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Signet Valentine Anthologies #3
Tokens of Love: Five Regency Love Stories
A collection of five romance stories features the work of Mary Balogh, Sandra Heath, Carol Proctor, Sheila Walsh, and Margaret Westhaven. Original.
347 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
233 people want to read
About the author
Mary Balogh
200 books6,350 followersMary Jenkins was born in 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting. She also enjoys watching tennis and curling.
Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. 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 won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. 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 won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 13, 2020
3 Estrellitas. Al igual que hace una semana, he vuelto a leer un relato corto de Mary Balogh en inglés, y así sigo con éste ciclo de relatos de San Valentin.
El relato elegido es "The Substitute Guest", o lo que es lo mismo "La invitada sustituta". Al igual que en el anterior relato que leí, se celebra una fiesta de San Valentin en una mansión campestre.
Esta vez la anfitriona es Lady Florence, una viuda adinerada y disoluta, célebre por dar escandalosas fiestas. Éste año va a dar una de sus conocidas fiestas a las que solo pueden acudir adultos, bien sean solteros, viudos o viudas o célebres personajes de la alta sociedad conocidos por sus infidelidades.
En éste caso a Lady Florence le ha fallado una de sus invitadas y la fiesta empieza en dos días, así que debe buscar rápidamente otra candidata para que haya el mismo número de parejas, y la elegida es la señorita Claire Ward.
Claire es una solterona aburrida y algo gazmoña, a sus 28 años no ha conocido el amor de un hombre ni la posibilidad del matrimonio. A pesar de crecer en un hogar familiar muy amplio, es la pequeña de la familia y la que cuidó a su padre cuando enfermó. Ahora vive de la caridad de su hermano mayor y su cuñada, y acaba de recibir una invitación a una fiesta de San Valentin en la casa de Lady Florence. Aunque se sabe de la fama de ésta, no sería recomendable renunciar a dicha invitación, de modo que Claire acaba aceptando.
Nuestro protagonista masculino es Gerard, duque de Langford, y uno de los célebres libertinos de la alta sociedad, guarda una buena amistad con Lady Florence, y la intención de ésta es convertirle en su amante durante su fiesta. Lo que no imaginarían es que Gerard acabara posando su monóculo sobre la sosa Claire Ward.
Será a través de uno de los juegos de ésta fiesta campestre como Gerard y Claire se conocerán, y que consistirá en que deben elegir una pareja para los tres días de fiesta con sus posibles consecuencias, y en una fiesta disoluta donde solo hay adultos puede ocurrir de todo ¿Dónde se ha metido Claire?
A pesar de todo nuestros protagonistas se irán enamorando poco a poco a través de los paseos, visitas a ruinas, y demás entretenimientos propios de la época.
En general ha sido un relato que ha cumplido su función y me ha gustado pese a la dificultad que se me presenta leyéndolo en inglés. Me gustó más el anterior relato que leí a éste, que se me ha hecho un pelín más soso. Pero es Mary Balogh y es San Valentín, y siempre es un placer leer cualquier cosa escrita por ésta mujer.
El relato elegido es "The Substitute Guest", o lo que es lo mismo "La invitada sustituta". Al igual que en el anterior relato que leí, se celebra una fiesta de San Valentin en una mansión campestre.
Esta vez la anfitriona es Lady Florence, una viuda adinerada y disoluta, célebre por dar escandalosas fiestas. Éste año va a dar una de sus conocidas fiestas a las que solo pueden acudir adultos, bien sean solteros, viudos o viudas o célebres personajes de la alta sociedad conocidos por sus infidelidades.
En éste caso a Lady Florence le ha fallado una de sus invitadas y la fiesta empieza en dos días, así que debe buscar rápidamente otra candidata para que haya el mismo número de parejas, y la elegida es la señorita Claire Ward.
