It’s an anomaly in Balogh’s usually deft unpacking of human weakness and worth, better displayed in Someone To Remember (2019). His past suffering and Jessica’s desire for him serve to justify her falling in love, but despite some tender moments, the relationship feels contrived. Even when his motivation for staying mum about his true identity is revealed, one struggles to feel sympathetic since he seems to prioritize his own griefs over the wrongs done to a woman. Gabriel is a hard character to like, however, because of his deception about who he is, his odd choice to remain in London despite the need to rescue a needy family member in the country-and the troubling implications of the fact that he has made money in shipping in pre–Civil War America. Yet she is unenthusiastic about her choices until two men, including Gabriel, show an interest. At 25, Jessica is finally ready to marry. But Gabriel has a secret about his identity, and he believes its eventual revelation requires that he have an aristocratic wife at his side-one he decides will be the patrician Jessica. In a new, baggy Westcott family novel, Lady Jessica Archer demands romance and recognition of her inner self from an American newcomer to Regency London.Ī brief encounter at an inn gives Jessica, the sister of the Duke of Netherby, and Gabriel Thorne, a merchant from Boston, an initial dislike of each other.
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