Simply Love

Mary Balogh is a classic romance author, and I have been wanting to pick her up more and more. In Simply Love we have a story of two lonely people who need each other. Our heroine, Anne Jewell, teaches at a girls school in the country, and has a nine year old son she has had to raise on her own after being forced years ago. Then the cousin of the father of her son, invites Anne and her son to a house gathering for a month, many are relatives of her son. So she agrees, planning on keeping to herself and letting her son enjoy being with boys his own age. But there she meets the Duke of Bewcastle's steward. Sydnam, is a man who once was a talented artist, but sought out to prove himself. So he went to fight in the war, he came back after being tortured, scarred and damaged. He has built a new life for himself, but he still feels alone until he meets Anne who fills a space inside him that has been empty. Sydnam and Anne form a friendship which slowly turns into something more....can Anne and Sydnam find a future together?I was really overwhelmed in some ways by this story, but not quite in the way that you would expect. Simply Love is a powerfully written story that is beautiful and one of the most poignant stories that I have ever read. There is so much you want for both of these two people. Anne and Sydnam both deserve to find happiness especially when you see how much they have dealt with and overcome. However both of them are pretty stubborn as well. Their friendship is what is the primary focus of the story, I did feel that the actual romance was lacking. That is really the only reason for the lower rating, I was expecting the romance to be more stronger than this story turned out to be. But it was wonderful seeing characters from the Bedweyn series being connected to this story.“Life so often becomes a determined, relentless avoidance of pain - of one's own, of other people's. But sometimes pain has to be acknowledged and even touched so that one can move into it and through it and past it. Or else be destroyed by it.Simply Love is a romance that will inspire and elighten, leave you happy and craving more stories just like this one!! SIMPLY MEMORABLE.

This was just too beautiful. At first, I felt he didn’t have to fall for a broken woman just because he got hurt protecting and fighting for his country and brother. However, I realize we are all broken in our different ways. Life is full of ups and downs and they affect us in different ways.

Thanks for another beautiful story Mary.

Anne and Sydnam are the brokenest of broken people, and I’m so glad that they found each other for their HEA. This was a wonderful read as usual, and it was cool to encounter Sydnam again after reading about him in my first Balogh almost nine months ago.

A beautiful story, very touching and emotional. There were points in the story where I had to stop because I couldn't bear to read more. Some of it was painful but worth in in the end. This was classic Balogh in touching all of the emotions.

