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Love Conquers All--Even the tough Miss Martin

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Claudia Martin is the tough, no-nonsense owner and head-mistress of Miss Martin's School for Girls. She started it after becoming fed up with Freya Bedwyn and her older brother--and she's had a great antipathy for Dukes (and the aristocracy as a whole) ever since. So... when the Marquess of Attingsborough arrives one day with an offer to escort her and two students to their mutual friend's house on a visit, he meets with a very chilly reception. Miss Martin is the most confirmed spinster... confident of her place in the world, unashamed of who she is... at least she shows that to the world. But underneath, she's as much a woman as any other and Attingsborough begins to know it. However, they really are from different worlds and both are old enough and wise enough to know it, even if their hearts disagree. Often, getting two such disparate people together can be too much of a stretch, but of course it becomes more obvious as we read that this pair should make a match. Balough knows well how to craft a romance and make even the improbable seem right. Claudia Martin looked to be a very tough nut to crack when it comes to romance, but naturally love conquers all, even the toughest head-mistress who is totally dedicated to her work.

Let down to a fine series

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If you have read all the other "Slightly" and "Simply" series, then you will want to read the lastest from Mary Balogh to discover what happens to Ms Claudia Martin, 35 year old spinster who is headmistress of Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath. Mary Balogh is masterful in her characterizations and I have been intrigued by Ms Martin since her first appearance and thus, for certain reasons (no spoilers) I was disappointed that Ms Martin's story wasn't as powerful as I had been anticipating. Perhaps as some other reviewers have mentioned before me, the roll call of previous characters was a distraction that sucked air out of what could have been some powerful moments. In any case, I was a little bored with Claudia and Joseph, the Marquess of Attingsborough, and my attention began to wander ... I became fascinated by Miss Portia Hunt, Joseph's fiance, who was NOT fleshed out. A great beauty, she was universally dislikeable with no redeeming qualities and I became curious why Mary Balogh was treating her so badly, not once but twice (Portia was also the unlikable fiance in a previous story) then I began see the hooks for Ms Hunt's back story and gaps for a parallel plot. Portia was acceptable to Joseph when he was told of his father's arrangement. He had befriended Portia previously and was sympathetic towards her. Can we imagine that she had liked Joseph too, because he was safe? That changed when the engagement was forced on her (just as it was on Joseph), and she then began to behave as obnoxiously as she dared 1st, to try and put him off from actually offering. Then 2nd, when he was such a dunderhead that he offered anyway, wasn't she deliberately provoking him in public on several occasions, perhaps hoping he would treat her with public rudeness, thus giving her an excuse to break it off with him? And she certainly didn't seem to mind Joseph being paired off with Claudia any time they were all in company together (Fauxhall, etc.) Wilma kept giving warnings to her brother that went unheeded. So what happened all those times when Charles (Duke McLeigh) was paired off with Portia? What happened that afternoon that Portia and Charles spent together? And wasn't the final break with Joseph (no spoilers) absolutely strange? Didn't anyone wonder why Portia Hunt was acting so completely and totally out of character? What happened afterwards? And what in the world was going on with Charles' strange courtship of Claudia? What was the point of that? Claudia concluded that he was morally weak. He certainly seemed so. I'm having a harder time filling in the back story for him. Could something really nasty and bad have happened that caused him to write so rudely and callously to Claudia all those years previously? He never did answer her question about extramarital children. Maybe he didn't have any. Claudia had already proven to us that her judgement of people (think Freyja) was not infalliable, so maybe Charlie wasn't such a shallow fellow. As you see, I couldn't keep my attention on the main story concerning Claudia and Joseph; I was too busy writing Portia & Charlie's story in my imagination. I hope Mary Balogh has something in the works concerning them to tell me just what in the world was going on.

A great conclusion to the series

Customer Rating:

I thought this book was a great conclusion to the SIMPLY series. Since Claudia was a minor character in the stories of her fellow schoolteachers, I was glad that Mary Balogh added her story and provided closure for all. Like other reviewers here, I would definitely not recommend reading this one until and unless you have read the previous ones in the series. Perhaps it's not necessary to read all of them - both the SIMPLY and SLIGHTLY (the Bedwyn books) - although I have and liked them all. However, a reader should at least read Wulf and Christine's story (Slightly Dangerous) to get a feel for their entire family. Reviewer Kay Kaiser also drew a parallel between Wulf and Claudia, which was a good insight, but I'd note that Balogh did NOT write the same story for each (as some writers do) and created very different matches for them. (Hurrah for Balogh!) I read this book at one sitting and really enjoyed being immersed in the lives of this group of people, as well as the marvelous set pieces (like the picnic). One weakness is that the ending took far too many pages to spin out; it was almost as if Balogh felt she had to hit a certain number of pages to complete the book. p.s. I liked the fact that Christine's sister Eleanor has changed her life and found something worthwhile to do. She was too good a character in SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS to be left on the shelf. Perhaps there will be a follow up on her......

Simply Outstanding!!

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If you enjoy romantic historicals, you can't go wrong here. Just happen to be looking for another historical and another author, I picked up several of Mary Balogh's. I will not synopsize any of the books, it's been done and done well. Ms. Balogh, your writing and story telling ability is simply wonderful! I also enjoyed reading about the lives of your people from other books. I always wondered when I'm done with a series of what happened to so and so. Rarely are you able to find out. You have another fan. I'll be looking forward (I hope) to hearing of the lives involved in this series, i.e., will Lizzie grow up as I hope and Davey be a great artist in his own right? I am hopeful you read these reviews and I will continue to search out your books. Thank you.

Good, but with a few too many flashbacks...

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I have not read all of the "Simply" series, and after reading Claudia's story, I found I don't have to. As a few other reviewers have mentioned, all the former teachers as well as the Bedwyns, not to mention Ravensburg and Lauren (the gang's all here!) make appearances in this novel, and as each makes their appearance, there is a recap of their background. Flying off on these tangents took away from the main storyline, and when the focus would be returned to Claudia, it was like shifting gears and someone holding up a little sign that said, "And now back to our story". I found Claudia's story entertaining enough, but entire portions of this novel could have been cut and not be missed at all (just how many scenes of Portia being snotty and condescending do we need? I was getting more than a little tired of Claudia's childhood friend/love as well ). I enjoyed this book, but will deduct a star from the rating for all the filler. All the recaps (and there are a LOT of them) do not add to this story. From time to time it was like watching a TV show that was having a flashback episode. I would have "5 Star" enjoyed it if it had stuck to Claudia and Joseph's story.