The Arrangement

The Arrangement (#339) by prolific Regency romance author Mary Balogh, is the second in her series The Survivor's Club, recounting the tales of each of the seven members of a group of physically and psychologically damaged survivors of the Peninsular War.  The Proposal, the first book in that series, a decided disappointment, was all about the steamy sex with very little story.  (See my post of 8/11/12.)  I decided to give The Arrangement a second chance by entering a GoodReads giveaway.  I think Ms. Balogh succeeds better in this offering, placing the emphasis more on the story rather than the sex.

In this case, the story is about Vincent, Viscount Darleigh, blond, beautiful and blind.  His mother, grandmother and sisters have taken over his life and the estate he unexpectedly inherited four years prior.  His problem is that they are all inclined to be too helpful; they've even gone to the trouble of selecting a suitable bride for him without his knowledge or consent.  So what does he do?  He runs away, of course, with his faithful valet and friend Martin Fisk.  He winds up back in his childhood home in Barton Coombs where he intends to hide out.  When his rich neighbors try to maneuver him into a match with their daughter, their plans are foiled by their poor, nearly invisible orphaned niece.  When they turn Sophia out in the middle of the night, you can see exactly where this story will end.

Again, I'll say that I would have enjoyed this book more had the author "drawn a curtain discretely" over the couple's intimate relations rather than spelling everything out in graphic detail.  Ah, well, if you're like me, you can just skip over those pages and you won't miss a thing!  Georgette Heyer, I'll wager, will still be read a hundred years from now with the same delicious relish as her audiences did when she was originally published.  And she didn't have to write a single sex scene to make a much greater impact than Mary Balogh will ever do. 

And now for my other personal hobby horse: the cover art!  If I hadn't won this book, I never, ever would have picked it up because of the cover.  The half dressed male model on the cover is supposed to appeal to panting female readers, but frankly it has just the opposite effect on me.  I don't even want to touch the book.  In this case, it's a double cover with a scantily clad female model draped over the guy on the inside cover.  Can anyone spell "bodice ripper"?  What is really insulting is that the illustrators didn't even bother to glance at the contents of the book, not even casually, because neither model bears even the faintest relationship to the descriptions of The Arrangement's hero and heroine.  Those who want a "bodice ripper" will be sadly disappointed by the lack of sex, yet those of us who like a romance to leave most of the details to the imagination, will be served up a little too much flesh.  Ah, marketing....