Dark Angel/Lord Carew's Bride by Mary Balogh

Holly Bush

Two young women go to London for their first season. Jennifer Winwood, long engaged to a man she barely knows but trusts implicitly and her younger cousin, Samantha Newman, fresh-faced and naive.

In Dark Angel, Winwood is in love with her betrothed Lionel Kersey but has spent little time in his company, content to nurture her love with daydreams of married life. Arrive on the scene, the Earl of Thornhill, out to avenge a dastardly wrong that Kersey has committed against someone under the Earl’s protection. A glove to the face would be too simple and a duel too quick to satisfy Thornhill’s need for revenge. What better way to punish Kersey, than to seduce his innocent country bride? But Kersey does not stand by idly, Jennifer is threatened by the truth and Samantha, the caring and supportive cousin, is hurt in the process.

Lord Carew’s Bride flashes forward five years to Samantha , still feeling the effects of a betrayal at a young age and unable to shake the feeling that love is cruel and deep emotions treacherous. She meets a neighbor, a gardener with a crippled leg and hand, at a country home she is staying at, and feels happier and more comfortable with him than with anyone else of her acquaintance. The crippled gardener, Lord Carew, is mesmerized by Samantha’s beauty and kindness and does nothing to hide the fact that he is infatuated with her. But Lionel Kersey returns after a lengthy stay on the continent to wreak havoc with his cousin, Lord Carew and with Samantha, who he claims a history.

The thing I like the most about Balogh’s books is that her characters are real. They make real mistakes, feel real emotions and are hurt and love in tangible ways. These heroes and heroines have conflicts and inner turmoil and doubts. When they triumph, it is easy for the reader to feel their joy. I’m not sure how she does it, but for Balogh readers, it is what brings us back to her stories again and again.
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Romancing Olive
Train Station Bride
Reconstructing Jackson

carolydixon · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 88

Lord Carew's Bride is by far my favorite Mary Balogh novel. It is also the only book I own that makes me cry every time I read it.
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maggie b. · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 2252

Lord Carew's Bride is one of my very favorite romances of all time. The feelings between Samantha and Hartley is so touching and real. I just felt overwhelmed by the happiness of their match. I have always considered this book a triple A plus.

maggie b.
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LFL · Joined: 05 May 2007 Posts: 627

I liked Dark Angel a bit better than Lord Carew's Bride, but they are both good. The sequels The Famous Heroine and The Plumed Bonnet are good too. I have not read A Christmas Bride yet.

I think Balogh writes anxiety and embarrassment especially powerfully At least, those are the character emotions that stick with me when I think of her books.

Holly Bush · Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:52 am Post subject:

SPOILER!! (not a big one but just in case you haven't read the book, stop reading this post now)

I know what you mean LFL about how Balogh writes embarrassment. There is a scene in Dark Angel where Jennifer reveals that she was paddled by her father and that he intended to cut her hair. It was almost hard to read because I felt her humiliation so strongly.
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Holly Bush
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Romancing Olive
Train Station Bride
Reconstructing Jackson

LFL · Joined: 05 May 2007 Posts: 627

That was a great scene. I also loved the "Dangerous Liaisons" aspect of Dark Angel -- how the two men played this game regardless of who could get hurt in the process.

janet w · Joined: 11 May 2007 Posts: 363

There's something so visceral about the father in Dark Angel whipping Jennifer and threatening to shave her head. No wonder she decided what could be worse than that? Oh, and he said he'd send her into exile as well, never to marry or have children.

Guess what was in Dear Abby on Wednesday June 13th? A concerned aunt wrote about her 13 year-old niece, who repeatedly sex-texted and so on and so forth. So her parents were worried but their solution: they shaved her head. I cannot get this out of my mind. How could they do that? The aunt asked Dear Abby if she agreed her niece would need counselling and Dear Abby said if ever a family needed counselling, they were it. My stomach roils to even think about it.

jaime · Joined: 23 Sep 2011 Posts: 358

Shaving their heads - and worse - was what the French resistance did to French women who slept with German soldiers during WWII. It's been a common practice to punish females in earlier times too.

That Dear Abby story should probably shock me more, unfortunately I already know what some families do to their own. I guess that girl is lucky she didn't get tarred and feathered too.

Holly Bush · Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 7:59 pm Post subject:

The child that got her head shaved was humiliated not punished. There is a difference. The wacko parents missed the obvious. Take the phone away from the 13 year old.

This will be the kid that taunts and bullies because that was what she was taught by her parents.

Sorry. Didn't mean to go off on a rant! Smile

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Holly Bush
www.hollybushbooks.com
Romancing Olive
Train Station Bride
Reconstructing Jackson

mirole · Joined: 06 Aug 2010 Posts: 257 Location: Toronto, Ontario

Oh, I loved Lord Carew's Bride. I read it right after Dark Angel and loved it much more and at that time thought DA was quite forgettable but later started thinking it was quite good and I'd like to reread it.

One of the reasons why I loved LCB is an untypical hero (a beta and with a disability). Although I prefer alpha heroes, I don't mind an occasional beta one especially when it's done right.

Also, I usually don't like love-at-first-sight trope but here it was written very believably by the author.

I had heard great things about this book long before I read it and it absolutely lived up to all the hype and my expectations.

Holly Bush · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 2:57 pm Post subject:

I know this was a reissue in 2010 but I have no idea when it was originally released. I have read tons of Balogh's works but not this one. She did not disappoint me.
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Holly Bush
www.hollybushbooks.com
Romancing Olive
Train Station Bride
Reconstructing Jackson

MEK · Joined: 09 Dec 2010 Posts: 225

I loved both of these books. Sometimes I get bogged down in a Balogh book by her writing as her characters muse about their feelings, but with both of these I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next!

LCB was so touching and delved into an interesting subject: how a young person's understanding of what love is can get twisted around and manipulated. The heroine's fear at times was palpable. A wonderful book.

Dark Angel was so good as well. Intense.

Holly Bush · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 6:02 am Post subject:

One of the plot lines of LCB was exactly as you describe it - how a young person's view or understanding of love can be twisted or manipulated. I enjoyed reading Samantha's view of love change and grow as she distinguished between real love and infatuation.

I rarely get bogged down in Balogh's writing even when she has a long interior interlude. But that's just me. Her opening paragraph of Slightly Married is long as opening paragraph's go and stranger yet it is only one or two sentences. (I should have checked before posting this but I'm heading to work!)
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Holly Bush
www.hollybushbooks.com
Romancing Olive
Train Station Bride
Reconstructing Jackson