Series: The Survivors' Club #3
Author: Mary Balogh
Published July 1st 2014 by Piatkus
Goodreads Synopsis
In this poignant novel of longing and salvation, a hopeful widow and a resilient war hero discover the promise of love's magic and new beginnings.
After surviving the Napoleonic Wars, Sir Benedict Harper is struggling to move on, his body and spirit in need of a healing touch. Never does Ben imagine that hope will come in the form of a beautiful woman who has seen her own share of suffering. After the lingering death of her husband, Samantha McKay is at the mercy of her oppressive in-laws - until she plots an escape to distant Wales to claim a house she has inherited. Being a gentleman, Ben insists that he escort her on the fateful journey.
Ben wants Samantha as much as she wants him, but he is cautious. What can a wounded soul offer any woman? Samantha is ready to go where fate takes her, to leave behind polite society and even propriety in her desire for this handsome, honorable soldier. But dare she offer her bruised heart as well as her body? The answers to both their questions may be found in an unlikely place: in each other's arms.
Goodreads
Review
In The Escape, the recently widowed Samantha McKay is living in prison. Her in-laws puritanical ways seem to think that a woman in mourning is not allowed to do anything, and even the thought of leaving the house is sinful. Samantha married young, to a military man, who treated her like a servant, and after only four months of marriage, Samantha realised that she had made a mistake. Now seven years later, after spending the last five years at his beck and call, she is free, but her sister-in-law refuses to allow her a second of peace. When she meets the handsome, and aggravating, Sir Benedict Harper, she finds herself wanting more, to dance and run again, but doesn't know how. When her in-laws become even more intense, she seeks Ben's help, hoping he'll be able to spirit her away, to the rundown cottage she inherited from her maternal family in Western Wales. For Ben, he is only concentrating on his war injuries, and recovery, and doesn't want any complications. Especially when Samantha is weary of military men, and those wounded from the Napoleonic Wars after her nursing her late husband. However, he can't leave her suffering, so agrees to escort her to Wales. As they journey together, they realise their friendship soon becomes something more, but will it be enough?
I loved both Samantha and Ben in this book. We briefly met Ben in The Proposal, and his conspicuous absence in The Arrangement helped to foreshadow this story. He was left nearly paralysed after being injured on the peninsula, and it's only through his sheer grit and determination that he is able to walk again using his crutches. Hiding out in County Durham with his elder sister, he doesn't expect any complications, but when he literally lands in front of Samantha, he's lost, as was she. Samantha has had a difficult life, and it's getting worse by the day. She needs to escape, and when she recalls the run down cottage a great aunt left her, she travels there, and finds out the truth about her maternal family. The affection and friendship between Ben and Samantha was wonderful, and I adored the way their romance progressed, from the very start. For the majority of this book, like in the previous one, the rest of the 'Survivors' are absent, and I do wish we saw more of them, but I'm looking forward to learning about the others, starting with Flavian in Only Enchanting.
Dates Read:
October 29-30, 2020
Rating
4 Stars