Claire es una solterona aburrida y algo gazmoña, a sus 28 años no ha conocido el amor de un hombre ni la posibilidad del matrimonio. A pesar de crecer en un hogar familiar muy amplio, es la pequeña de la familia y la que cuidó a su padre cuando enfermó. Ahora vive de la caridad de su hermano mayor y su cuñada, y acaba de recibir una invitación a una fiesta de San Valentin en la casa de Lady Florence. Aunque se sabe de la fama de ésta, no sería recomendable renunciar a dicha invitación, de modo que Claire acaba aceptando.
Nuestro protagonista masculino es Gerard, duque de Langford, y uno de los célebres libertinos de la alta sociedad, guarda una buena amistad con Lady Florence, y la intención de ésta es convertirle en su amante durante su fiesta. Lo que no imaginarían es que Gerard acabara posando su monóculo sobre la sosa Claire Ward.
Será a través de uno de los juegos de ésta fiesta campestre como Gerard y Claire se conocerán, y que consistirá en que deben elegir una pareja para los tres días de fiesta con sus posibles consecuencias, y en una fiesta disoluta donde solo hay adultos puede ocurrir de todo ¿Dónde se ha metido Claire?
A pesar de todo nuestros protagonistas se irán enamorando poco a poco a través de los paseos, visitas a ruinas, y demás entretenimientos propios de la época.
En general ha sido un relato que ha cumplido su función y me ha gustado pese a la dificultad que se me presenta leyéndolo en inglés. Me gustó más el anterior relato que leí a éste, que se me ha hecho un pelín más soso. Pero es Mary Balogh y es San Valentín, y siempre es un placer leer cualquier cosa escrita por ésta mujer.
February 16, 2014
Mary Balogh’s Regency Valentine story “The Substitute Guest” features a quiet dutiful spinster, living out her days with her brother and his family. This story is darker in tone than her earlier Valentine stories, more revelatory of the risks lovers take when they make themselves vulnerable to love.
“The Substitute Guest,” Tokens of Love, 1993 (from a review at Heroes and Heartbreakers: http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com...
A jaded rake, a duke no less, and a “plain and placid” spinster: is that not the most enduring cliché of historical romance? Lady Florence has planned a playful orgiastic Valentine’s weekend for six gentlemen and six ladies.
Unfortunately, one of the ladies has begged off because she’s been laid low with migraines. In a pinch Lady Florence asks her neighbor Claire Ward, to join “a select group of the most prominent and respected members of society.” Claire is the right age—“very much closer to thirty than to twenty” although she’s “a confirmed spinster and a prude,” but fortunately for Lady Florence’s numbers, Claire accepts her invitation. Even though Claire is inclined to turn it down, her acceptance becomes an act of defiance against the overbearing advice of the visiting vicar and her sister-in-law Myrtle.
The Reverend Clarkwell says “that for the sake of propriety and your reputation you should return the most formal of refusals” and when the relieved Myrtle says, “It is settled, then,” Claire says that she “is curious to know what such a party will be like and who the select and respected members of society are.” Claire may be curious about the house party but the Duke of Langford knows just what to expect,
A companion and a bed partner for a few days without any effort on his part either to entice or hold at bay. February was a dull month of the year…Valentine’s Day had been a brilliant invention of someone who had known something about boredom.
One of the enduring motifs of a historical Valentine’s Day story is the tableau of men choosing their human Valentine—their sweetheart for an evening, a day or a weekend—by picking up an anonymous card, or supposedly anonymous. Most ladies let their gentlemen know in advance which face-down heart-shaped card was theirs. In “A Waltz Among the Stars” the viscount decides not to pick up Lady Eve’s valentine and in “The Substitute Guest” the duke deliberately picks Claire’s valentine rather than Lady Florence’s.
She watched as he pinned the heart just above her left breast, felt the heat of his fingers burn through to her flesh—they were long, well-manicured fingers—and read his name upside down as it had been scrawled in bold strokes beneath the small neatness of her own name. “Langford,” he had written.
