She is at her first ball during her first London Season and hopes to dance with him a few times-especially the supper dance-and hear him tell her for the first time that he loves her. She is betrothed to the blond and wondrously handsome Lionel, Lord Kersey, whom she has loved for a long time, even though the betrothal has not yet been announced. Jennifer Windwood is as happy as it is possible to be. Also Mary Balogh demonstrates her usual mastery of point of view.” Sometimes, when you expect to run across one, Mary Balogh pulls off a stunning twist that turns the cliché on its head.

This plot somehow avoids all the clichés. It is magical to watch their initial friendship grow into love…. The heroine is beautiful and popular, but she is avoiding love. Though the hero is wealthy and titled, he is plain and hindered by a disability. “Lord Carew’s Bride is a Regency romance about a very unlikely couple. And this time she is tempted to settle for the contentment of friendship in order to escape the pain of love. It is only much later, back in London, when she is again threatened by the man who broke her heart years ago during her come-out Season, that Samantha discovers who her dear friend really is. He is also friendly and unassuming, and Samantha soon relaxes into a warm friendship with him. He is an ordinary-looking man and is half crippled. She meets him far from the house and mistakes him for a landscape designer. While she is staying in the country with Jennifer and Gabriel, she takes a walk alone and wanders onto the property of the reclusive Marquess of Carew. Samantha Newman is getting older, but though she is beautiful and courted by a large number of gentlemen, she is restless and unhappy.

He is not in high favor with the ton, but when he sees that Lionel is also back in town, he is willing to risk further trouble for himself by causing harm to his old enemy in any way that presents itself…and Lionel has a new fiancée. Gabriel, Earl of Thornhill, has just returned to England after a long stay in Europe, where he fled after a scandalous elopement with his father’s pregnant wife. It seems to her that she has loved him forever, and she assumes that he loves her. Jennifer is particularly excited because finally the marriage that has been arranged between her and Lionel, Viscount Kersey, will become a reality. Jennifer Winwood arrives in London with her cousin, Samantha Newman, for their come-out Season. They will be republished soon-see the Upcoming Books page for the publishing schedule. There are three other books also linked to them- The Famous Heroine, The Plumed Bonnet, and Christmas Bride.

The heroines are cousins and both of them appear in both books. These are two books that were first published in 19 respectively.

The Plumed Bonnet by Mary Balogh