Simply Unforgettable by Mary Balogh

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

Mary Balogh’s Simply series, in which the heroines are four teachers working at a select school for young ladies in Bath, was originally recorded in the mid-late 2000s, but has been unavailable for some years and was never – as far as I know – made available digitally. After years of wishing on my part – and that of a number of fellow Balogh/Landor audiobook enthusiasts – these recordings are at last being re-released, and I have to say a big and public “Thank You” to Tantor for making them available once more.

Simply Unforgettable opens as Frances Allard is travelling back to Miss Martin’s School in Bath following the Christmas holiday she has spent with her great aunts. The typically English non-White Christmas is followed by a sudden snowstorm during which her somewhat elderly, lumbering coach is overtaken by a much smarter vehicle carrying a fashionable gentleman whose disregard for the safety of others infuriates Frances to no small degree. When both coaches are forced to stop, Frances makes her feelings on the matter very clear to the occupant, an irritable, somewhat abrasive man who introduces himself as Lucius Marshall. They immediately rub each other up the wrong way; he thinks she’s a harpy, she thinks he’s an arrogant arse, but they recognise that the bad weather isn’t going to suddenly disappear and that they need to seek shelter.

Over the next couple of days of enforced proximity, Frances and Lucius reassess their opinions of each other quite radically, discovering they share a sense of humour and enjoy each other’s company – and they are unable to ignore the attraction that has simmered between them almost from the start. They decide to spend a night together and then go their separate ways; she back to her school, he to London to make the marriage his family expects of him. But what they thought would be a night of sexual passion without emotional engagement turns out to be nothing of the sort and the idea of parting the next day is almost too much to bear for both of them. But even though this is a relationship that can go nowhere, Lucius impulsively asks Frances to go with him to London. In what capacity he doesn’t make clear, but Frances is not prepared to become a kept woman, and refuses him.

Lucius goes through the motions in London for the next three months, going to balls and parties and routs, but can’t bring himself to pop the question to Portia Hunt, the beautiful young woman his family expects him to wed. His beloved grandfather, the Earl of Edgecombe, isn’t in the best of health and wants to see his heir settled before he dies, so Lucius is determined to marry before the end of the Season. Yet he can’t stop thinking about Frances and about how good they were together; and when the earl suggests a trip to Bath to take the waters for the sake of his health, Lucius jumps at the chance to go with him.

But Lucius doesn’t seek Frances out. It’s not until he and his grandfather have been in Bath for some time that the couple meets again at a musical soirée – at which Lucius is utterly stunned to discover that the woman in possession of the most beautiful soprano voice he has ever heard is none other than Frances Allard. After this, Lucius contrives to see her again and begins to pursue her in earnest, but Frances is continues to resist his advances, insisting that a provincial schoolteacher is not a suitable match for the heir to an earldom, and telling him that she will not – cannot – live in London.

Frances’ reluctance to go to London is mentioned fairly early on in the story, and it quickly becomes clear that her concerns are about far more than her just not enjoying city life. But Lucius is not a man to take no for an answer and he continues to make his presence felt in Frances’ life, no matter how many times she refuses him. I love stories in which the hero is in hot pursuit of the heroine, and Ms. Balogh has set up the central relationship superbly well. The romantic and sexual tension between the principals in the early chapters is absolutely delicious, and she creates a strong emotional connection between them. The main problem with the story is that Frances’ secret is dragged out for too long and her failure to confide in Lucius eventually causes him to make a serious mis-step. On a positive note, his actions do result in Frances finally facing up to the fact that what she had previously seen as making a life for herself was, in fact, her way of hiding from it – and are the catalyst for Frances taking back control of her life and career. When they are finally revealed, her reasons for refusing Lucius seem somewhat flimsy, although when viewed in the context of the strict social mores applied to young ladies at the time, it’s not difficult to see why Frances is so ashamed of her past. Even so, I couldn’t help agreeing with Lucius’ assessment: “Good Lord, Frances. Is this the terrible past you have been keeping from me? What an idiot you are.”

Lucius… well, I liked him, although I can understand why others may not. He’s incredibly persistent and isn’t above being manipulative when it suits his purposes, such as when he gets Frances’ aunts to invite her to stay with them in London. And then, later, when even though he seems to have accepted Frances’ refusal of him, he pushes her to pursue her singing career and arranges for her to meet an influential patron (who happens to be Lord Heath from Ms. Balogh’s Christmas novella, The Bond Street Carolers). So yes, he’s pushy, but he’s also got Frances’ number and won’t let her off the hook. He challenges her to find happiness – not contentment, but happiness – and I also liked that once he truthfully acknowledged to himself what he wanted, he wasn’t slow about going after it.

As happened with another audiobook I listened to recently in which the hero was straddling the line between likeable and not likeable, Lucius is pulled firmly into the former category by virtue of the fact that he’s given voice by Rosalyn Landor. Even when he’s being sarcastic, there’s often a note of affectionate teasing underlying his pronouncements which Ms. Landor captures perfectly, and she is simply wonderful (sorry!) at bringing out his softer, more romantic side and allowing listeners to hear how very much in love he is.

Mary Balogh and Rosalyn Landor make a terrific author/narrator team. Ms. Landor’s work on the steady trickle of releases of the author’s backlist titles has been outstanding, as have her performances in the recently ended Survivor’s Club series; but I have to confess that I was curious to hear how this decade-old performance would hold up against her more recent work. And it holds up extraordinarily well – it’s almost as if it were made yesterday. I noticed a slight difference in the overall sound quality when I started listening, but if that continued, I became unaware of it almost immediately because I was so immersed in the story and performance. I think that perhaps Ms. Landor’s voice has become even richer in the last decade, and her performance here is as assured and accomplished as ever. Pacing, acting choices, characterisation, differentiation – all are excellent, making Simply Unforgettable a welcome addition to the growing number of Mary Balogh audiobooks and one to which I can give a strong recommendation.

Caz

Narration: A

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in, but at the tame end

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Simply Unforgettable was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.