Review: Tempting Harriet

Tempting Harriet by Mary Balogh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Six years ago Harriet Pope was a penniless nobody, companion to a lady, when Lord Archibald Vinney caught her eye; unfortunately all he offered her was a position as his mistress, which she declined. Now she is the widowed Lady Harriet Wingham and quite, quite wealthy after her older husband died of a heart condition. After living quietly in Bath both before, during and after her marriage, Lady Wingham has been persuaded to come to London for the season, and perhaps find a new father for her daughter Susan.

Six years ago the Duke of Tenby, formerly Lord Archibald 'Archie' Vinney propositioned a beautiful young woman, he had intended to return and offer her marriage when his grandfather's death called him back home. Although he would never admit it, he has never forgotten Harriet and now, as his family expects him to marry and produce an heir within the year, he thinks of her more often.

Harriet and Archie meet totally unexpectedly at a ball and both are struck anew by the same feelings. But even as a Lady, Harriet is still beneath Archie's station and his family, particularly his strict grandmother, would never countenance such a match. Following their meeting, each re-examines their feelings and choices six years ago, Archie decides that he hasn't been in 'lust' for six years, he has been in love and the reason he hasn't proposed marriage in all that time is because no-one compares to Harriet. This time he is going to do what he should have done six years ago and propose marriage. Harriet had a good, loving, kind marriage to Godfrey and she feels great affection for him, but he never made her feel the way Archie does and she decides that as a widow she has certain freedoms that a young unmarried woman does not, if Archie asks again she will agree to becoming his mistress.

What follows is a comedy of errors as Archie and Harriet embark on a clandestine affair which neither of them really wants whilst Harriet is courted by any number of eligible suitors and Archie is boxed into proposing for an eligible young woman by his grandmother. Only the influence of a meddling octogenarian could possibly help these tow ninnies.

This was originally published in 1994 and has been skilfully (I think) brought up to date, there is one sticky point with an issue of consent, I have no idea how the original went (it may have been exactly the same) but I got the feeling that there had been some fairly clever tap dancing done to retain the scene but make it millennial-appropriate. I've just read some older reviews and I'm none the wiser!

Anyway, it was okay, I enjoyed watching the two of them entering into a relationship they don't really want and then dealing with their disappointment/ feelings when they get exactly what they allegedly wanted.

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