Simply Love is the second story in Mary Balogh’s Simply Quartet about the four teachers who work at Miss Martin’s School for Girls in Bath, and it’s the fifth story by her I’ve read overall. All of her books I’ve read to date have been somewhat slow-paced, which I’ve come to recognize as her writing style. However, this one seemed a bit more languid than the rest. I think this is owing in large part to the conflict between the hero and heroine being entirely of an internal nature. There are no villains or external problems for them to overcome, merely them coming to terms with certain painful events in their pasts that tend to keep them apart. I can appreciate this type of storytelling, and as an introvert myself, I can also appreciate introverted characters. But I felt at times, that Sydnam and Anne took their introversion too far, making assumptions about how the other one feels rather than communicating and actually asking. It was at these times that I often became frustrated with them. Quite frankly if nature hadn’t intervened, they never would have gotten married and given each other a chance to share a happy life together. It just didn’t entirely make sense to me that they could develop such a close month-long friendship that even led to one afternoon of love-making (although it wasn’t very good for either of them), and simply part ways without even trying to make a go of it or even writing letters to one another to see what might happen. I know that each of them had a lot of hang-ups, so I tried to be forgiving and understanding, but they did confound me at times with their extremely reserved natures.Anne came from a gently bred but not aristocratic family. When they encountered financial difficulties just as she was starting to think of marriage, she offered to find employment as a governess for a few years to help out. Since it was obvious to me very early in the story, I don’t think I’m giving too much away by saying that she was raped by the son of her employer and found herself pregnant as a result. Ever since her life has been difficult to say the least, as she was basically forced to raise her illegitimate son on her own after being ignored by her family. She’s been estranged from them ever since. The wife of an old friend recommended Anne to Miss Martin's School for Girls and she’s been teaching there ever since and has finally created a comfortable life for herself and her son. Then those same friends invite her and young David to accompany them on a summer trip to a family-owned estate Wales. There Anne meets the estate steward and strikes up an unexpected friendship with him. The two spend a lot of time going on long walks and simply enjoying each other’s company until the month-long holiday is up, and Anne returns to her job in Bath.Anne is a wonderful mother who loves her son more than life itself. Despite the circumstances of his birth, she’s completely devoted to him. Although she’s found a new family in her fellow school teachers and she doesn’t come off as too tortured, she definitely still harbors some bitterness toward her parents and siblings, which is understandable given that they all but abandoned her after she told them what happened to her. While she doesn’t dwell on the rape either, she still has some issues with intimacy as well. She may not have gotten off on the right foot with Sydnam, running away from him at first sight of his disfigurement, but I loved that she eventually came to a place where she could completely overlook the scars and appreciate the wonderful man inside that made him beautiful outside as well. Anne was a strong woman who’d admirably made it through a lot of difficulties in life that might have destroyed a lesser person. I just wish that she’d been a little more forthcoming with her feelings for Sydnam, rather than bottling them up inside and nearly missing out on the best thing that had ever happened to her.In his youth, Sydnam was a talented and sensitive painter, but needing to prove his mettle, he followed his brother into the military and went to fight in the Napoleonic War. There he was captured and tortured for information before his brother finally found and freed him. But by then the damage had already been done. He lost an arm and an eye and has disfiguring burn scars on the right side of his face and body, and he still occasionally suffers from severe nightmares. Sydnam spent months recovering from his injuries and it took a supreme force of will for him to get back to the land of the living. But he’s since made a new life for himself as the steward of Glandwr in Wales. As the younger son of an earl, he’s wealthy in his own right, but he needed to work to feel useful again. When Anne comes to visit, he’s smitten by her beauty but disappointed when she runs away from him. His life on the estate has been fairly reclusive, but as steward, he has to deal with people and has also had to get used to many of them looking at him with disgust, although it still hurts on some level. The friendship he eventually forms with Anne is a surprise and a welcome respite from his loneliness, but when she chooses to go back home to Bath, he lets her go, thinking that perhaps she won’t want a life with a man who isn’t whole anymore.I liked Sydnam. He’s a sweet, kind man, who’s definitely a beta hero. I love me a good beta hero, but much like with Anne I felt he was too reserved with his feelings. When he simply allows her to leave without even trying to talk her out of it, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated. I did appreciate him for being very responsible. I also liked that he gently prodded her to reconcile with her family and helped her through that ordeal, as well as gave her a welcome place within his own family. Sydnam didn’t just lose body parts and his handsome good looks in the war, but also his ability to paint, which in many ways, has been the harder pill for him to swallow. He tends to avoid painting as a result, but Anne’s son, David’s artistic talent and a bit of prodding from Anne gradually coaxes him back into the art world as well, which was good to see.I didn’t discover until after reading the first book of the Simply Quartet that the series is basically a spin-off of the Bedwyn Saga. I’m pretty sure that Sydnam was previously introduced in those books, as he’s great friends with all the Bedwyns. Whether or not Anne was previously introduced is a little more unclear, although she is also great friends with Joshua who is a cousin to David and who also ended up paired with Freyja Bedwyn in Slightly Scandalous. After making my discovery about the series, I had initially said I’d go back and read the Bedwyn books first before continuing with the Simply books, but feeling rather daunted by the prospect of reading eight books (including the prequels), I changed my mind and decided to press on. While it might have been nice to have previously known all the supporting characters in this story, it didn’t end up being much of a detractor, as I didn’t feel like I got any spoilers, nor did I find myself in any way lost. But the entire Bedwyn clan, along with their spouses and children, put in appearances during the month-long holiday. They’re quite the fun and happy bunch, and I couldn’t help but enjoy their attempts at matchmaking. Later in the story we get to meet Sydnam’s family. His brother’s story was told in A Summer to Remember, one of the Bedwyn Prequels. Then there are the other two teachers from Anne’s school, Susanna (Simply Magic) and Claudia (Simply Perfect), who are the best of friends to Anne. And there was a brief visit with Francis and Lucius (Simply Unforgettable), showing that Francis is enjoying her fame as a singer and the couple are still deeply happy. Anne’s son, David, was a great character, too, always eager to make friends and play with the other children no matter whether they were the same age or younger, but at the same time, he can behave sullenly like any child which made him more realistic.Overall, I enjoyed Simply Love for its story of two broken people who find unexpected love and healing from their past hurts with each other. In many ways, Anne and Sydnam were perfectly suited to one another, if for no other reason than that they were able to understand what the other had been through on some level because of their own experiences. However, I still felt like the balance of their relationship was off. Normally when one character is reserved, the other is more outgoing to even things out. Having them both be so reticent and uncommunicative made me feel like they were a little too much alike and that there was something missing between them. It rather muted the actual romance because they spend so much time in their own heads. That said, though, I admired both Anne and Sydnam for taking the lemons that life had handed them and doing their best to make lemonade, and I think that is what kept me reading and generally liking their story. They were two strong characters who simply wouldn’t give up on life. I just wish they’d been more reluctant to give up on each other as well, because as is, it takes a very long time and a push from circumstances beyond their control for them to finally see that they’re perfect for one another. So Simply Love ended up being a good read for me, just not quite as good as some of Ms. Balogh’s others that I’ve read so far. But I do look forward to continuing the series to see what the future holds for the bright, sunny Susanna, as well as what kind of man it takes to loosen up the rather stiff Claudia.

