When the novel opens he has only just recovered to the point that he’s not suicidal anymore. Ralph blames himself for their deaths and suffers from PTSD. Three of Ralph’s friends followed him to war, and all of them died. Ralph Stockwood was wounded in the Napoleonic Wars, but most of the damage was done to his psyche. When the duchess’s grandson comes home, Chloe sees the opportunity for bettering her circumstances. Her entire experience in dealing with the ton is as the subject of mockery and shame, and so Chloe has basically run away. Then during her second Season, rumors of Chloe’s legitimacy surfaced (she looks identical to another woman who is the daughter of a man her mother spent a lot of time with. During her first Season her sister eloped with a playwright, causing her family to be the subject of scandal. Instead she’s living as a “guest” and acting as a companion to an elderly duchess.
Chloe Muirhead is a woman of good breeding and should be in London for the Season, finding a husband. This book is about two people struggling to hold their shit together and failing. This book is 6th in the Survivor Club series, but can easily be read as a stand alone. There is some serious slow burn going on here–and it all comes together beautifully and culminates in a wonderfully satisfying ending. The heroine is a companion to an older lady, and I love companion books or books where the heroine is an outsider. Only a Promise is basically made of Elyse’s catnip tropes, plus frosting. The guy at the counter asked me how I was doing, and I think I just made Good Book Noise® back at him. It was so so amazingly good that I went to the used bookstore and basically just dumped the entire shelf with her name on it into my cart.
Only a Promise was the first book I read by Mary Balogh, and I rectified that situation pretty damn quick. This review was originally published June 10, 2015. But, if you’re hoping to read Balogh without DNF-ing, Elyse wrote a glowing review of Only a Promise. NB: Welcome to Flashback Friday! If you didn’t catch it, Carrie had a disappointing experience reading Mary Balogh’s latest release, Someone to Love, due to racist stereotypes.
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