A Counterfeit Betrothal [Mass Market Paperback]

Step forward Lord Francis Sutton, youngest son of a duke - a duke who happens to be the Earl of Clifton's (Sophia's father) oldest friend. Sophia and Francis have known each other since they were very young children - and unlike characters in another author's books I've been reading recently, these two really do sound as if they've known each other all their lives. Francis and Sophia have quarrelled all their lives, too, and even in agreeing to pretend to be madly in love they fight. It's already apparent that this pretend engagement is going to be a lot of fun - and that Sophia and Francis are actually not as indifferent to each other as they pretend.

And now we meet the principal characters of this book: Sophia's parents, Olivia and Marcus. Although they're the parents of a debutante, they are actually relatively young still: Marc is 40 to Livy's 36. But they haven't seen one another for 14 years. Olivia rejected Marc after a stupid mistake of his: drunk, he slept with a prostitute because his friends were egging him on, and he compounded his error by telling Olivia. At her young age at the time - just 21 - she'd put him on a pedestal and couldn't cope with discovering that he was human. She didn't know how to rebuild their marriage at the time, so she told him that she couldn't forgive him.

So how do Marc and Livy cope, meeting each other after all this time? Has time healed the wounds? Are they now two strangers? Or can they be indifferent to each other, behaving like polite acquaintances? Or is it possible that they are each still in love with the other?

We get two love stories for the price of one in A Counterfeit Betrothal. Frances and Sophia's is fun all the way; extremely humorous, and it's entirely obvious that the two of them have bitten off far more than they can chew in pretending to their families that they are madly in love and can't wait to be married. But... is it really all a pretence? Is it possible for two people to be quite so convincing? And will they actually be able to extricate themselves before they really find themselves in front of a vicar? But then, as Francis keeps telling Sophia, they're both headed for Bedlam anyway.

And then, in stark contrast, Marc and Livy's story is utterly poignant. Their separation left each of them bitter, Marc because he'd pleaded with Livy for six months to forgive him, and Livy because of Marc's betrayal. Seeing each other again is unbelievably painful for both. Being together, pretending to be the happily married couple for friends and relations - and especially in front of Sophia, so that they don't spoil her engagement and wedding plans - takes its toll on both. Is it too late for them? Once the wedding - what wedding? - is over, will Olivia just go back home and never see Marc again?

It takes a very good, very believable, angsty romance to make me cry. This one did. It takes something special in a book to make me think and obsess about the characters when I'm not reading it - I do have to work sometimes! - but this one did. Unfortunately, like just about all of Balogh's early Regencies, it's out of print. But if you can get hold of it second-hand, grab it. You won't want to let it go.

Just perfect!

wmr-uk

I have to admit that through most of the book, once I realized what the cause of the estrangement had been, I felt rather sorry for Sophia's father - being estranged from his wife over something he did when completely drunk, and then missing his only child growing up. I was also impressed by the fact that the couple seemed to share a bed more happily than their true feelings. In this book, particularly, you can find out more about the characters through their sexual relations, than through what they say or think.

Sophia was a bit silly and immature through most of the book. I have to admit that while I understood her feelings, I also felt that she was *very very* lucky that Francis's feelings for her had changed over the years. Francis of course fully realized what he was getting into, especially when Sophia decided to insist upon an early marriage.

The family relationships are wonderfully portrayed, but the true romance is not that between Sophia and Francis but between Sophia's parents Marcus and Olivia (or Marc and Livy). The flashbacks to their estrangement, the subsequent misunderstandings even after they have spent some time together at their daughter's wedding, and their genuine fears and worries about their daughter marrying so young are all beautifully portrayed. On the other hand, neither couple will stick in your mind as much as the couples Balogh creates slightly later - Carew and Samantha, Francis (another Francis!) and Cora, Bridgwater and Stephanie. And these are only from her traditional Regencies.

This book is short and sweet, and it will leave you with a smile. Not one of her best, but hardly one of her worst either.

Rating = 4.3 stars (points off for more attractive heroes than heroines; for less-developed and immature characters, particularly an immature Sophia)