I always adore sweet, mature MCs of Mary Balogh's books who withstand the pain and suffering of their past and continue to remain resilient and endearing. It's valid and should not be ignored.Ĥ.5 🌟 (Regency era, Unwed single mother, heavily scarred/disabled beta hero, Set partly in Wales, friends to lovers ) You know, sometimes a person doesn't want to deal with their family, and sometimes that decision needs to be respected because it's important. I don't care if it's a 'holdover of the times' or any of that: it's disgusting is what it is, and the fact that Anna has to sit through it with her entire family in the room there with her AND THEN APOLOGIZES TO THEM FOR ANY EMBARRASSMENT SHE MAY HAVE CAUSED THEM is so frustrating I'm out of words. ESPECIALLY when they show up at her family's and her father basically tells her that she could have stopped her own rape that she led the man on that she's responsible for what happened to her. I see how Balough tried to parallel it with Syd's feet-dragging on the painting thing, but it just didn't work for me. Which was all well and good because both of them had things to work through! And the development of their friendship and subsequent relationship was pretty ace!Įxcept there's this Anna-has-a-family-she-doesn't-want-to-talk-about thing, and Syd cannot let that stand. Although it takes them a ridiculous amount of time to address their love because they're both too busy thinking they're not wo/man enough for the other.

She meets Sydnam, who is a war veteran and painter. 2.5 stars.Īnna is an unwed mother and teacher. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby.

She also enjoys watching tennis and curling. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting.

She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. Mary Jenkins was born in 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK.

Simply love by mary balogh