Whew, feeling the heat a little there. Why, the duke wonders, did he pick Claire’s heart instead of Florence’s—“Perhaps it was just that he had a perverse preference for choosing rather than being chosen.” It doesn’t take long for Claire to grasp the activities of the weekend, even though her partner almost capriciously extracts her from the more overtly sexualized games. He takes her to look at the pictures in the upper gallery and when they speak of their lives, their conversation quickly becomes intensely personal.
“You should not be here, you know,” he said. “You are about as at home here as I would be at the bottom of the ocean.”
“I know,” she said, her voice unable to hide her bitterness. “Naïve spinsters of eight-and-twenty do not belong at a house party with people who know a thing or two about life and the world. I should be at home with my brother and sister-in-law.”
“That was not my meaning,” he said. “You should be in your own home, Claire, with your husband, your children abovestairs in the nursery.”
There, the crux of her life. She does not regret nursing her father through his final illness and she is justifiably proud of her usefulness to others but oh how tempted she is by what the duke suggests. He admits he is “not the sort of man to be satisfied with kisses for three days … and three nights,” but to their mutual surprise, Claire says, “Perhaps I am not the sort of woman to be satisfied with a few kisses for a lifetime.” Gerard, the rakish duke of Langford, tells Claire she is “worth more” than a stolen weekend but she admits, to him and to herself, that “Life has always been bleakest on Valentine’s Day.”
What does the reader expect now? That Claire and Gerard will join together for their mutual delight, that love making will prove to be “the key that unlocks the door” of lasting passion? Not in this story. Although the experienced duke knows that Claire is his for the taking, when Gerard truly sees Claire, he sees a “woman who had allowed him to cut a chink in her armor so that he had glimpsed all the longing and loneliness within.” Echoing the theme of one of Balogh’s most popular books, A Summer to Remember, Gerard says, “…we will have to make sure that this is a Valentine’s to remember…“Romance,” he said. “That is the word, is it not?”
Romance and two days of togetherness, avoiding the more sordid of Florence’s agenda of delights, Claire and Gerard revel in each other’s company. But as time passes, Claire is swept up in her feelings for Gerard and she assures him of her willingness to be with him, begging him to make love to her. But like the hero of The Incurable Matchmaker, Gerard refuses to make love, telling her it would be sordid and nothing but “sex pure and simple.” Understandably, Claire feels rejected and unwanted, especially when she wakes up on Valentine’s Day morning feeling “more achingly alone than she had ever felt.” Claire may be inexperienced but she is not afraid of admitting the truth to herself—even though her eyes are puffy and her heart is heavy, she faces her final day with Gerard “with her chin up” because she knows that in the fullness of time “she would be willing to give all she possessed for just one hour with him.”
Imagine her dismay when her fellow guests tell her at the breakfast table that Gerard had galloped away an hour earlier. When Gerard reappears at lunchtime she retreats to the library, “as if she had the hounds of hell at her heels.” Not even Gerard’s quiet apology for not wishing her a happy Valentine’s Day can raise her spirits.
Like they have before, Claire and Gerard open their hearts to one another, speaking and listening with great honesty. Although Gerard acknowledges that he has wounded Claire’s feelings by refusing to sleep with her, he says it is because he loves and respects her too much. Claire is less than impressed, saying that “respect is a cold lover.” But Gerard parries,
“I could not take you to bed last night, Claire, in a parody of love. Sex is not love. At least, it never yet has been with me.”
Claire says it doesn’t matter and that by tomorrow they’ll both be back living their familiar lives.
“Do you want to?” he asked. “I don’t think I do,” he said. “In fact I know I do not, though of course launching out into the unknown is a little frightening too.”
“Men can do something different with their lives anytime they wish to,” she said. “Women cannot.”
But inevitably, magically, Claire is invited to “share the terror—and the exhilaration” if she will consent to be his duchess, his “valentine for a lifetime.” Gerard has even braved visiting her brother Rodney and her sister-in-law Myrtle that morning, to obtain their blessing.
