One Good Turn

Carla Kelly is a master at writing gut wrenching, highly charged, emotional books with a light touch of humor and sweet poignancy without being heavy handed. She excels in telling of the horror of war and especially how it affects women and children. Warning: This book is not for those who get a bit queasy when reading about the realities of battle and its aftermath. In One Good Turn we learn how some men can be horribly brutal and barbaric and yet others so incredibly kind and compassionate. Every character is three dimensional and complex.

Benedict Nesbitt (Nez), Duke of Knaresborough, is a veteran of the Peninsular War, and meets Liria Valencia and her son when he is shamed into picking them up from the side of the road during a show more rainstorm. Nez is traveling with his niece who has chicken pox and his butler. Miss Valencia's strength and surface calm hides deep pain and anger as she was a victim of the atrocities of war. But she courageously gets on with her life to care for her five year old son. Nez starts to suspect the horror of her past which also forces him to recall his own shameful secrets. This book is a testament to the healing power of love and is a MUST read. (Grade: A) show less

One Good Turn by Carla Kelly is the sequel to Libby's London Merchant (which I have not read), but it stands quite well on its own. Benedict Nesbitt, a duke had his heart broken when Libby turned down his advances for those of his very ordinary friend. But he is struggling manfully to come to terms with his disappointment. To take his mind off his troubles, he agrees to take his young niece Sophie to his country estate so that she doesn't contract the chicken pox that currently plagues her younger brother. But when Sophie is taken ill, Nez isn't sure that he can handle a sick child on his own.

Luckily for him, he runs into Miss Liria Valencia and her young son Juan on the road. Although Nez first takes her to be nothing more than a camp show more follower, her competent manner soon impresses him enough to offer her a position managing his household. As with most Carla Kelly books, the romance in this one does not come easily. The plot is very character-driven, and both characters have had horrifying experiences during the Napoleonic Wars that they must somehow come to grips with before they can acknowledge their feelings for each other. The characters are flawed, but very real, fundamentally decent human beings. And this is the true power of Carla Kelly's romances. Her heros and heroines are real people, no different (except historically) than the rest of us - and her romances are real relationships between them.

Despite these very strong points, this was a difficult book for me to read. The siege at Badajoz was a horrifying portion of history, and it is invariably difficult to deal with these kinds of atrocities. It was just too much to deal with after the book immediately before this one The Sleeping Dragon that involved a similar situation - and a poorly handled one. So I had turned to romance to avoid that kind of violence - which probably accounts for my less than enthusiastic response to this book. I'm planning on reading it again when I'm ready, but it was just too much for me this time around.

Also posted at my blog. show less

Lovely book. This is what I expected but did not get from [b:Reforming Lord Ragsdale|222808|Reforming Lord Ragsdale|Carla Kelly|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1326078378s/222808.jpg|215768] based on reviews from that book.

This book also concerns the redemption of a man whose character is perhaps not all it should be. You could really see Benedict attempting to make himself a better man. Others around him knew he wasn't as bad as he thought himself to be although he did need the redemption. The book was told almost entirely in the POV of the hero and it was wonderfully well done.

There was pathos here and I choked up a couple of times. I really loved the hero. There were historical references to the Peninsular Wars that touched on some show more of the evils of that war.

This was the second in a duology but I didn't have any problems understanding what had happened in that book and not having read it did not affect my enjoyment of this one. show less

Just finished rereading this one , Definitely one of my favorite Carla Elly books. Wonderful hero and heroine. Very original story and the writing makes the hard times of way very vivid and real.

A powerful story about a horrible event in history. Although there were many highly emotional moments, too much of the story was told from the hero's thoughts and the romance felt like a background storyline. On a rainy night Benedict a Duke agrees to give a ride to Spanish woman Liria and her child.

Just fabulous! I can't get this book out of my mind, but curiously at the same time, I can't quite write a review yet.