Wonderful - read it
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Great book, one of my favourite Mary Balogh books. I could read the story of Jane and Tresham again and again. On the surface he is highly cynical, cold and hard-hearted. She is strong minded and independent and speaks her mind. There are some aspects of the plot which are perhaps a bit feeble (e.g. if she is so strong then why did she run away and put herself into the situation in the first place) but the description of their relationship and its progress is brilliant, really well developed and very emotionally involving. Love it.
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Haven't read something so underdeveloped in a long time!
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I'm not sure what the other reviewers saw in this book that warranted such high praise. I found the book by turns frustrating and plain silly. Why on earth did Jane interrupt the duel? Without some decent reason, which the author never really provided, it just made her look stupid for doing what no sensible woman would ever do (and she is supposed to be sensible - if you make your character do stupid things, at least have the sense not to put a label on her that contradicts her actions!). Not to mention that everything that goes on between her and the Duke while his leg is healing sounds way, way too shallow and sparkless. As do the secondary characters, none of which managed to get me captivated to even the slightest degree. I bought this book following a review which compared it to Whitney, My Love - what a thorough disappointment!
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An excellent Regency with well-drawn characters
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I've read a number of Mary Balogh's books but this one, for me, is definitely the highlight. I read it alongside its pair "No Man's Mistress" but this is by far the superior of the two.
The hero of More Than A Mistress is the Duke of Tresham, a wild, rakish man who has had all trace of warmth and artistic flair beaten out of him by his father and grandfather. The Tresham men are manly and this one became duke aged 17 and has spent the next nine years as your average rich titled gentleman did in Regency times - horse riding, fencing, brawling, shooting, duelling and keeping mistresses.
Jane Ingleby is escaping a disaster in her past - saving herself from attack from her cousin she accidentally injures him - apparently mortally. She flees her home in Cornwall to take refuge with a relative... who is out of town. Jane has to find work quickly to keep herself alive, and eventually finds a position at a milliner's shop. Unfortunately she loses her job three days later when coming into work late - late because she intervened in a duel between the Duke of Tresham and the husband of a woman he has apparently slept with.
Jane and the Duke find themselves thrown together by circumstance - she has to nurse him following a shot to his leg in the duel. Their verbal sparring in this part of the book is brilliant. Jane is a calm, clever, self-contained woman (despite the problems in her life) and she is a match for Tresham when no-one else can stand up for him. Eventually he no longer requires nursing but can't bear to see her leave so offers her the position of his mistress - which she accepts with certain conditions. As their liaison progresses Tresham starts to learn about himself, to embrace some of his talents that he has repressed as unmanly and to understand the worth of Jane.
There are some great secondary characters in this book - Ferdinand Dudley, Tresham's brother, is amusing and fun and he's the hero of the second book in this series, No Man's Mistress. Their sister Angeline is great fun, if rather ditsy. Tresham's friends, although with fairly small parts in the series, are equally well written. Jane is being pursued by her cousin and a bow street runner and we learn about her from them, too.
But the real highlight of the book is the relationship between the two central characters. Their conversations are written with sparkle, the way that this relationship changes over time is excellently drawn, and the ending is satisfying. I still marvel at Jane's ability to put up with some of the awful things Tresham says to her but it's clear throughout the book that these two are well suited.
This is a book that can be read and enjoyed again and again and I recommend it highly!
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WELL WRITTEN REGENCY
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Jane Ingleby interrupts a duel, and by mischance, the Duke of Tresham is wounded. As a result of being late for work, however, she looses her menial job and Tresham employs her as his nurse when she confronts him to demand recompense. Later, after his recovery, Jane agrees to be his mistress, but although Tresham is aware that Jane is ladylike, he is shocked to discover she really is a lady-Lady Sara Illingsworth, on the run for attempted murder and theft.It turns out, however,that Jane was defending her virtue after her cousin tried to rape her, and Tresham restores her to her rightful place in Society before marrying her.
It was a real pleasure to read a regency where the hero did not say 'gotten' every five minutes,(the writer is Welsh rather than American, and it shows in the language) and where there was a real sense that the author understood the time period she was writing in. Although there were passionate love scenes, there was a real sense of a 'marriage of true minds' between these two-for example,When Tresham visits Jane, his mistress, for sex, and ends up telling her about his childhood instead.This is a passionate love story between two strong characters-Jane is by no means the pushover that Tresham is used to, and he is at first almost baffled by her strength of will. It makes for some great scenes between the two, encounters that gradually change in tone from adverserial to intimate.It makes this story much more believable and enjoyable than the standard fare of far too many regencies these days-ninny falls for promiscuous bully.This was my first Mary Balogh, but it definately won't be my last.
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Mary Balogh at her best
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Really passionating !!!!
it is not the usual story betweemn a strong man and a disappointed woman ( quite often MB gives us that )which always ends with the resurrection of the woman to a new life: it is the love-and-war relationship between two unusual characters, an harsh, unkind and lunatic duke and his bold nurse, which always speaks too much of the truth to be kind to him ! But - as by chance - little by little they discover a common background in their sensitivity, their love for music and arts ... and they start be fascinated by each other, so that not to loose this improbable " beau " she finally accepts even to become his lover, dropping down to the very bottom of the society.
I let you read the summary - but no summary can give you an idea of the subtle, unvolontary fascination which slowly takes these two lovers. Great.
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