It is to Balogh’s credit that the duke’s proposal doesn’t devolve into a sea of mushy goo—Gerard promises Claire not a fairytale but a partnership, admitting from the beginning that his relations with his family, his social world, and his tenants are deeply damaged. He says, “I know nothing about love and tenderness.” Lest we worry that the rake has changed all his spots (and who would want that?), Gerard begs Claire to say yes: “I shall keep on kissing you until you do. I have decided after all not to play fair.” And most sweetly of all, he tells her that he chose her valentine deliberately, although he’s not at all sure why.
“I rather suspect, Claire, that without anyone’s having noticed it, there must have been a fat and naked little cherub hiding up on the chandelier, a bow and arrow in his hands. And his arrow must have pierced my heart right through the center. He was taking quite a chance. Rumor had had it for several years past that I have no heart at all.”
“The Substitute Guest,” Tokens of Love, 1993 (from a review at Heroes and Heartbreakers: http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com...
A jaded rake, a duke no less, and a “plain and placid” spinster: is that not the most enduring cliché of historical romance? Lady Florence has planned a playful orgiastic Valentine’s weekend for six gentlemen and six ladies.
Unfortunately, one of the ladies has begged off because she’s been laid low with migraines. In a pinch Lady Florence asks her neighbor Claire Ward, to join “a select group of the most prominent and respected members of society.” Claire is the right age—“very much closer to thirty than to twenty” although she’s “a confirmed spinster and a prude,” but fortunately for Lady Florence’s numbers, Claire accepts her invitation. Even though Claire is inclined to turn it down, her acceptance becomes an act of defiance against the overbearing advice of the visiting vicar and her sister-in-law Myrtle.
The Reverend Clarkwell says “that for the sake of propriety and your reputation you should return the most formal of refusals” and when the relieved Myrtle says, “It is settled, then,” Claire says that she “is curious to know what such a party will be like and who the select and respected members of society are.” Claire may be curious about the house party but the Duke of Langford knows just what to expect,
A companion and a bed partner for a few days without any effort on his part either to entice or hold at bay. February was a dull month of the year…Valentine’s Day had been a brilliant invention of someone who had known something about boredom.
One of the enduring motifs of a historical Valentine’s Day story is the tableau of men choosing their human Valentine—their sweetheart for an evening, a day or a weekend—by picking up an anonymous card, or supposedly anonymous. Most ladies let their gentlemen know in advance which face-down heart-shaped card was theirs. In “A Waltz Among the Stars” the viscount decides not to pick up Lady Eve’s valentine and in “The Substitute Guest” the duke deliberately picks Claire’s valentine rather than Lady Florence’s.
She watched as he pinned the heart just above her left breast, felt the heat of his fingers burn through to her flesh—they were long, well-manicured fingers—and read his name upside down as it had been scrawled in bold strokes beneath the small neatness of her own name. “Langford,” he had written.
Whew, feeling the heat a little there. Why, the duke wonders, did he pick Claire’s heart instead of Florence’s—“Perhaps it was just that he had a perverse preference for choosing rather than being chosen.” It doesn’t take long for Claire to grasp the activities of the weekend, even though her partner almost capriciously extracts her from the more overtly sexualized games. He takes her to look at the pictures in the upper gallery and when they speak of their lives, their conversation quickly becomes intensely personal.
“You should not be here, you know,” he said. “You are about as at home here as I would be at the bottom of the ocean.”
“I know,” she said, her voice unable to hide her bitterness. “Naïve spinsters of eight-and-twenty do not belong at a house party with people who know a thing or two about life and the world. I should be at home with my brother and sister-in-law.”
“That was not my meaning,” he said. “You should be in your own home, Claire, with your husband, your children abovestairs in the nursery.”
There, the crux of her life. She does not regret nursing her father through his final illness and she is justifiably proud of her usefulness to others but oh how tempted she is by what the duke suggests. He admits he is “not the sort of man to be satisfied with kisses for three days … and three nights,” but to their mutual surprise, Claire says, “Perhaps I am not the sort of woman to be satisfied with a few kisses for a lifetime.” Gerard, the rakish duke of Langford, tells Claire she is “worth more” than a stolen weekend but she admits, to him and to herself, that “Life has always been bleakest on Valentine’s Day.”
