Romantic Fiction, Reality Shaping and The Work

[Mikkael]

Yes, super books, right? If you want to stay a little longer in that time period, I would recommend A Splendid Defiance, which is set at the same time when Kate is at Thorne Ash doing her creative accounting with the ledgers so the Cavalier garrison, stationed at nearby Banbury Castle and the focus of the book, isn't too pleased with her. A great read also!

Thank you for the recommendation Laurs! I had read so far and mostly books from Mary Balogh, in whose I got used to a certain frame of story, which often offered really great insights into personal struggles for inner freedom and much more. With Mrs. Riley books it has expanded into history and doubtless she is as skilled writer as MB so I'm curious how deep she can go. There is novelty in her writing and following her long tales while the tension is growing until unfolding is at hand, is very satisfying. I'm intrigued what else she has in store and I reckon soon I'll be joining night owls yet for another adventure.

 

[Breo]

I am late to this Romance Novels project and am really grateful for participating now. It is such an emotional nourishment. I started with Mary Balogh´s Survivors Club Series and have read the first two books, 'The Proposal' and 'The Arrangement'. In 'The Arrangement', I started to wonder and pause and process more and more. Sophie, the main female character, "the mouse" with a lion´s heart, through her braveness, towards the end triggered some intense moments of releasing tears and heartpain - along with a deep joy for this release. It´s healing to encounter (in these fist two books) Mary Balogh´s emotionally intelligent survivor characters, that keep loving and really love each other. And it´s also healing to learn the emotional richness that these characters are capable of.

 

[Breo]

For anyone looking for a list which books of Mary Balogh are from which series, there is this list on her homepage (2024):

 

[Mari]

I started with Mary Balogh´s Survivors Club Series and have read the first two books

Great to see more people joining in!

I wrote before:

I would suggest Bedwyn then Survivors because she pick a character in Badwin to finish in Survivors.
So „the right“ order would be:
Bedwyn prequel (2 books), then Bedwyn saga, then Simply quartet.
Then Survivors.

But you can easily go back.

I’m in the process of rereading all of them, all the way from the Bedwyn prequels , and I‘m currently on the first of the Survivors book.

I see now how much I missed from the first time when when I started reading the novels (in general); I was then too involved in the story.

I now train myself not to get angry or nervous and to simply put myself in their shoes and to live their lives, and to figure and understand why they made certain decisions.

It makes then my own issues swim to the front, and I realize that I have many things in common with some characters, and their stories shed a different light on how to handle my own issues, sometimes even things I didn’t know I carry or things I thought are „not a big deal“ or things I buried a long time ago.