Review: Only a Kiss

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Only a Kiss

5 stars

Mary Balogh

Genre: Historical romance

Subgenre: Victorian, Regency (Post Napoleonic)

Heat level: spicy

Only a Kiss belongs to that special collection of historical romances that fall between a Regency and the Victoria era. I often refer to these as Post-Napoleonic, though that's not an official category anywhere. They read a lot like a Regency, but often feature heroes (or in this case a heroine) that fought in the Peninsular War. I have a particular fondness for these novels because they tend to be a bit more weighty.

Only a Kiss is the 6^th novel in Mary Balogh’s Survivor’s Club series, It features Imogen, the only woman in the survivor’s club, a group of seven that came back from the war damaged in various ways. Mary Balogh is one of my go-to authors, so of course, I’ve read every other book leading up to this one. However, I don’t think these necessarily need to be read in order. Some of them have more interaction between the survivor’s, but there isn’t a ton in this one. If you wanted to start here, you could.

I was really looking forward to reading Imogen’s story. She’s an intriguing member of the club, being the only woman, and I was eager to learn how she earned her membership. Her story is very well done. I even cried when she revealed the depth of her suffering to Percy Hayes, the hero of the story. Despite being an avid romance reader (and an author) I wouldn’t say I cry easily over these things, so hopefully that tells you how well-done I think this is.

I had some very minor issues with Only a Kiss, such as a few passages here and there that were hard to make sense of, but all in all, it’s a good solid read. Definitely one you can take with you to the beach or snuggle up in front of a fire with for an entire afternoon.