Someone to Care

The only characters exhibiting any sense in this whole book were Estelle, Bertrand, and Abigail. Not coincidentally, they were also the only characters attempting to understand the hero and heroine. Not even the hero or heroine made much of an effort to understand each other.

Did they have occasionally insightful and meaningful conversations? Yes. (Not that we got to see a lot of them. But we were told they happened, so I suppose they did.) But any time they skirted close to true empathy and understanding, to being vulnerable, the conversation was diverted or ended. Which certainly explains why they spent fully half the book convinced that the other person didn't love them.

I get it. Almost all conflict in romance novels is contrived, but show more there's an upward limit of my tolerance for people behaving foolishly for the sake of the plot. And it didn't help that almost every single other person in the book also seemed determined to behave foolishly for the sake of the plot.

The rigid policing of Viola's virtue by her family—forcing her into an unwanted engagement—is bad enough. She's a middle-aged woman who's lived in a bigamous marriage for over 20 years: the time to protect her reputation and virtue is long past. And if they were really concerned about Viola's being taken advantage of, why didn't they ask her if she was happy or safe when they stumbled upon her little love nest?

But asking Viola how she feels or what she needs is beyond the capabilities of her family, clearly. Over and over again, they express concern amongst themselves that Viola may not want this engagement, but not one of them asks her. Not. One. Instead they flock to Marcel to make sure he really loves her.

It's almost a relief that Marcel's family is so self-obsessed that they couldn't care less about his sudden engagement. Except for Estelle and Bertrand, anyway, but if it weren't for Estelle and Bertrand, Marcel wouldn't have cancelled the engagement or eventually declared his love—at plot-convenient moments, of course.

In fact, Marcel and Viola are so accustomed to running away from their problems—he into pleasure and distraction, she into the depths of her self (and self-pity)—that I don't really believe they have the tools to handle any difficulties they may encounter in the rest of their lives together. Maybe if Estelle or Bertrand or Abigail are on hand to force them to confront their fear with constructive action, they'll be all right, but I personally hope Estelle, Bertrand, and Abigail get to live their own lives, instead.

What an off-putting and enraging mess of a book. Characterization all over the place—did Viola end up figuring out who she is, as she was so determined to do at the beginning of the book? I don't think so. A love story that hasn't earned its happy ending—where would the hero and heroine be without their pushy children? And pages upon pages of a family who become less and less appealing with every book I read in this series—Viola was right: they smother everyone in love without ever attempting to understand them. I hope that the next book is better...but I'm not holding my breath. show less

I kind of adore this family and series. Mary Balogh does a gorgeous job with her characters and all their quirks and goodness. This book especially showed how much this family loves each other, and it was wonderful to see. Also amazing that Viola gets an HEA at 42 after having a crap husband who at least gave her three great kids. And Marcel went through a lot to get to his HEA at the end too, which was rather heartbreaking but lovely to read.

So when the Earl of Riverdale died it was discovered that he had a bigamus marraige. This is a tale of his one-time countess Viola who is trying to get a sense of herself after allthe fuss and noise has died down. She bumps into the Marquess of Dorchester, Marcel Lamarr, whom she was attracted to before. So they run away and have some fun, only their families find them and they're engaged suddenly.

There was a lot of assumption and a lot of pearl clutching by various parties but there was also a lot of romance and two characters who needed each other.

There were times where it dragged a bit and where things felt a little forced but overall it was entertaining.

I really think this is a 4 star book, however, I finished it about 10 books ago and I see that I didn't write a comment.

The rather generic title, Someone to Care, did not trigger any memory, so I had to look up the description. Ah ha! I remember this one very well - that is not guaranteed! hence my extra half star!

I love this story of two thirty somethings who have the perspective to try for pleasure and happiness. Of course it helps that he's wealthy and he happens to have a glorious place they can go to and be secluded and waited on! and that she's a widow. These things make it just plausible.

They are both fascinating characters and one needs to know where it is going to go. Viola Kingsley - don't you love it when the heroine is show more described as a great beauty despite not being 17! meaning, she is a beauty and mature in years! She's even 3(?) years older than the Marquess of Dorchester, Marcel Lamarr.

