But Balogh always provides her characters with hope and growth.

Even as the heroine, readers still see signs of that selfish, spoilt girl. But I admire Balogh for staying true to Jessica's character as she is protrayed as now being an adult. I'll admit that Jessica is my least favorite character, since her appearance in Someone to Love, and her selfish tantrums concerning Anna. I do not care for novels that claim to be romances, but are mostly mysteries, with romantic scenes thrown in like an afterthought. I prefer this investment in characterization, and Mary Balogh is so talented at showing the humanity of her characters through their integrity and their flaws. Balogh is back to her talented roots, giving readers deep characterization with interesting conflicts pushing the story along. They cannot make the same accusation with Someone to Romance. I read some of the responses to Balogh's novella, Someone to Remember, that insisted that there was too much internal dialogue and not enough plot. When Jessica guesses who Gabriel really is, however, and watches the lengths to which he will go in order to protect those who rely upon him, she is drawn to his cause - and to the man. But when she meets the mysterious Gabriel Thorne, who has returned to England from the New World to claim an equally mysterious inheritance, Jessica considers him completely unsuitable because he had the audacity, when he first met her, to announce his intention to wed her. Jessica considers the many qualified gentlemen who court her. She is, after all, the sister of Avery Archer, duke of Netherby. Though she no longer believes she will find true love, she is still very eligible. Ever practical, however, once she's 25, she decides it's time to wed. Lady Jessica Archer lost her own interest in the glittering excitement of romance after her cousin and dearest friend Abigail Westcott was rejected by the ton when her father was revealed to be a bigamist. Love comes when you least expect it in this captivating new novel in the Wescott Regency romance series from New York Times best-selling author Mary Balogh.

Someone to romance