One Night for Love: A Novel (Bedwyn Saga)

i found ONE NIGHT FOR LOVE difficult to put down as it reminded me so much of cinderella, my all time favorite fairy tale. i just loved the main character, lily. the world would be a better place if there were more people like lily... people who are down to earth and true to themselves. and if only all of those people lived a happy ending...

I really liked this book! I am a Mary Balogh fan, and this is my favorite thus far! Lily, the heroine, is a plucky sergeant's daughter, and Neville, an officer from the upper crust rebelling against authority. He left her for dead in Portugal, just after their marriage-of-necessity had been consumated. Now he is getting married again, and guess who shows up, very much alive?While the idea of a blue-blooded earl actually marrying a commoner in those days may be somewhat far-fetched, I still loved reading about it. I loved how Lily kept her own personality, despite being molded into a countess of much renown. I loved how Neville cared for her so deeply. I loved the fairy tale "happily ever after" thoughts that pervaded the book. I kept telling my husband, this story is so sweet!"Mind you, it has lots of good scenes of intimacy, just to keep it interesting ;-). Don't expect it to be rated G just becuase the story is sweet, the racy bits are definitely "hard R". Grab some chocolates and this book and prepare for a great evening of entertainment.

It's a perfect spring day, and Nevill Wyatt, Earl of Kilbourne, waits for his bride to walk down the aisle towards him. When she does, he is shocked, because although his wife is walking towards him, she is not the woman he'd intended to marry that day. Instead, she's the woman he married on a battlefield eighteen months before and thought was dead.Lily, the illiterate daughter of a sergeant, had survived the attack which severely wounded Neville, but she'd then been captured and had been held prisoner for many months. Her captors had refused to accept that she was an officer's wife and she had become the sexual slave of one. Finally, she was released and she walked through Portugal before she managed to get transport back to England and Neville.But, once reunited with the man who had married her as a death-bed promise to her father that he would protect her, Lily realises just how far apart they are. Neville is a member of the nobility, surrounded by family and friends who are just like him. She doesn't know how to dress, to make polite conversation, to behave among the upper-classes; she can't even read, write or play the piano-forte. Much as she loves Neville, she just doesn't fit in. She's not even sure, at first, whether Neville wouldn't have preferred her to be dead, although before long he shows her in the most perfect way that he still loves her.But she still doesn't fit in... and then Neville finds out that their marriage was never registered, which means that they aren't legally married. He instantly tells her that he will take her to London to marry her again, legally this time, but she refuses. She will not stay with him in a world where she doesn't belong. He has a second chance, without her.Enter Elizabeth, Neville's aunt, and a wonderful character. She's an independent woman in her thirties, wealthy, who never married because she couldn't bear being submissive to a man she didn't love. (She has a beau, and he's rather lovely too, but that's beside the point for now). Elizabeth offers Lily a position as her companion, but what she actually has in mind is a Pygmalion-like task.And will Neville let her go? How will he convince her that he really loves her and win her back?As ever, Mary Balogh refuses to write a tame, ordinary Regency novel. I shudder to think what would be made of a plot like this in another author's hands; Neville would have paid Lily off and married Lauren, I imagine.There was only element of the plot which I found a little unnecessary, and that was the aspect concerning Lily's parentage. Much as I like Elizabeth's beau, I would have found it more fascinating had Balogh left Lily as she was when we first met her.Oh, and in response to another reader, how could anyone think that Neville listened to his mother too much where Lily was concerned, and treated her with disrespect as a result? *He* insisted that his mother should receive her. He insisted that she should be treated with all due respect as his wife. His moth

During wartime Lily Blake and Neville Wyatt marry. The morning after their one night together Lily is shot in the heart and Neville in the head. Neville survives and returns home to take his rightful place as Earl of Kilbourne. Believing Lily dead he resumes his relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Lauren.Lily does in fact not die, but becomes a prisoner of war where she is forced to become mistress to a Spanish military officer. After a year and a half of seperation, Lily is freed to return to Neville. But upon her return she finds that Neville is about to marry Lauren. Interupting the wedding to let Neville know she is back, Lily is thrust into a life of the ton. Thrilled to find his true love is still alive, Neville is willing to give Lily time to adjust to being a countess.Unable to adjust to her new life, Lily leaves Neville for London where she becomes Neville's aunt's paid companion. Neville reluctantly lets Lily go so she can determine her true love for him.One Night for Love was a wonderful regency and I highly recommend it. Neville's love for Lily never falters even after she tells him of her terrible treatment as a prisioner. To me, that is a true romantic hero.