What does the reader expect now? That Claire and Gerard will join together for their mutual delight, that love making will prove to be “the key that unlocks the door” of lasting passion? Not in this story. Although the experienced duke knows that Claire is his for the taking, when Gerard truly sees Claire, he sees a “woman who had allowed him to cut a chink in her armor so that he had glimpsed all the longing and loneliness within.” Echoing the theme of one of Balogh’s most popular books, A Summer to Remember, Gerard says, “…we will have to make sure that this is a Valentine’s to remember…“Romance,” he said. “That is the word, is it not?”
Romance and two days of togetherness, avoiding the more sordid of Florence’s agenda of delights, Claire and Gerard revel in each other’s company. But as time passes, Claire is swept up in her feelings for Gerard and she assures him of her willingness to be with him, begging him to make love to her. But like the hero of The Incurable Matchmaker, Gerard refuses to make love, telling her it would be sordid and nothing but “sex pure and simple.” Understandably, Claire feels rejected and unwanted, especially when she wakes up on Valentine’s Day morning feeling “more achingly alone than she had ever felt.” Claire may be inexperienced but she is not afraid of admitting the truth to herself—even though her eyes are puffy and her heart is heavy, she faces her final day with Gerard “with her chin up” because she knows that in the fullness of time “she would be willing to give all she possessed for just one hour with him.”
Imagine her dismay when her fellow guests tell her at the breakfast table that Gerard had galloped away an hour earlier. When Gerard reappears at lunchtime she retreats to the library, “as if she had the hounds of hell at her heels.” Not even Gerard’s quiet apology for not wishing her a happy Valentine’s Day can raise her spirits.
Like they have before, Claire and Gerard open their hearts to one another, speaking and listening with great honesty. Although Gerard acknowledges that he has wounded Claire’s feelings by refusing to sleep with her, he says it is because he loves and respects her too much. Claire is less than impressed, saying that “respect is a cold lover.” But Gerard parries,
“I could not take you to bed last night, Claire, in a parody of love. Sex is not love. At least, it never yet has been with me.”
Claire says it doesn’t matter and that by tomorrow they’ll both be back living their familiar lives.
“Do you want to?” he asked. “I don’t think I do,” he said. “In fact I know I do not, though of course launching out into the unknown is a little frightening too.”
“Men can do something different with their lives anytime they wish to,” she said. “Women cannot.”
But inevitably, magically, Claire is invited to “share the terror—and the exhilaration” if she will consent to be his duchess, his “valentine for a lifetime.” Gerard has even braved visiting her brother Rodney and her sister-in-law Myrtle that morning, to obtain their blessing.
It is to Balogh’s credit that the duke’s proposal doesn’t devolve into a sea of mushy goo—Gerard promises Claire not a fairytale but a partnership, admitting from the beginning that his relations with his family, his social world, and his tenants are deeply damaged. He says, “I know nothing about love and tenderness.” Lest we worry that the rake has changed all his spots (and who would want that?), Gerard begs Claire to say yes: “I shall keep on kissing you until you do. I have decided after all not to play fair.” And most sweetly of all, he tells her that he chose her valentine deliberately, although he’s not at all sure why.
“I rather suspect, Claire, that without anyone’s having noticed it, there must have been a fat and naked little cherub hiding up on the chandelier, a bow and arrow in his hands. And his arrow must have pierced my heart right through the center. He was taking quite a chance. Rumor had had it for several years past that I have no heart at all.”
April 30, 2008
Now if you've been visiting this blog for a few moths you probably know that I love the Regency Christmas anthologies and that I read a lot of them in December. Since they stopped publishing them and I am in risk of being left without reading material I decided to try another anthology by some of the same authors but with a Valentine's Day theme. The short stories are:
Mary Balogh, "The Substitute Guest."
A young lady is invited to a house party during St Valentine's. It's actually a rendez vous for lovers to meet but when one of the women declines the invitation a vicar's sister is invited in her place and wins the heart of the gentleman selected to court her for the weekend.
