First Comes Marriage - Mary Balough

Monday, May 25, 2009

First Comes Marriage - Mary Balough

Description~

The Huxtable quintet tells the stories of three sisters, Margaret, the eldest (At Last Comes Love), Vanessa in the middle (First Comes Marriage), Katherine, the youngest (Then Comes Seduction), their young brother, Stephen (Seducing An Angel), and their second cousin Constantine (title not yet confirmed).

First Comes Marriage is Vanessa and Viscount Lyngate's, story. Vanessa and Elliott dislike each other at first sight and nothing improves on second or third sight. But when it becomes clear that Elliott is about to propose marriage to Margaret simply because he needs a wife and she is a convenient candidate, Vanessa decides to take desperate measures and intervene. Her beloved sister has a strong sense of duty and might well accept the horrid Lord Lyngate for the sake of her family though she is deeply in love with a girlhood sweetheart who is off fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Vanessa has already had her chance at love with Hedley Dew, to whom she was blissfully married for one year before his death. Now is the time to sacrifice herself for her sister, who has had no real chance at love and happiness at all.

We start our story off meeting the young widow Vanessa Huxtable Dew. She has recently started to come out of mourning and is to attend the Valentine's Day Assembly with the rest of her family. Whispers start to spread like wildfire when the handsome Elliot Wallace, Viscount Lyngate, appears at the assembly and chooses to only dance one dance with one woman. Vanessa. While the two dance Elliot is taken back by how plain and unappealing his partner is. Vanessa's outlook on Elliot is quite the opposite. She thinks he is one of the most glorious creatures there is, even though his face reflects nothing but arrogance. The two are very cross with each other and are glad when the night is over. Vanessa thought he was out of her life for good except when the next day he arrives at their family's homestead with some startling news that soon has them packing to move the family to London. Shortly after their move another turn of events has Elliot and Vanessa getting married.

The plot of the story is the fact that two totally different people have have been forced into a marriage that seems to be doomed to do nothing but fail. This is a classical case of uptight guy meets free spirited and loving girl. I really enjoyed watching Vanessa and Elliot go round and round with each other during their incessant banters. Basically the only thing that they agree with is the AWESOME sex that was taking place just about every night. But is sex alone enough to have a fullfilled marriage? And when Vanessa starts to really fall for Elliot will his feelings reciprocate? Can she make a very unfeeling man like Elliot feel something for her?

I thought this story was pretty unpredictable. Now obviously like in every romance you know what the ending results will pretty much be. Its the journey between the beginning and end that makes this book most appealing. I didn't expect a lot that went on in this story and that right there was a big reason I enjoyed it as much as I did.

I absolutely LOVED Vanessa. She was light, funny, and had a beautiful outlook on life. I also loved her words she spoke as well as her thoughts. I picked this small part out to share with you in hopes that you'll soon try this book out for size. I know I'm glad I did!

She was blessed. What more could she ask for?

His heart?

If one had the moon and the stars, must one be greedy for the sun too?

It seemed that the answer was yes.

She wanted...

Well, she wanted the sun of course.

How very foolish she was.

I give this book a total of...