Gentle Conquest

By Mary Balogh

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451150996
• ISBN13: 9780451150998
• Release Date: December 1987
• Publisher: New Amer Library
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A romantic delight.

This is such a truly delightful Regency romance! It is written very much in the Georgette Heyer style, but with Mary Balogh's gently erotic love-scenes thrown in. It is basically a farce, and the plot is rather unbelievable, but the young married couple are so lovable that the reader can't help cheering them on. They certainly do get themselves into an incredible pickle in their efforts to make the marriage work! I found this book so entertaining that as soon as I'd finished it, I read it again, just so I could have another good chuckle!

Early but great Balogh regency

Ralph, the young Earl of Chartleigh permits his mother to arrange a marriage to, Georgiana, the even younger daughter of her friend. Both are virgins on their wedding night and during the awkward attempts in the bedroom, Georgiana, whose tongue tends to run away with her, says things which humiliate Ralph. Their marriage goes unconsummated much to Georgie's annoyance.Ralph thinks he should get some experience with an opera dancer so he can properly consummate the marriage with his wife, whom he is falling in love with. Georgie, however, has plans of her own and enlists the aid of Ralph's cousin, Roger, a notorious rake. Roger, meanwhile, has his eye on Georgie's bluestocking sister, Vera.The plot has many amusing twists and turns with touching romantic moments which only a master story teller like Mary Balogh can handle.

Very different Regency

I'm not going to go into details about the plot of this book; just read bookjunkie's excellent review below for that. She's said all I would have said, and more. The virgin hero - Ralph, here - doesn't bother me in the slightest; it's not the first Balogh I've read where that was the case. Gerald in A Precious Jewel was also a virgin, though there Prissy was the one with the experience. I did find both Georgiana and Ralph rather immature at the start of the book, but then that's to be expected: he was barely 21 and she was 18. They did mature very nicely, and Ralph in particular turned out to be a hero I liked very much.Georgiana's solution to the problem of their marriage was ingenious, and not one I was expecting at all. Nicely done! The second secondary romance, between Roger and Vera, was lovely - so much so that I wanted *more*. Really, this should have been a book on its own; I wanted to know what had happened to make Vera so cynical about men and so unwilling to believe that Roger might be interested in her. And why did Roger, considered a rake by his contemporaries, have such moral standards when it came to affairs? They were fascinating characters, and their story should have been a sequel to this one. Very enjoyable; not quite a 5-star, but definitely a keeper!