Anne and Sydnam both carry wounds and scars but it is only as they reach out to help each other that they begin to heal and embrace what life holds for them. I enjoyed the connections with the Bedwyn family.

As a huge fan of Mary Balogh, I was greatly disappointed with this book. It was simply boring. I have read her Slightly series of the Bedwyn family and enjoyed them. If readers haven't read the Slightly series before picking up this book, I would think it would be highly confusing for them with the appearance of the entire Bedwyn clan and their children. This book really was just a Bedwyn family reunion with a boring and lackluster romance thrown in. This book claimed to be about love, healing, and forgiveness; however, I didn't like how the author handled the heroine's situation with her family. Their explanation for the deplorable treatment of her and paltry show of remorse just didn't sit well with me. I understand that she needed to forgive them so she could let go of the pain of the past and move on with her life; however, to welcome them with open arms after a few words of "I'm sorry" was not believable, unless she was headed for sainthood.

The two main characters in this story are quite broken. Anne Jewell is a teacher with a child out of wedlock. The father of her child was not her love and died before they could marry. Syndam Butler is a man of contrasts, on one side he's very handsome but on the other he's a mass of scars and damage and the damage is mental too. When the two of them come together a friendship builds and they are very attracted, however can either or both of them overcome the issues and problems.While this wasn't a bad example of the genre, and was a good take on the Beauty and the Beast theme, there was nothing surprising here, it even had moments where I wondered if I had read it all before.

The overall complaint I have about SL is that it lacks emotion. Both the H/H seemed so sedate and calm all the time. There was nothing wrong with the story. I just never really cared for either one of the main characters. Both of them were damaged in some way (he with his disfiguring scars, she with her rape and rejection by her family) and I usually enjoy stories about the healing power of love. But for some reason this story didn't work for me. I keep seeing reviews and readers rave about how emotional it was. I just didn't feel it. AAR loved it. Readers in the AAR annual poll loved it. But I was just.... blah. Characters from the Bedwyn Series make an appearance but I couldn't drum up the energy to care. I think I'll go back and reread A Summer to Remember. Loved that one. (Grade: C)

Anne Jewell, a favorite teacher at Miss Martin's School for Girls, is forced to confront the tragedies of the past in order to build a new life for herself and her son after she meets Sydnam Butler, a quiet and gentle hero of the Peninsular Wars.This 2nd installment in Balogh's Simply series is a beautiful, but slightly untraditional romance. Balogh at her best.

A beautiful story of two imperfect people, creating a perfect couple, helping each other find the happiness that was always out of reach.

This book is spectacular. I know that's a strange word to use for a book, but I can't help it. This book blew me away. Sydnam is the perfect hero - tortured, lonely and yet indescribably gentle, and put against Anne - who is equally damaged, their two hearts are constantly misunderstanding the other in the most tragic of ways. And yet, on a deeper level, there is understanding, and a need for each other that transcends the surface discomfort. This book is one of the most poignant books I have read in ages. It clenched at my heart and I found myself completely unable to put it down. Brava! I do not give five stars easily - I believe there are three in over one hundred books - but this deserves all five and then some.

Very moving book on the healing power of love for two "damaged" people in the eyes of society.

2nd in series at Miss Martin's school from girls this one has reference to Bedwyn family