Marcel Lamarr has been a notorious womanizer since the death of his wife nearly twenty years earlier. Viola caught his eye when she herself was a young mother, but she evaded his seduction at the time. A prize that eluded him before, she is all the more irresistible to him now although he is surprised to discover that she is as eager now for the excitement he offers as he is himself.
When the two defy convention and run away together, they discover that the ties of respectability are not so easily severed, and pleasure can ensnare you when you least expect it.
Comment: This is the 4th installment in the Westcott series by Mary Balogh, following a family and those related to them, after it was discovered the earl of Riverdale had been married to two women at the same time, making one of his marriages illegal. This is the story of Viola, the wife who really wasn't.
Viola Kingsley is mostly angry at her illegal marriage because of her children who became illegitimate, but she is willing to forget as best as she can, especially as she is attending the christening of her grandson. However, sometimes she feels she needs to run away and suddenly she does so, which places her at an inn and in the presence of Marcel Lamar,a man from her past. There was a time they could have been lovers but Viola refused, for she was married. Now they are both widowed and the spark is still there, which is why Viola impulsively agrees with him in spending sometime together, but the messages she sends to her family never arrive. When their families finally reach them, what else is to be done but marrying? Are they willing to bet on each other after all these years?
I consider myself a fan of this author. I have not read all her books and to be honest I might not, since some don't seem to appeal much to me, but her more recent series have been mostly positive and in general I have loved all the books. Of course, in any lengthy series, some installments are better than others or some appeal more than others to each reader. I have been enjoying this series despite this or that element I'd change and I did like this fourth Westcott book too, but it is true that it didn't charm me as much as others have.
I liked the idea of the series and I like Viola as a character. She existed with the knowledge of her marriage, her social status, her place in society and the fact this was all legally wrong was quite the shock and affected her way of dealing with others. Still, it wasn't her fault even though social stigma isn't something people can fully control, she was still trying to be polite and do what was right. Thankfully, the Westcott family is a loving one and they never stopped caring for her.
I was quite interested, then, in reading about her and what she would do next, which is why the chance of a quick romance with a man from her past seemed interesting, even if it meant acting a little bit out of character. Running away for a while with a man doesn't seem proper behavior but Viola didn't have to answer to anyone, really, and at 40 she is certainly her own person. Marcel, the love interest, seemed a bit hard to read, being described as a seducer but acting aloof... but I trust the author so I was looking for to see how their romance would go from momentarily to an HEA, for surely this would happen.
Well, the overall plot had plenty of misadventures and romcom situations but I confess I struggled to like Marcel and Viola together. I felt their romance was almost staged-looking, and I didn't really see the things that brought them together working out as well as they were meant to. For this contributed the fact they both have a past that affected them emotionally, and while Viola's issues are more public (and the reader has knowledge of it since book #1), Marcel's is more devastating in a way, but also very frustrating to read about, something that ended up being a bit annoying to me.
With this I mean it was annoying to read about the things he went trough and how seemingly unaffected those around him seemed to have been. Considering the terrible things he saw and how much he still suffers because of what he perceived to have happened, his distance from his family feels exaggerated. Surely someone would have helped.. but no, and this means his behavior is directly a result of what he went though. I liked him at the same time I wish he had done things differently.
Thus, we have two people marked by mistakes and wrong ideas about themselves trying to act as if it's not a big deal they are taking a few days for an affair. The romance didn't seem very strong to me, because it seemed most of what they were dealing with was still stuck in the past and the scenes with people in the present felt like a task and not something they truly wanted to live with. I can't explain it but from deciding on a quick affair to everlasting love there wasn't enough obvious progression.
I also struggled with the vibe of this novel. Since the main characters had complicated issues in their past, which still affect them now, to deal with and to process, the mood around them was rather sad. For me this means reading about them wasn't very captivating, even though I understand what led them to the point in their lives. But, unlike most of this author's books I have read - and all have some kind of angsty situation - reading about their path to happiness wasn't heartwarming nor hopeful. Things end in an HEA for them, but I wasn't truly fascinated by them as a couple.
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