Pink Heart Reviews
Slightly Wicked
By Mary Balogh
ISBN# 0-440-24105-7
Dell, 2003, 342 pages
Historical Romance, Regency
England
$5.99 (US) $8.99 (CDN)
Reviewed by Erin
July 2004
Judith Law is the daughter of a reverend and a middle child. She is unappreciated and often overlooked in her family. Her wild red hair has always been termed carroty, her voluptuous curves, ugly and lewd. But to her credit she is extremely talented. She is a daydreamer and more importantly and actress of sorts. She’s never performed in front of an audience but she has a knack for making the characters a part of herself and portraying them with a splendid accuracy.
Her father has fallen into financial ruin so he has written her aunt and asked if she would be able to take one of his four daughters in as an unpaid companion in her wealthier household. When the reply comes it is up to Judith to volunteer. After all, the oldest daughter could not go, and the second youngest was too beautiful to send away and the youngest was still the baby of the family. And so her adventure begins. She is on her way to her aunt’s via stagecoach when it slides in the mud and topples over. There’s no village in sight and no one to help.
It is then, Rannulf Bedwyn enters on horseback. He is not handsome by conventional standards but Judith finds him powerfully attractive. He is on his way to his grandmother’s house to answer her summons when he happens upon the broken coach and its passengers. Since he is only one horseman, he offers to ride post haste to the nearest village with perhaps one to accompany him. He chooses Judith. He sees her brilliant colored hair and her fair skin and immediately wants to know her better.
Judith is scandalized at first. Just the thought of going off alone with a strange man is enough to make her face heat. But then she realizes her fate. As the unpaid companion of a wealthy relative she will never find a mate. She will be resigned to spinsterhood for the rest of her days. With this thought in mind she decides to have one adventure before she dies an old maid and so she goes with the attractive stranger. She pretends to be an actress on her way to a new show, knowing actresses are generally loose women. They end up spending the night together. She knows it will be her first and last encounter with a man and so their night together is unbridled and wild with passionate lovemaking, each taking what they need from the other, knowing they’ll never lay eyes on the other again. Surprised and chagrined, they do meet again but under circumstances that are humiliating for Judith and infuriating to Rannulf.
Mary Balogh is a favorite author of mine. Although I have not read everything of hers I really enjoy her graceful writing style. She is the queen of simplicity. She rarely needs added intrigue and suspense to carry her novels. Her love stories stand nicely on thier own. It is this simplicity that really makes her books unique and enjoyable. Mary has a purity to her writing that is exclusive only to her.
SLIGHTLY WICKED is a charming tale, reminiscent of a Cinderella story. I found it engaging and entertaining. I was a little disappointed with the development of the heroine. It was obvious that she was meant to have a staunch backbone but the author chose the very end to display it to its fullest. Throughout the middle of the book she sat idly by while injustices were happening to her and I was forever thinking to myself “Why on earth doesn’t she say something to stop this? Do something!” Perhaps it was the author’s way of attracting the reader to the heroine’s plight but I was more irritated than anything.
Even so, it was a lovely story. Interesting characters and a pleasant love story make this book a decent read. It reintroduced all the characters in the family and didn’t distract from the story as so many series are prone to do. It was a nice way to continue the series and I look forward to reading about the other brother and sisters’ stories. I give this novel 3 and a half out of five hearts.
