2.25*
Not only the worst book in this series but also a low by MB's standards.
Only romantic thing about this book is the title!


Felicity, Tom and Lord Waite.
Three not very likable characters.
Her for being so stupid and blind and selfish. Plain unlikable.
Tom for being so so very self-sacrificing and mild and NICE. And a tad stuffy?
Waite, well he's Waite. Officially bad. You'll know if you read the series.

Tom and Felicity are childhood sweethearts. But, 8 years ago, she had to marry a 60 yo wealthy man to help save her family from financial ruin. In the end, she made peace with it. Her husband doted on her and they travelled extensively. She's changed by her wider experiences and has come to appreciate life among the aristocracy and the whirl of social activities.
Now, as a 26 yo widow, she's determined to find 'a young, handsome, intelligent, wealthy, charming man of rank to marry and lead an 'exciting and glittering life'. And that man for her is Lord Waite.

As for Tom, her first love, she feels 'In those years she had finally worked Tom out of her system. And thinks she'd never have been happy as a wife to a farmer, to only talk of 'sheep and crops'.
When they meet again, they instantly fall back into friendship minus the passion - or at least Tom hides his true feelings. He knows that he'll always love Felicity and is ready to fall in with what ever plans she has for her future. (Never have I seen a former love getting so brutally friend-zoned.) He lets her use him to make Waite jealous and even agrees to a fake betrothal.

Waite, now, is a rake. He's almost engaged to a suitable woman and sees the h only as mistress material. To him, she's a beautiful woman worth attaining but the daughter of a country nobody and the widow of a wealthy cit. He's wanted her for years. In fact, he pursued her even when her husband was alive but she refused him then as she does now. Felicity is confident that she can bring him to heel with her machinations and he'll dump his almost fiancee and offer for her. It's icky how she allows him to manhandle/fondle her a few times. It's cold, calculating and off-putting.

All this happens in London, where she arrives with her twin sisters for the season. Tom accompanies them as a friend and she's grateful for his help in keeping an eye on her exuberant young sisters. Surprisingly, her 18 yo sisters show more maturity in thoughts and actions than their supposed worldly wise sister. They have have a better and bigger heart as well as the acumen to realize what's really important in life.
Her parents are not shown as ogres and are suitably ashamed for the situation they put her in, in the past. And now her betrothal to Tom makes them very happy. Everyone in her family is ecstatic that she's finally getting her fairy tale ending while she's planning something entirely else.
Felicity compounds each stupid move with another. She leaves it too late. Later than late imo.
This hea is almost dead on arrival. Tom deserves better.
In the end, even Waite deserved better!
(What actually happens after this is told in book #3.
As for Waite, wait and see. The series is titled after him for a reason.)


Balogh had done this in at least two other books. Pitting an arrogant alpha and a sweet beta against each other - with the beautiful h, initially sure of whom she wants but then slowly gets confused. While in Lord Carew's Bride, the author pulls off an extraordinarily sweet romance and I d both the h/H as their connection is believable despite the h's initial ambivalence.
Here, it's all muddled and neither sweet nor romantic. And despite Tom being a thoroughly nice and lovely man, I couldn't his over-niceness and being so self-sacrificing. He lets himself be used shamelessly by the self-seeking, shallow and confused h. He can make hundreds of excuses for her but I couldn't her.
The writing is overly descriptive of situations, their history, inner monologues of all concerned and just too cold and flat at times. I think what worked for the Carew book, apart from better writing, is that the h decided early on to give full loyalty to her marriage and that Lord Carew was a big catch despite his fugliness. Here, Poor Tom is just a local squire and the h is paranoid about rusticating. She feels she was pitied as Lady Wren and wants to shine and slay the ton, beside a worthy and aristocratic second husband.

The blurb for the older paperback is so misleading (or maybe not). The one for Kindle, if not better, at least explains things more clearly. Btw don't give up on this series. This is the worst book in the series and things gets better and better with the other two._bbd g-hx-rom h-widow ...more15 s Aneca957 126

I am a bit undecided on how I should grade this story, it was an easy read but it left me cold and dissatisfied with the heroine. Lady Wren, Felicity, is a widow in her mid twenties. She married an older man when she was eighteen to save her family from ruin and in doing so she had to give up the man she really loved, her neighbour Tom Russell. Now that she is free, she is determined to find a rich and attractive husband with whom she can enjoy the society life she first got to know with her elderly husband. Her feelings for Tom Russell have turned to those of friendship. She arrives at her parentÂ’s country home for a visit. There she meets her twin sisters, now eighteen and eager for a London season, and Tom Russell. Felicity decides to take her sisters to London for the season and Tom decides to go with them.


While Tom is still very much in love with Felicity he realises that she only considers him a friend and is looking for a gentleman to marry. In London they attend several society functions and they encounter Lord Edmond Waite who pays Felicity marked attention. She at first believes him to be paying court to her with marriage in mind but he soon makes it clear that what he wants is a mistress. Felicity then pretends to be betrothed to Tom to make Waite jealous and force him to a marriage proposal. In the mean time Felicity's twin sisters find their own beaus and have to deal with their own feelings to decide with whom they want to spend the rest of their lives with.


I really disd that Felicity seemed to be so self centered that she did not realise she was using Tom to gain what she wanted and doing him harm because he loved her. He is definitely too good to be true as although it pains him he is always ready to help her. Then I disd that she seemed to Waite only because of what he could give her and what her position in society would be. Even after she realises her true feelings she is still planning to marry Waite because she thinks Tom only sees her as a friend and at least she will get to be a viscountess... she is definitely not a heroine I could .


What I did very much were her sisters, they also had their own problems and heartaches to deal with but they did it honestly and examining their own hearts. A pity that they weren't the heroines...


Grade: 3/5


read-in-2010 trad-regency11 s Renae1,022 319

This was good. I'm not usually a fan of the friends to lovers trope in general, and definitely not in cases where the male protagonist spends several years pining after the heroine while also helping her get laid/get married/whatever. I feel for some reason we think it's cute when a man sticks around swooning after somebody who's made clear statements that she's not interested, but we think it's pathetic when a woman behaves the same. I think it's unhealthy no matter the gender of the actor.

I am sad at all the hate the heroine, Felicity, receives from Goodreads reviewers. She was honestly doing the best to pursue her own happiness with the information she had at the time. Everyone seems to think that she should have told Tom about her feelings sooner, but why? He stated emphatically, whenever he had a chance, that he wanted to remain a bachelor for life. So why would she make herself vulnerable and open to ridicule by admitting her feelings to someone who is avowedly disinterested in romance, thereby ruining the only friendship she has?

Romance readers are so hard on women.

I think this was a light and vaguely humorous Regency, certainly not one of Balogh's best, but also not bad. The arrogant Lord Waite apparently makes an appearance in several more of her Signet categories before getting his own HEA, but honestly I could have done without him. As far as friends to lovers romance goes, the story of Tom and Felicity was about as good as could be asked.


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