I was so drawn in by how closely he observes her. Initially, it's all to do with how he is going to persuade her to his goal. His attention to her is a tool to achieve his designs. But he's so damned good at it, he gives it so much of himself, that it goes beyond manipulation to a different level. His attention to her body, mind and soul is a trade for getting what he wants. And he gets more than he bargained for, as does she.

It's a terrific love story. It drags in the last third as the problems are sorted out towards the HEA. It's incredibly difficult for romance writers to get there stealthily. In the case of this story, I felt it didn't need the high wall of obstacle that is inevitably thrown into the plot mix at the two-thirds milestone. Bringing the two strong-willed, socially straight-jacketed Regency lovers together is a sufficient wall to bring down. Take the love story to some different new place instead...

No, Mary Balogh, does not take up my challenge. But looking back on my scores for her other books, she does give me that extra jus! her stories reach into me, and she is one of the great romance writers. The historical part of the fiction is not the important thing - it's a canvas for some universal truth telling, opening of the human heart - whatever! show less

I finished this last night and really enjoyed it. For whatever reason the series is working very well for me. It’s a bit like the Slightly/Simply series but with a premise which allows Balogh to explore family and social relationships in a deeper way. It’s a historical-romance version of the found family theme we see in other subgenres. And it lets her write optimistically about relationships and love of all kinds without becoming too treacly (which started to happen for me in the Simply series).

I don’t see Adeline’s death as anything more than a tragic accident, and I don’t see the story as rehabilitating an abuser or making him heroic. It was one action that contributed to a fatal accident, not part of a larger pattern, and show more it’s pretty clear that Marcel felt terrible guilt and remorse. Even his libertine tendencies apparently were carried out in such a way that his partners weren’t hurt (at least the text suggests that). He absented himself from his children’s lives and hurt them by doing so, but for reasons that made sense to him given his self-hatred. I also think the fact that his extremely judgmental sister- and brother-in-law did not raise his children to suspect or fear him suggests that his shove was not seen by them as a manifestation of his true self.

It occurred to me that part of the reason some readers have trouble with Marcel may be because neither he nor the text spends much time asking the reader to understand and forgive him for that action or for his more general behavior. He’s a fairly closed person, even in his interior monologues, and his humor is dry and self-deprecating. If you don’t take to him, he doesn’t really care. I happened to like him a lot, but then I like this kind of hero; still, I can see how he can come across as cold and almost off-putting. His asides to himself give you insights into how he feels, but he’s a very low-key tortured hero.

I totally bought the romance. In many of Balogh’s pairings you have a cool, buttoned-up, or previously traumatized person paired with someone more emotionally open and risk-taking. Here they are both from the first category, and maybe that’s what made the Big Mis work for me. Neither reached out to the other for quite a while. The fact that Marcel made the necessary moves rather than Viola made sense to me because he had further to go, both in terms of himself and in terms of righting the wrongs he’d committed to his children and extended family. show less

If a hero abandons his children when they are babies, there’s really nothing he can do to redeem himself. Even if he decides to become a real parent when they are seventeen. This ship has sailed, sir.

Poor Viola, after being non-married to a dick she got married to a dick.

I hated the hero but I can’t rate Mary’s book lower than three stars. The writing was great and there were plenty of cameos to make me happy.

Enchanting!

Screaming from loneliness the Countess of Riverdale, Viola Kingsley runs, well really by happenstance falls into the arms of a former 'never happened adventure' in the person of the well practiced rake, the Marquess of Dorchester, Marcel Lamarr , in this funny/serious autumn romance. An invigorating plot where two souls who decide on a spur of the moment romantic adventure embark on more than they bargained for.
At last the story of the wife who found herself trapped in a bigamous relationship and lost all. The emotional toll and how she's not managing behind that oh so proper facade rings so true.
And then there's the family who see her, but don't really see her--their shock and horror about her disappearance and the show more disapproval of who she disappears with.
I really just wanted them to leave Viola alone to work out her own destiny. And that's why she ran, because she was alone despite having all these people who cared about her.
As for her and Marcel ... Well!

A NetGalley ARC show less