Slightly Tempted - Mary Balogh (Bedwyn Saga #4)

Finally, I found the book I was waiting for in this series.  After three disappointing volumes, fully half the series, I was almost ready to give up, but I wanted to read the book focusing on Morgan Bedwyn, because she had seemed like such an interesting character, different from the rest of Bedwyns.  I'm glad I stuck it out, because I really enjoyed this one.  Just like Morgan, this was different.

The beginning of the book finds Morgan in Brussels with the family of a friend, swept up in the social scene surrounding the buildup of armies in the wake of Napoleon's escape from Elba and return for the Hundred Days.  She's being courted by her friend's brother, something she inadvertently encouraged but wants to get out of.  She catches the attention of the Earl of Rosthorn, Gervase, both because of her looks and youth and because she's the Duke of Bewcastle's youngest sister--and Rosthorn and Bewcastle have beef that goes back nine years.  Wanting to start a scandal (really, this should have been titled Slightly Scandalous instead of Freyja's volume) to hurt Bewcastle, Rosthorn starts to court Morgan with the intention of dropping her like a hot potato after gossip starts circulating, but the encroaching war gets in the way and the two find themselves suddenly and truly close.

This is an age-gap romance (Rosthorn is twelve years older than Morgan) which is a bit strange, because Balogh really hammers that gap home, but I'm a bit more forgiving of that in the historical romance context, and I think the book makes up for it in so many ways.  The setting of Brussels in the shadow of the looming and then present war lent the first half of the book an atmosphere that the other books had so far lacked and gave the blooming relationship between Morgan and Rosthorn a snap and sizzle that was absent with the other couples.  And when the deception at the heart of the relationship is revealed, Morgan doesn't just crumple or throw a fit--she vows to get her own form of revenge, and despite her doubts forges ahead and ultimately manages to redeem the relationship.  The one thing that I didn't like here was how Rosthorn uses humor as a shield; while this is totally a thing, I felt like it's already been overused in this series, and therefore didn't do a good job distinguishing Rosthorn from the previous hero, Joshua.

Ultimately, this was such a great book in contrast to the preceding ones, and it's encouraged me to continue on with the series; there's only one more book before the other one I was looking forward to, Bewcastle's, and I'm interesting in seeing how they're going to deal with Alleyne coming "back from the dead," which is totally not a spoiler because clearly Alleyne is alive, he's the next book!

4 stars out of 5.