Book Review - Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh | Blushing Geek

Book Review – Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh

Only Enchanted by Mary Balogh | Blushing Geek

Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh
Series: The Survivors’ Club, #4
Published: October 28, 2014 by Signet
Genre: Historical, Romance
400 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Find on Goodreads
Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2PbjMvC

Flavian, Viscount Ponsonby, was devastated by his fiancée’s desertion after his return home. Now the woman who broke his heart is back—and everyone is eager to revive their engagement. Except Flavian, who, in a panic, runs straight into the arms of a most sensible yet enchanting young woman.

Agnes Keeping has never been in love—and never wishes to be. But then she meets the charismatic Flavian, and suddenly Agnes falls so foolishly and so deeply that she agrees to his impetuous proposal of marriage.

When Agnes discovers that the proposal is only to avenge his former love, she’s determined to flee. But Flavian has no intention of letting his new bride go, especially now that he too has fallen so passionately and so unexpectedly in love.

Review

I’m not usually attracted to Historical Romance but I have plenty in my TBR. Haha, you can’t blame me, the feedback was pretty convincing. And for this story, well, it gave me a hard time. I honestly don’t know how to rate and write this review.  I guess this is one those days that I just literally don’t know what to write. So for this review, I’ll try to be direct and mention some things that I like, I like the least and other things that I noticed in this story. I’ll try not to drop some spoiler, but I can’t promise. *wink

The first 100 pages of this story was DAF (dull as f*). I’m normally impatient and always want to be given the juicy part whenever I am reading a book from a new author, plus it’s historical so that explains the dull introduction (sorry, no offense meant).  But dang! It would have been ok but I’m a dialogue reader and I hate blabber. For example the daffodil painting. A lot, as in A LOT of pages were spent on daffodils that I am beginning to fall asleep. So yep, this was actually one of those books that I skipped a lot of pages. I’m impatient, remember? haha. But even if I skipped, it was surprising that I was still able to understand the story. And what’s also appalling was that I started to enjoy the second half of this story that I finished it in just one sitting!

The story got more animated when they got married. All happened so fast but surprisingly, I find it quite romantic really. And I have to say that all the best parts happened in the second part of the book and they’re really really really good.

It’s also in the second part that both the characters improved so well. Agnes becomes more clear headed and she starts thinking in a linear way and acts with strength which really surprised me. I never knew she had that badass streak in her. 

“I will not tolerate being seen as the other woman in a tragic love story. He married me, Lady Hazeltine. More important, as far as I am concerned, I married him, and I count. “

Now that’s totally badass, don’t you think? I love how she was able to prove them wrong, I love how she stood up for herself especially when she was sensationalized because of what her mother did almost 20 years ago. I love how her character transformed from this plain widow to a fearless wife. 

Flavian on the other hand was better too. He was like part of the zombies in the TV series, The Walking Dead in the first part, but after their marriage, he started becoming a person. There’s something about Agnes that’s invigorating and brought him to the land of living. It was excellently done and I am in love!

I guess the marriage did good to both of them. It was made in haste and without proper thinking but I was glad it turned out great. The two of them have their own sets of excess baggage and I’m glad that they were able to deal with them together. Isn’t that just sweet? 

Their love story after marriage was really sweet and endearing because they’ve got to find out that they had something very previous growing between them and I loved it. I’m not totally a fan of the temporary amnesia but I have to agree that it did add some spice and thrill to their story.

After reading this story, what I had in mind is to give it a 4 star rating. But thinking about it now, I have to consider what I felt and did while reading the first half of this story, so I decided to drop the half star and gave this story a 3.5 star rating instead.
Only Enchanting is beautifully written and I did enjoy it. Not bad for my first Historical Romance read this year eh? This is the 4th book of the Survivors’ Club series but is pretty much ok to read standalone. So if you like things more at the sweet end of the romance with a touch of spice, I would highly recommend this book.

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14 Comments
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Blodeuedd
6 years ago

Pretty cover too 🙂
I can not even remember the last time I read a Balogh :/

Vanessa
6 years ago
Reply to  Blodeuedd

Yeah, I do like the cover too 🙂

Nadene@Ttly addicted 2 reading

It has been a while since I have read a historical romance. This sounds like it was entertaining.

Vanessa
6 years ago

It was Nadene, but I highly prefer the second part.

The Book-Filled Day
6 years ago

I like the cover. Sounds like something I would read, except for maybe skipping the parts about the daffodils, lol.

Vanessa
6 years ago

Haha, I can feel you

Sophia Rose
6 years ago

I’ve read this whole series and loved it, but yes, I agree that some of the books get off to a really slow start. 🙂

Vanessa
6 years ago
Reply to  Sophia Rose

Yeah? But I am interested to try other books in this series as well. Thanks for stopping by Sophia Rose 🙂

kimbacaffeinate
6 years ago

I love HF, but over read it, and now have slowly been weaving them back in. I am glad it picked up and you ended up enjoying it.

Vanessa
6 years ago

Yeah, I’m glad too. Thanks for dropping by 🙂

Lily B
6 years ago

I’m sorry this one didn’t work for you as well. I don’t think all of them are dull, but I do remember putting this one down because of the slow start. Might I make a suggestion? 🙂 I’d try Tessa Dare, lisa kleypas, Elizabeth Hoyt and Monica McCarty 🙂 those might make a better impression

Vanessa
6 years ago
Reply to  Lily B

Yay. I’ll check them out. Thanks Lily 🙂

AngieElle @ Ba_BAMB
6 years ago

I’m sorry this book wasn’t as great as you’d hoped, but I’m glad it was able to win you over in the end! 🙂

Great review.

Vanessa
6 years ago

Yeah it is. Thanks AngieElle for stopping by 🙂

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