Review--Only Enchanting

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Only Enchanting (The Survivors' Club, #4)Only Enchanting by Mary Balogh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The best, so far, of The Survivors' Club series by Balogh. She's always top-notch, but sometimes her books are truly a cut above. In Only Enchanting, the story of Flavian evolves slowly and carefully, with small clues along the way like marker stones along a path.

Unlike some of the other Club members, Flavian's wounds aren't on the surface. Handsome, sophisticated, his war injuries only become obvious when he opens his mouth and his noticeable stammer emerges, a speech impediment brought about by head injuries and PTSD trauma.

Flavian doesn't understand his attraction to the quiet, unassuming widow Agnes Keeping, but she can't help but fall-head-over-heels in love with him, something she thought would never happen, and it scares her to her core.

There was a point where Ms. Balogh almost lost me, where a character was about to do something that would move the story into Stupid Plot Device territory, but this is what makes the author so talented: she took the reader to the brink, but didn't step over the edge. Reading a Balogh is like taking a master class in how thoughtful romance should be written, and I recommend her books to all those readers who are not yet part of her legion of hardcore fans.


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