From Mary Balogh's web site:
Susanna Osbourne, a young teacher at Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath and at one time a charity pupil there, has gone to stay for a few weeks of the summer holiday at the home of her married friend, Frances, Countess of Edgecombe (Simply Unforgettable). There she meets the handsome, charming Viscount Whitleaf, who flirts with her and leads her to believe that he is a shallow young man. But her main objection to him is that she recognizes him as someone she knew as a child--and the memories are ones she has spent all the years since then repressing. A friendship grows between them nevertheless, but although by the end of the summer friendship has blossomed into something more, Susanna is as relieved as she is broken-hearted to return alone to school for the autumn term. She is fated to meet the viscount again soon, though, and this time there is almost no alternative for either of them but to face a past that can either destroy them both or bring them healing and understanding and forgiveness--and a lifelong love.
It's a lovely story, most subtle and builds more slowly than some romances, but still filled with great characters who have to find a way to break through their reserve and troubled past to let love in. A delightful story, and definitely worth reading!
Susanna Osbourne, a young teacher at Miss Martin's School for Girls in Bath and at one time a charity pupil there, has gone to stay for a few weeks of the summer holiday at the home of her married friend, Frances, Countess of Edgecombe (Simply Unforgettable). There she meets the handsome, charming Viscount Whitleaf, who flirts with her and leads her to believe that he is a shallow young man. But her main objection to him is that she recognizes him as someone she knew as a child--and the memories are ones she has spent all the years since then repressing. A friendship grows between them nevertheless, but although by the end of the summer friendship has blossomed into something more, Susanna is as relieved as she is broken-hearted to return alone to school for the autumn term. She is fated to meet the viscount again soon, though, and this time there is almost no alternative for either of them but to face a past that can either destroy them both or bring them healing and understanding and forgiveness--and a lifelong love.
It's a lovely story, most subtle and builds more slowly than some romances, but still filled with great characters who have to find a way to break through their reserve and troubled past to let love in. A delightful story, and definitely worth reading!
