The Famous Heroine/The Plumed Bonnet [Mass Market Paperback]

These two stories tie in nicely as sequels to Dark Angel/Lord Carew's Bride, re-released together in February 2010. Although, for me, Balogh's superior work is found in her longer "Slightly" series, a few of the "Simply" books, and perhaps my personal favorite, The Secret Pearl, her shorter Signet Regencies from the 1990s are top-of-the-line in that category and make for a feel-good read.

THE FAMOUS HEROINE is the story of Cora Downes, whose family has money but no blue blood. She "rescues" the nephew of the Duke of Bridgwater from drowning and is taken on by the duke's mother as a project to be introduced to society and married off to someone eligible, but not super blue-blooded. This story is funny, starts off delightfully and I found myself chuckling many times. The hero, Lord Francis Kneller, younger son of a duke, is the suitor rejected by Samantha in LORD CAREW'S BRIDE and he's still nursing a broken heart. He befriends Cora as a favor to his friend Bridgwater and finds her to be a pleasant distraction from his misery and entertaining company.

Now, Francis favors wearing clothes of all the colors of the rainbow, pink, puce, turquoise, vivid green, you name it, dressed up with lace and elaborately-tied cravats, and he's always immaculately coiffed. Cora, who is totally intimidated by most members of the ton, finds herself comfortable in his company. She also mistakes his sexual orientation, so she enjoys him as a friend and not as a possible suitor. It's all good fun, but somewhere past the halfway point of the story, I was beginning to tire of Cora's ineptness in society and Francis's broken heart, so it wasn't a 5-star romance for me, in spite of the good writing and the satisfying ending.

THE PLUMED BONNET is a bit more angsty and I enjoyed it more. It's another upper-class/middle-class romance, but less humorous. Balogh always does a good job of convincing the reader that young, handsome, rich dukes of excellent character existed in Regency England and that romance with a lovely heroine of lesser breeding would have challenges but is perfectly doable (at least by the end of the story). Her Cinderella stories have always appealed to me more than those of other writers using the same theme, perhaps because of her sympathetic characters and the trademark Balogh style of writing.

Our hero here is the Duke of Bridgwater, of the family that sponsored Cora in the first story. He's on the road traveling and meets up with hitchhiking (Imagine that!) heroine Stephanie Gray. Stephanie is respectable but impoverished and had been working as a governess when she was informed that she has inherited property and lots of money. Instead of waiting for the transportation which was to be sent for her, she sets off on her own but mishaps along the way have her penniless and unable to continue her journey to Sindon Park, her inheritance. She even loses her own cloak and bonnet and is forced to wear a borrowed fuchsia cloak and pink bonnet with pink, fuchsia and purple plumes. In her moneyless desperation she is walking to her destination, without even coins to purchase a meal for herself.

Alistair, the duke, spies her walking the road. Well, she's hard to miss in that get-up. He's bored and feeling unsatisfied with his life so, mistaking her for a lady of ill-repute, he decides to spice up his life with her company and offers her a ride. The rest you just have to read. The beginning is a lot of fun, what with the mistaken impressions both have of each other. When circumstances force Alistair to offer marriage to Stephanie, the rest of the book is about the expectations they have for each other, the importance of communication, and the need to be true to who you are. The characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, the writing is excellent and the ending is just about perfect.

Mary Balogh is an exceptional writer. Though these are not my favorite romances by
Balogh, they are very entertaining. Likeable characters, solid plots, a detailed world,
plus excellent command of language make these novels easy 5's. They continue the story
started in Dark Angel/Lord Carew's Bride. In Dark Angel,
Samantha Newman plays a secondary part, hurt by a villain. In Lord Carew's
Bride, Samantha is the heroine. She marries Lord Carew (shortly after meeting him) and
rejects Lord Kneller (who had pursued her for years). The Duke of Bridgwater
and Kneller (though Kneller certainly was badly hurt by Samantha's rejection) helped
Samantha's match with Carew.

In The Famous Heroine, the Duke of Bridgwater asks Kneller (his close friend)
to help Bridgwater's mother launch a young woman Cora Downes into society. Cora has no
pretensions to any noble lineage, but her father is a very wealthy merchant.
Bridgwater's mother, who is very class conscious, wants to help Cora get an
acceptable marriage, because she "saved" the life of Bridgwater's heir's
heir. "Save" is in quotes because the story of Cora's heroism has gotten ridiculously out of
hand. Ultimately Cora's disregard of convention leads to a forced marriage to
Kneller. Cora likes Kneller, but is convinced for silly reasons, that he will not be able
to father children (and all that goes with it, which though she is unclear on
what it all is, she would prefer to have it than not). Everything works out (of course).

In The Plumed Bonnet, Bridgwater, who is very sophisticated and urbane gets
hoisted by his own petard into a forced marriage with the Stephanie Gray.
There is a lot of humor here, which I will not spoil. Stephanie is a
poorly-treated governess, who inherited great wealth with an unpleasant
proviso that she needed to be quickly married part. She had resigned herself
to a life without love or the companionship of marriage, and the forced
nature of the marriage makes her doubt that marriage to Bridgwater will be in
name only. This being a Balogh romance, the doubts are eventually quashed.)

I loved Mary Balogh's work in another novel that I read, so I bought this book not realizing that she had written these two novels many years before the novel that I liked.

Both novels are well-written and carefully researched, which I appreciated. I enjoyed their period detail immensely, especially the accurate vocabulary and social attitudes.

I preferred the first novel, "The Famous Heroine," in which a common sense merchant's daughter is temporarily stranded among the ton, with many humorous misunderstandings caused by the differences in manners and outlook between England's "show me the money" merchant class and the appearances-obsessed nobility.

The plot of "The Plumed Bonnet" was so improbable that it lost me about halfway through the book. I can't believe any governess who just inherited wealth would not inform her employers of that fact and would simply walk out the door with almost no money and few belongings to go claim her estate.

Neither novel had much sex or romance, and much of the drama took place between chapters, much to my dismay. The first novel was a good one-time read, but I likely won't be rereading it.

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