It was a nice story the hero was a bit bland, either we needed a stronger hero or a bigger story. B-
Margaret Westhaven, "Saint Valentine's Eve."
A second chance at love story when lovers separated 10 years before meet again. It's set in India which his different and the heroine was a young girl shipped to Calcutta for find a husband (I was curious to know if indeed this was common). A pleasant story but nothing to make it stand out. B-
Carol Proctor, "The London Swell."
Hero travels to the country to court and propose the girl he wants to marry. There he meets an eccentric young girl who mistakes him for someone else and speaks about how she is going to marry the London gentleman that is due to arrive. Not badly written but the heroine was too childish. C+
Sheila Walsh, "Dear Delight."
Another second chance at love. The hero and the heroine were separated 10 years before when her father rejected his suit and he left without telling her why so she things he abandoned her. They meet again at a christening of one of her nephews but there's a woman determined to separate them again. It was nice and the strong point for me was that the author cleared the misunderstanding pretty early. B
Sandra Heath, "February Falsehoods."
And the anthology ends with another second chance at love. This time the heroine has jilted the hero after finding out he had a mistress and her friend and her beau (the hero's friend) try to bring them together again. Not bad but nothing memorable. B-
Grade: B- with the Balogh and the Walsh being the favourites. Although nothing really stands out this is the kind of anthology I save for a rainy day, a comfort read.
Mary Balogh, "The Substitute Guest."
A young lady is invited to a house party during St Valentine's. It's actually a rendez vous for lovers to meet but when one of the women declines the invitation a vicar's sister is invited in her place and wins the heart of the gentleman selected to court her for the weekend.
It was a nice story the hero was a bit bland, either we needed a stronger hero or a bigger story. B-
Margaret Westhaven, "Saint Valentine's Eve."
A second chance at love story when lovers separated 10 years before meet again. It's set in India which his different and the heroine was a young girl shipped to Calcutta for find a husband (I was curious to know if indeed this was common). A pleasant story but nothing to make it stand out. B-
Carol Proctor, "The London Swell."
Hero travels to the country to court and propose the girl he wants to marry. There he meets an eccentric young girl who mistakes him for someone else and speaks about how she is going to marry the London gentleman that is due to arrive. Not badly written but the heroine was too childish. C+
Sheila Walsh, "Dear Delight."
Another second chance at love. The hero and the heroine were separated 10 years before when her father rejected his suit and he left without telling her why so she things he abandoned her. They meet again at a christening of one of her nephews but there's a woman determined to separate them again. It was nice and the strong point for me was that the author cleared the misunderstanding pretty early. B
Sandra Heath, "February Falsehoods."
And the anthology ends with another second chance at love. This time the heroine has jilted the hero after finding out he had a mistress and her friend and her beau (the hero's friend) try to bring them together again. Not bad but nothing memorable. B-
Grade: B- with the Balogh and the Walsh being the favourites. Although nothing really stands out this is the kind of anthology I save for a rainy day, a comfort read.
May 5, 2020
The copy of the book i had only contained 1 story, Mary Balogh’s “The susbtitute Guest”
Its a short novella, has many tropes refined in her other books. As a Mary Balogh its merely a 3.5 but since she is a wonderful romance writer, its a 4* for the genre.
As the title explains, the heroine, a prim and proper spinster is merely invited to the house party of her neighbor to make up numbers as there has been a last minute cancellation.
The neighbor is a wealthy widow with a fast reputation, known for giving wild parties. The heroine, already about to send a refusal, gets annoyed when the vicar and her sister in law presume to tell her what to do. In her pique, she sends instead an acceptance.
Of course it is a wild house party, and one of the guests is he Hero. He, as well as everyone else there, has a bad reputation and knows exactly what to expect. The hostess plans to keep the Duke to herself so she contrives a game where the gentlemen pick their partners, and she clues in the duke so he can pick her card. She also tells him which one is the heroine (spinster) card, so he can stay away from it. However the Duke picks the heroine’s card.
