of that. I’m one of millions of her fans that loves everything she writes] the most so far. Guess what? I couldn’t choose. Out of the four she wrote up to date, I just love them all because each is unique in itself despite the same tread that binds them all, the war that affected each in a different way. I am looking forward to three more stories in this series show more and can’t wait to find out the background of those characters.

My heart broke into thousand pieces as I was reading about Flavian’s injuries after his return from the Peninsula. His rage at not being able to speak and understand people around him was heartbreaking. If George, the Duke of Stanbrook hadn’t intervened and whisked him off to his estate, I have no doubt that his family would have committed him to bedlam. It took three years of loving care and plenty of patience George and the other club members gladly offered in order for Flavian to come out of his nightmare.

Agnes Keeping is a young widow who after her older husband’s death is now living with her sister Dora. When Agnes married at eighteen, she was accepting of and content with, her life. I don’t think she felt that she was missing much not being in society on a regular basis during her marriage, but she did regret not having children. Dora’s friendship with Sophia who married Viscount Darley [another survivor club member] gave her the opportunity to meet Flavian and the rest as they say, is history.

The pace of this story is perfect and the slow progression of their acquaintance and subsequent love is enchanting. Both characters are loving, decent and endearing people.

There are many moments in this book where I just smiled from ear to ear and then some where I had tears in my eyes. But then, Ms. Balogh does this to me in every book I’ve read so far!

Highly recommending it to all my bookworms.

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher show less