Someone Perfect
By Mary Balogh
I just finished reading Someone Perfect by Mary Balogh. Balogh is a new author to me. I saw a recommendation for this book on another site. I enjoy historical romances and the trope of enemies to lovers. As luck would have it, Someone Perfect was available to borrow on my local library’s reading app. (Huge shout out to public libraries and the free access to books. With my library card in hand, I try new authors more readily when I know I do not have to spend $7.99 for a book I don’t even know if I will finish.) This book does appear to be part of a family series. Obviously, I had not read any of the prior books, but I had no trouble following this particular plot. There are references to what I assume are the previous works, which probably would have made the reading richer had I known of them, but I did not feel overly impacted by the fact that I did not.
Someone Perfect is the love story between Justin Wiley, the Earl of Brandon, and Lady Estelle Lamarr. Many years ago, Justin’s father banished him from the family home. For years, none of his family knew where he was or what he was doing, and so, rumors abounded. Once his father died, Justin inherited the earldom and removed his father’s second wife and his biological younger half-sister, Maria, from the home and settled them into one of his lesser properties. He did so without seeing or speaking to his stepmother or Maria. The story begins as Maria’s mother recently passed away from a long illness and now, as her only family, Justin must bring her back to the family estate for what sounds like REASONS THAT ONLY MAKE SENSE IN REGENCY TIME PERIODS. Needless to say, Maria is resentful of Justin due to her views of how he callously treated her and her mother, and of course, the mysterious reason he was banished in the first place.
Estelle is Maria’s neighbor and friend. Estelle is a member of an illustrious family herself, and lives with her twin brother, Bertrand, in the country. Estelle and Bertrand, while outwardly sociable and charming, have had their own issues and misunderstandings with their own father, who abandoned them to be raised by their deceased mother’s older sister. After making a few poor impressions on Estelle, Justin asks if Estelle and Bertrand would accompany Maria when she moves in with him, to assist in settling her back into her old surroundings. Included in the house party are various family members that Maria has either never met or seen for years, in an attempt by Justin to make Maria more comfortable in a world without her mother. The plot of the novel revolves around the idea that a person may not be perfect, but that does not preclude the fact that someone could be perfect for you.
I found this novel to be a calm read. There are some weighty topics involved (parental abandonment, a scenario that is basically a sexual assault), but it is not an anxious read. There is the mystery revolving around Justin’s banishment, but the reader will likely quickly guess the reason behind the estrangement. The characters do a lot of talking and thinking, and perhaps think-talking? Inner monologues are proliferate. But, it is all at a nice, leisurely pace. Personally, I have been dealing with stress at work, a pandemic that may or may not be ending, children home from either said pandemic or my city’s inability to prepare for its own predictable bad weather, so people wandering around, thinking things, felt…nice. In the scene where Justin and Estelle first meet, she is resting by a stream with her hair down and her feet in the chilled water. It seemed peaceful, well, before she is almost mauled by Justin’s dog and most faithful companion. (This is not a euphemism, by the way).
Justin, as the hero, is a bit Mr. Darcy-lite, but not in an off putting way. Usually this character depiction annoys me, but this is not a strict copy of an original. (I confidently say this as a grown woman who owns an embarrassing amount of Pride & Prejudice retellings– but perhaps a post for another day?) And when I say lite, I do not mean to trivialize his own traumas; it is not a spoiler to state that Justin’s father banished him from the family under secretive circumstances and was never able to resolve their issues prior to his father’s death.
I did find a few problems with the book. There are MANY side characters. I genuinely found it difficult to keep track of everyone. While I do realize the point of all of these characters was to give insight and background into other characters, or that true family can be either blood relatives or people chosen by us, it was still a lot. I found myself skimming over the fact that the person speaking was actually Aunt Sarah’s brother from her mother’s first marriage, etc. I also found the characters to be pleasant enough, but I am still not exactly sure why these two characters were drawn to each other?
There is one scene of explicit sex scene. I felt it was a slightly off brand for their characters, but it was part of the reason I was reading the book, so I was NOT not going to not read it?
Overall: 3/5
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