A Christmas Promise: A Novel

This classic is tentatively scheduled for reprinting in late 2010. If so that's a very good thing, as it's a classic of a father's love, a daughter's grief, and a marriage that nearly founders before the truth is known. Every time I reread it, even though it's so familiar, I get drawn in emotionally all over again. Highly recommended.

I am currently reading Balogh's old books and finding some real gems amongst them, and this is one of them. It is a heart-rending tale of two people brought together in distrust and coldness but ends up a lovely romance and 'happy ever after'. I loved it - a keeper for me.

Eleanor Transome loved her father dearly. He called her his treasure. He only wanted her happiness. Eleanor Transome's father was dying. So he bought Eleanor a husband! Randolph Pierce, the Earl of Falloden, is on the brink of ruin, he needs money quickly. He must preserve Grenfell Park, the debt-ridden home of his youth. With much reluctance, the Earl of Falloden accepts the coal merchant's terms. He will wed Eleanor Transome, a young woman he has never met. Two very different people from two very different worlds. Two very separate entities. They were man and wife, a stranger from a class she hated and she from a class he despised. Yet, there was more to it than that. They had to make a life together. They could derive mutual satisfaction from each other. He would take pleasure from her and she would take pleasure from receiving him. For Eleanor did not want to be alone. Eleanor wanted to love someone, Eleanor wanted children. Balogh again hits the jackpot. A CHRISTMAS PROMISE is delightful. It is a quiet story about two people who: meet, observe, and fall in love with each other. Nothing unusual -- except these two people are already married. Balogh relies on a Christmas theme to enhance her story delighting her readers with the traditions of Christmases past. A time when families gathered, for days, to celebrate the joy of the season. A time when Christmas celebrations revolved around life's simple pleasures: horse drawn sleighs, sledding at night, gathering yule logs, or rejoicing in a star-filled Christmas sky. Again Mary Balogh proves she can write a romance book. At the end of A CHRISTMAS PROMISE, Mary Balogh wisely chooses her poignancy pen. Quietly I wept as Eleanor opened her father's final gift and then I rejoiced when the hero offered his heart. A CHRISTMAS PROMISE is a Signet Regency Romance book and is currently not in print; presently an interested reader must obtain it on the secondary market. Grade: A Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

I just have to disagree with the 3-star reviewer who said this was "not Balogh's best but still readable"...I put this book right up there with "A Temporary Wife" and it IS one of her best, absolutely!! Randolph & Eleanor have a hard time before they find happiness and that's REAL. That's what makes this story so good; its characters' feelings are rooted in reality. They learn about each other; more importantly they learn about themselves. It makes their love story all the more satisfactory at the end.