AAR

[carolydixon]

This appears to be one of the author's earlier works. Has anyone read it? Did you like it? Thanks for sharing any thoughts.
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caroly

[Natalie]

Judging from the comments on this board, I'm about the only one who liked it.

[PWNN]

I liked it as well, quite a lot. I found it a tender moving love story and loved the realism of how Balogh slowly built it...

SPOILER


over months and years and not days or weeks as they both grow together and learn about themselves and each other. She also turned the Romance archetype of Alpha dark, handsome, obsessed rake on it's head - showing him for what he more realistically was - a careless, selfish, narcissistic stalker.

/SPOILER
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"My safe word is monkey"

[Tee]

I read it for the first time about a month ago when it came out in a two-story issue. It was slow and rather boring for me. But even some of Balogh's slow books can be interesting. This one didn't do it for me and I did abandon it somewhere along the way. She's older and he's younger, and I kept waiting for a fire to light and the coals would only simmer then die down again. The first story, The Temporary Wife, which is not connected, was much better.

[roseisa]

I have not read the Promise of Spring yet.

However, The Temporary Wife is a DIK for me and I paid a lot more than $7.99 to own a copy of it.

It is held as one the perfect regency romance by reviewers:

http://www.likesbooks.com/212.html

And the review explains why:

http://likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=55

And I agree, it is one of my comfort reads.

Sunny California - exactly that.

[MEK]

I agree with everything said above. The Temporary Wife is wonderful.

One problem with The Promise of Spring is if you can't "buy into" to 10 year age difference - she is older- (which I could not) between the H/h, then there is no where to go. So, for me, it was a DNF. There are only two Balogh books I have not liked, however. They all have so much to offer.

[catgrace]

I loved both books in the latest 2 in 1. In A Promise of Spring, I loved the novelty of the older heroine, and that she was so much more concerned about it than Perry was. As is the case with many books by MB, I enjoyed the slow progression of the romance from respect, through a long period of warmth, and then to love with a minimum of violent emotion clogging up the story.

[Natalie]

I can't understand why people have trouble with the age difference, especially with so many romances featuring a much older hero.

[mirole]

Natalie, of course, everybody's taste is different, I can only give you my opinion.

I don't like older woman/younger man pairing at all, the bigger the age difference the worse for me. I don't know why exactly, I guess because I am a conservative/traditionalist in some ways. I have not known any such couples in real life and when I imagine myself in such a relationship, I always think how nervous and on the alert I would always be that would prevent me from any real enjoyment of it.

Especially after Halle Berry's relationship with that Quebec boyfriend of hers broke up and he hinted it was because their age difference (10 years) started to be a problem.

I don't have any problems with younger women/older men. Just recently read A trad Regency Cecily by Clare Darcy where the heroine was 18 and the hero, I think, 32 or 34 and it worked perfectly for me (that was typical of that time, after all).

[PWNN]

[Natalie]

[Natalie]

[Cobbsouth]

I think part of the problem for me is that, sadly, women in general don't age as well as men. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say age is kinder to men than women. It's always interesting to me to look at 50th anniversary photos in the newspaper, especially those that show the couple's wedding picture along with a current picture. Often (though not always) the man has grown more distinguished-looking even though he may have gained weight, while the woman looks heavier and (for lack of a better word) frumpier. In an age without natural-looking cosmetics and hair color (to say nothing of cosmetic surgery!), I would think this difference would be even more apparent, and I would be concerned about how that difference might affect the relationship. For a current example, look at Demi Moore and Ashton Kucher. Although Demi is still striking for a middle aged woman, the age difference between them had become painfully obvious. Was anyone really surprised when he went looking elsewhere? Disappointed, maybe, but not surprised.
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Sheri Cobb South
www.shericobbsouth.com
"John Pickett...is a sweet man, a little young, but wholly delectable....Ms. South's name deserves to be spread as a buried treasure."
--All About Romance

[maryskl]

[Tee]