At Last Comes Love (Huxtable Quintet)

I have read the first two of the Huxtable family books (First Comes Marriage and Then Comes Seduction (Huxtable)) and enjoyed them. But this is my favorite one of the three. I'll start with a caution because the very reason I loved this book will make lots of people not like it very much. This is not a book where the couple is swept away by passion and has many steamy love scenes. The love story in this book is more like a crock pot than a microwave: it starts out cool and gradually warms up and is more intentional than the usual romance where a couple is instantly infatuated (even if they "hate" each other). If you prefer your romances to have lots of passion and sex, you may want to pass on this one. This book draws on events that have occurred in the previous two books so it is best to have read the earlier books. But if you haven't read them, you will be fine because there is enough explanation. Meg is the oldest Huxtable and is still single because she promised their father she would keep them all together and she felt the obligation to take care of Stephen (the youngest and only boy) until he reached adulthood. Vanessa and Kate are now happily married and Stephen is an adult but Meg is now 30. The slow pace of the romance in this book fits the character of Meg because she has held her emotions in check during the first two books. Duncan has been away from society for 5 years due to a scandal the reader learns more about as the book progresses. Now he is desperate to find a bride who will merit his grandfather's approval and get married within two weeks or he will lose his childhood home and source of income. Meg is also in a bind because she told Crispin Dew (her first love who married another and is now a widower) she was engaged but she learns the man whose proposals she had been rejecting (but expected to accept this time) was engaged to another woman. Duncan and Meg run into each other (quite literally) and that starts the plot rolling. There is a lot in this book about love and trust and about deciding to love someone. The sex scenes come after marriage and are more about the love than pure lust; they are not particularly explicit. This love story felt more real to me than a lot of the quick passion ones and it was a comfortable read with an ending so sweet it made me get all teary. I'm looking forward to the 4th of the Huxtable books (Seducing an Angel (Huxtable)) and hope Mary Balogh will then write a love story for Constantine Huxtable.

This is my first time writing a review of any kind so that should say something. This book was awesome!!! I loved it's pace, there was never a dull moment. It wasn't alot of shyness. The characters were very open, for the most part, about what they wanted in a relationship. No shy virginal sex scenes, just two people willing to acknowlege their attraction without a lot of pretense. I liked that. I read the first two books in this series. I really didn't care for the second one too much and was hesitant to read this one but, Mary is one of my favorites so I had to try it...I'm glad I did. Great job MARY!!!

Finally! A book with good character development. Both male and female leads are straightforward honest types who actually know how to communicate with each other. Their relationship develops in a reasonable and real way. They have some wit about them, some humor, they are neither terribly perfect, nor terribly damaged. When the inevitable crisis between them develops, as it must for any romance novel- its resolved in a few pages, not a hundred. Extremely satisfying read. A keeper.

This is the third book in the series, and the best so far. Which is saying something. But with Mary Balogh, you can hardly ever go wrong. She writes characters of such depth and grace, and although she is less sexually blatant that many of her contemporaries, what she does write rings more true somehow. Her stories and characters are so rich in and of themselves, even without the sex scenes, that when they do come, they are perfectly right...they don't jar you. You don't feel like you're watching sex between strangers and that pull she exerts through setting, character and plot makes it impossible not to feel the depth of those characters needs and desires. You discover along with them and don't feel like a voyeur afterwards. Margaret is a wonderful character, full of wit and self-knowledge with a remarkable spirit and sense of humor. And Duncan is the perfect foil for her. A man of remarkable honor and compassion. They both share a deep sense of loneliness and lives unlived. And remarkably, in the end, they find what they've lost in each other and come to the understanding, in a very believable way, that perhaps that's how things were meant to be for the two of them. A perfectly wonderful book that I'll read over and over as time goes by. I've liked all these book, the first (Vanessa's story) more than the second. And now this third, as I said, best of all. It will be interesting to see what Ms. Balogh does with Stephen's story, the 4th in the series, which is due out later this year. I'm hoping we'll also see a book for Constantine somewhere down the line. And don't think I have a problem with more graphic sex. I don't. If it's done well, I'm just as susceptible as anyone else. But you have to care about the people engaged in the activity; otherwise it's like watching really bad porno. A prime example of that is the early Anita Blake books (a different genre, I realize); in those early books, Laurell Hamilton did a great job with characters and story, especially story. So that when the sex finally came, it mattered, really mattered in a big way. But somewhere after Obsidian Butterfly, she lost her way and the books became nothing but sex. I don't know if she realizes just how unpleasant she's made the character of Anita Blake by airing what can only be, I think, her own personal predilections through her character. A shame, but there are tons of threads devoted to that sad journey, and this is about Mary Balogh. I only use the Anita Blake reference as an example of what I mean. Someone should send Ms. Hamilton a few of Mary Balogh's books. But maybe not...I don't think she "gets it". Thank the stars for Mary Balogh.