Someone to Hold (Westcott, #2)

by Mary Balogh

[stacey_is_sassy]

It was better than I expected...

****4.5 Stars****

I've met Camille and Joel previously, and, to be honest, I wasn't that impressed with them. I started Someone to Hold a little hesitantly. Would my grudge against Camille's immature reaction to Anna influence my enjoyment of this story? Am I going to be faced with Joel's unrequited love for Anna the whole way through? Well, I'm happy to say that these two really grow and mature and by the end, I was completely satisfied with their love story.

I'm becoming a fast fan of Mary Balogh's style of writing. She writes historical romance characters that live up to my high expectations. There's a touch of being true to the time mixed with artistic liberty to help me avoid disappointment. Her scenes are easily visible in my mind and her descriptions of looks, styles and settings are very appealing to me. There is plenty of romance with sigh-worthy moments but the intimate scenes are not OTT or too modern. Someone to Hold was never bogged down or slow-moving.

Again, Rosalyn Landor does an amazing job narrating and I've started imagining her getting into character by wearing period-costumes while recording. Ms Landor is a true artist and I could easily listen to her narrate historical romances for the rest of my day.

I'm glad Someone to Hold exceeded my expectations. Camille's character growth and maturity shined through and I loved that we got to see her in a better light. Joel's character was a little harder to warm up to but that was mostly because... he was still in a sexual relationship with a widower for at least half the story. His intimate scenes are not "seen" and it is a purely sexual relationship. I hated that he was starting to develop feelings for Camille while meeting with her. This is that "true to the time" I mentioned above, so I couldn't really fault him for it. Only a slight hesitation in falling for Joel and he does come good by the end.

I will definitely be going on in the Westcott series.