Web of Love (The Web Trilogy)

As always Mary Balogh writes a very well written romance. She is one of my favorites. Enjoyed reading this novel. Mary seems to be getting better.

I have read all three books of this trilogy and I must say they were sometimes intense psychological pictures of characters you would think to meet in any romance novel. But there is just more to them, the author makes these character richer, deeper and left me thinking about them well after starting some other book. Both these characters seem to be in some dream world of there own creating, mostly to deal with how they thing life SHOULD be. Dominic and carefree doing only one responsible thing in his life and that was to join the military. Our heroine, runs after her real father, following the drum, when she learns the father she thought she had wasn't. Her father dies in that war and she takes up with the first or only man kind to her at 15, proposing marriage and doing her best to make it the best marriage to a man 15 years her elder. (It is overdone how much they love each other that makes it all the sadder to know when her husband dies.) Then in her ability to care for the wounded while denying her own needs and fears, is just another example of her ability to adjust her world so she can cope. This goes too far as bestfriend of her husband, family friend, and wounded officer as he gets better then becomes lover in 6 days out of 3 weeks recuperating. Then finally reality sets in and the pain and denial. But Ellen grows she returns to the Father she thought was her's and tells him her woes, he accepts her again as he always has. Their is healing and maturity and finally acceptance of the truth on her part. And a seriousness in Dominic as more responsibility is dumped on him and he demands to be able to be accountable for them. Also, the desciption of Waterloo is so good I found myself looking up places and people that are mentioned in the book. The author does her research exceptionally well. I found the near site on maps of that time online. Well Done!

However normal she might appear Ellen Simpson is a fairly psychologically abnormal heroine hiding in an everyday romance. As the book opens Ellen is married to Captain Charles 'Charlie' Simpson and we have several chapters of them emphasizing how in love they are. In fact she overemphasizes it a time or two showing that she recognizes that she is attracted to their frined Lieutenant Lord Eden (Dominic). As a red herring she is the 25 year old stepmother of Jennifer, a young miss similar in some ways to other young ladies that Dominic has fancied himself in love with in the past. In one hundred pages of buildup various characters are introduced and bundled off and the two soldiers are sent off to Waterloo. Charlie is killed and Dominic is seriously wounded. In confusion and under the urge to tell Ellen her husband is dead he directs his rescuers to take him to her house where she receives the news and takes him in. After he become stronger Dominic and Ellen fall into a 6-day affair, which blows up in their faces and she states that she never wants to see him again. This is where all the confusion about how could she love so soon, etc. etc. comes about. But this is a 350 page book and there's plenty of time for the two main characters to agonize about things and develop further psychologically. Discerning readers will notice that Dominic has strange notions about love and thinks he can decide whether or not he can fall into love with another young miss apparently for the fun of being in love. Ellen also has strange ideas although she appears to be a normal loving wife. She met Charlie when she was 15 - in short, having lost the support of all the adults in her life, she is rescued by Charlie who was 30 at that point. She tells Dominic later on that Charlie wanted to send her off to his sister but Ellen convinced him to marry her. Her love is a desparate attachment to the only solid point in her life. Only on her husband's death, and likely inevitably on her husband's death, Ellen realizes that she is strong and that there are other lovable human beings in the world, even though they might not be as strong or perfect as a child would imagine. This is a good story and an interesting story, with two other subplots filling in the spaces. My main complain is that many of the characters are overdrawn to make the points the author wants to make and it makes the realism of the book suffer.

This is one of her best earlier works. The story was a one sitting read. I just could not put it down.