Gentle Conquest is vintage Mary Balogh. Originally published in 1987, it is one of the classics by this author, now republished as an ebook. In her preface, the author invites comparisons between her older books and her new ones. For me, while it is clear the genre has evolved, it is impossible not to enjoy this author’s work, vintage or new.
Ralph Middleton, the new Earl of Chartleigh, is just twenty-one and such a mild, bookish young man that his mother despairs of him. Why doesn’t he drink, gamble, and chase women like a real man should? She decides the only thing for it is to quickly find him a wife, and hopes family responsibilities force him to grow up quickly.
In fact, in most respects, Ralph is more mature than his peers. He has strong ideas about caring for his tenants and his political consciousness leans toward helping those less fortunate. He is secure enough in himself to let his mother’s criticisms roll off his back But he isn’t averse to taking a wife. Especially once he meets the girl his mother has picked out for him.
Georgiana Burton, daughter of Viscount Lansbury, is only eighteen and already a handful. She likes to think of herself as a rule-breaker, too high-spirited to be reined in by the ton. (In reality, she’s immature and a bit full of herself.) Be that as it may, she is still under her father’s rule, and he is threatening to send her back to their dull country estate if she gets into one more scandalous scrape. His wife suggests a better alternative: find Georgiana a husband. Then her behavior will be his problem, not theirs.
When Georgiana discovers she is to be courted by, and is expected to wed, the boy-faced, mild-mannered Earl of Chartleigh, she is furious. How dare her parents saddle her with such a milquetoast! In a fit of pique, she decides she will marry him. At least it will get her out from under her father’s thumb. She’ll pretend to be docile and shy until they are wed, and then she will trample the poor fellow underfoot and live the freewheeling life she desires.
Things don’t go exactly as Georgiana expects. She is unexpectedly charmed by her gentle husband. He doesn’t object to her follies, which somehow makes her regret them.
Their relationship would develop apace except for a wedding night disaster. Georgiana experiences pain. Ralph backs away. The marriage is not consummated. The rest of the plot essentially revolves around the necessity of and scheming around finally consummating the marriage. While the novel is very sex focused, the sex is not graphic. It’s a very sweet story with both characters demonstrating increasing maturity and understanding.
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