They spend the few days together. The duke, tries somewhat to protect the heroine when she finally realizes just what kind of party she has landed herself in. They get to know each other and the Hero feels a lot of respect and liking for the heroine.
Suffice it to say they fall in love within the 3 days they are together during the house party, and they get their HEA in the end.
Its a short novella, has many tropes refined in her other books. As a Mary Balogh its merely a 3.5 but since she is a wonderful romance writer, its a 4* for the genre.
As the title explains, the heroine, a prim and proper spinster is merely invited to the house party of her neighbor to make up numbers as there has been a last minute cancellation.
The neighbor is a wealthy widow with a fast reputation, known for giving wild parties. The heroine, already about to send a refusal, gets annoyed when the vicar and her sister in law presume to tell her what to do. In her pique, she sends instead an acceptance.
Of course it is a wild house party, and one of the guests is he Hero. He, as well as everyone else there, has a bad reputation and knows exactly what to expect. The hostess plans to keep the Duke to herself so she contrives a game where the gentlemen pick their partners, and she clues in the duke so he can pick her card. She also tells him which one is the heroine (spinster) card, so he can stay away from it. However the Duke picks the heroine’s card.
They spend the few days together. The duke, tries somewhat to protect the heroine when she finally realizes just what kind of party she has landed herself in. They get to know each other and the Hero feels a lot of respect and liking for the heroine.
Suffice it to say they fall in love within the 3 days they are together during the house party, and they get their HEA in the end.
February 1, 2010
The 4 stars are just for Mary Balogh's delicious story.
September 25, 2020
Collections of short stories by various authors are an opportunity to try new authors. I've read some stories by Sheila Walsh and Sandra Heath while having read many short and long stories by Mary Balogh. Fortunately, authors have figured out that meeting-and-marrying a person within the confines of a short story isn't very realistic. Only one author used this tactic, but the man was going to marry someone he already knew earlier and changed his mind. It turned out well in spite of the short relationship (THE LONDON SWELL). Overall score: 4.5 stars
THE SUBSTITUTE GUEST (Mary Balogh) -- 5 stars
Widowed Lady Florence Carver is disappointed when one of her female guests has to beg off (due to illness) for an adult Valentine's house party starting the next day. Reluctantly, she chooses Claire Ward, a prude and a spinster of the neighborhood to balance the numbers. The Duke of Langford is one of the guests (and probably the person Florence wanted to partner with). However, Gerard (the duke) chooses Claire, much to Florence's irritation. A delightfully romantic story ensues; I will be rereading this one again and again.
ST. VALENTINE'S EVE (Margaret Westhaven) -- 4 stars
Rosamund left England for India (to participate in the Marriage Mart there). But the night before she left, she gave herself to her love, John Fairburn. Now, 10 years later, Rosamund is a widow with a 4-year-old son, still living in India. She meets British officer John Fairburn again and feelings are stirred up, but Rosamund suddenly considers moving back to England.
THE LONDON SWELL (Carol Proctor) -- 4 stars
Charles Fitzhugh, Viscount Hunsdon, laments he has to go to so much trouble to get married. On his way to see his lady-love (Mariabella, a stunning beauty, surrounded by heaps of suitors), Fitzhugh almost runs over (on his horse) Lady Barbara DeNeresford, a rare baroness (a baron title was usually only passed down the male line but this is an ancient family that predates that policy). She happens to be penniless.
DEAR DELIGHT (Sheila Walsh) -- 5 stars
Charlotte Wynford had a chance at marriage years ago. When Luke Valentine (a British officer) asked Charlotte's father for permission to marry her, he refused and said that Charlotte was going to marry another. Now, it is several years later and Charlotte has a small cottage and often goes to her sister's house to help out (Annis is a feather-brain). This is going to be a party for her twin nieces (17th) and Charlotte is organizing everything, as usual. However, Colonel Luke Valentine arrives with her brother-in-law's younger brother and things turn interesting.
