Slightly Wicked (Bedwyn Saga)

by Mary Balogh

Book Overview

Meet the Bedwyns...six brothers and sisters--men and women of passion and privilege, daring and sensuality...Enter their dazzling world of high society and breathtaking seduction...where each will... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440241057
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Dell
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 0.8" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Nothing Slight About It

This is the onle one of the Slightly series that I will review. And I chose this one because it was my favorite - though the others are excellent as well. I have read Stephanie Laurens who I find tedious and long winded during love scenes. I have read Julia Quinn who I find humorous but just not able to tap the right emotion. Mary Balogh gets the right amount of all sensuality and wit and emotion. I cry in every book and that is not an easy fit for a jaded romance reader like myself. Slightly Wicked begins with deception. Judith Law is traveling to live with her aunt and grandmother when her journey is interrupted by an accident. Rannulf Bedwyn is traveling to Grandmaison to meet the young girl his grandmother, Lady Beamish, has chosen for him to court. He stops to help an the passengers of an overturned cart. He can only take one person on his horse while he goes to fetch help. Of course he chooses the stunning redhead. And so it begins that Claire Campbell, a jaded, experienced actress and Ralph Bedard, a roguish gentleman, are stranded in an inn for several days. The inevitable happens. After escaping the inn, Judith, alias Claire, goes to live with her Aunt, cousin, and grandmother. And during her cousin's week-long party, who shows up to court the young woman but Lord Rannulf Bedwyn. This is a moving, witty, emotionally transcending piece of artwork that inspired me to go out and actively collect all of Ms. Balogh's works. And as I said before, though I think this is the best, all of them are far worthy of the time it takes to read them. It is the best regency series available, in my opinion.

4 & 1/2 would be more accurate, but...

unlike some of the reviewers, I really liked the protagonists, especially the heroine. I thought Judith was fully developed, a woman of depth and passion who had been hamstrung emotionally by well-meaning but dead-wrong parents (her father especially). In the light of her upbringing, her attitudes are understandable. Rannulf has been a do-nothing, but some people take longer to grow up; that's a very big part of his change over the course of the book. He is almost unlikeable in his rakishness at the beginning, but it does not take the careful reader long to see beneath the surface. He's not the somewhat damaged hero that brother Aidan is, and that may account for some of the negative reactions. He's had it pretty easy up until now and that can make a person less than serious about life and responsibility.Judith, and his ailing grandmother, however, change all that, just as Rannulf's support of Judith changes her. Her horrible relatives (aunt and cousin) and her ne'er-do-well brother are intriguing secondary characters who truly move the plot and the romance along. I thought the book was more than slightly spendid.

I love this series.

Mary has given her readers a wonderful family in the Bed-wyns.I know that some had their doubts when we were introduced tothem in last summer's "A Summer To Remember",but as we are intro-duced to the family members one by one,we learn much about them.Lord Rannulf for instance is at first glance,the rebellious third son who was meant for the Church,but has refused any of hisEldest Brother's livings & now has what seems to a rakish rep,butthat is not so as you will find out as you read the book.

Relaxing her storyline but not the heartstrings

Slightly Wicked - how aptly titled when our Regency mistress abandons her restraint characters in Slightly Married and paints a melting, Cinderella-schmaltzy romance between Judith Law the dreamer and Lord Rannulf Bedwyn the rakish charmer.It is rare that Ms. Balogh throws the couple for a wild reckless interlude in the beginning of the story. Judith is the impoverished daughter of a clergyman who journeys to Harewood Grange upon her mercenary Aunt Effingham's summon to chaperon her grandmother. Her stagecoach topples and the valiant knight turns out to be Rannulf. Instant attraction strikes and both of them pull their deceptions: she lies to him that she is a theatrical ingenue Claire Campbell while he just states his identity to be Ralph. Judith ends their affair with an abrupt departure, never expecting them to meet at Harewood Grange when he is on his way to woo her cousin in a bid to pacify his ailing Grandmother Lady Beamish.Rannulf finds himself falling hard for Judith - and how can he not when we readers applaud her strength in resisting a marriage of honor from Bedwyn, her magnanimity towards his wastrel of a brother and her unwavering affection for her Grandmother? This vulnerable creature has always believed her glorious auburn mane to be ugly and shameful at the castigation of her father and aunt until she reveals her inner strength with Rannulf's encouragement. And Rannulf earns her heart with his rescues of her from the perifidious cousin Horace while she claims his with wits and characters. Mary Balogh's Slightly Wicked is constantly moving and delicate with memorable characters who sees their relationship tested with trials. The poignancy we witness at Judith's forgiveness with her brother, father and grandmother shows Mary Balogh's relaxing her storyline but not the heartstrings.

Balogh's newest fan

I picked this book up, not realizing it was No. 2 in a series. I decided to read it anyway and was not let down. I read tons of romances and I think this one is clearly up at the top of my list. I thought the premise that brought Rannulf and Judith together was different. All too much, authors focus on the physical attraction between the two main characters, but Balogh did a great job developing their mental/emotional realtionship as well. Then again, maybe it's because the man realizes he loves the woman FIRST! *sigh* Can't wait to read the other two!