FEBRUARY FALSEHOODS (Sandra Heath) -- 3 stars
Marianne broke off her engagement to Piers Sutherland (the love of her life), two years ago after she found out that he had a mistress. Now, she has a proposal from a family friend when Piers reappears in England. This story is rather ridiculous.
THE SUBSTITUTE GUEST (Mary Balogh) -- 5 stars
Widowed Lady Florence Carver is disappointed when one of her female guests has to beg off (due to illness) for an adult Valentine's house party starting the next day. Reluctantly, she chooses Claire Ward, a prude and a spinster of the neighborhood to balance the numbers. The Duke of Langford is one of the guests (and probably the person Florence wanted to partner with). However, Gerard (the duke) chooses Claire, much to Florence's irritation. A delightfully romantic story ensues; I will be rereading this one again and again.
ST. VALENTINE'S EVE (Margaret Westhaven) -- 4 stars
Rosamund left England for India (to participate in the Marriage Mart there). But the night before she left, she gave herself to her love, John Fairburn. Now, 10 years later, Rosamund is a widow with a 4-year-old son, still living in India. She meets British officer John Fairburn again and feelings are stirred up, but Rosamund suddenly considers moving back to England.
THE LONDON SWELL (Carol Proctor) -- 4 stars
Charles Fitzhugh, Viscount Hunsdon, laments he has to go to so much trouble to get married. On his way to see his lady-love (Mariabella, a stunning beauty, surrounded by heaps of suitors), Fitzhugh almost runs over (on his horse) Lady Barbara DeNeresford, a rare baroness (a baron title was usually only passed down the male line but this is an ancient family that predates that policy). She happens to be penniless.
DEAR DELIGHT (Sheila Walsh) -- 5 stars
Charlotte Wynford had a chance at marriage years ago. When Luke Valentine (a British officer) asked Charlotte's father for permission to marry her, he refused and said that Charlotte was going to marry another. Now, it is several years later and Charlotte has a small cottage and often goes to her sister's house to help out (Annis is a feather-brain). This is going to be a party for her twin nieces (17th) and Charlotte is organizing everything, as usual. However, Colonel Luke Valentine arrives with her brother-in-law's younger brother and things turn interesting.
FEBRUARY FALSEHOODS (Sandra Heath) -- 3 stars
Marianne broke off her engagement to Piers Sutherland (the love of her life), two years ago after she found out that he had a mistress. Now, she has a proposal from a family friend when Piers reappears in England. This story is rather ridiculous.
June 11, 2019
The 5 star rating applies to the only story from this book that I like to revisit and read again - Mary Balogh's The Substitute Guest. A spinster receives a last-minute invitation from a hostess with a dubious reputation to a Valentine's house party. Rebelling against the appalled reactions of her sister-in-law and the local vicar, she accepts. Against all odds, she finds love with a nobleman who finds that he does still have a trace of honor in him.
Mary Balogh is a true master of the short love story.
Mary Balogh is a true master of the short love story.
February 18, 2019
My favorite stories in this collection of Regency romances is: "The London Swell," by Carol Proctor, and "The Substitute Guest."
reprint
April 12, 2020read/own Balogh The substitute Guest rereleased in ebook A Day for Love
February 16, 2022
I just read The Substitute Guest by Mary Balogh. Loved it
April 3, 2020
Balogh - "The Substitute Guest"
June 4, 2014
The Substitute Guest by Mary Balough ~ 3.5 stars
Saint Valentine's Eve by Margaret Westhaven ~ 2 stars
The London Swell by Carol Proctor ~ 4 stars
Dear Delight by Sheila Walsh ~ 2 stars
February Falsehoods by Sandra Heath ~ 2.5 stars
Saint Valentine's Eve by Margaret Westhaven ~ 2 stars
The London Swell by Carol Proctor ~ 4 stars
Dear Delight by Sheila Walsh ~ 2 stars
February Falsehoods by Sandra Heath ~ 2.5 stars
November 9, 2009
Two were really good, one was good, and two were just OK.
February 16, 2012
I read this for Valentine's Day, which is the theme of the book, and was not disappointed. Five short stories that were quite nice.
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