Where Judith Stops Hiding

Slightly Wicked by Mary Balogh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an entertaining book. I enjoyed it about 5 stars-worth.

[some general spoilers throughout]

As one can guess from the title, this book turns the norms of the Regency romance upside down. Some of them. Primarily, it allows the story to begin with the FMC and MMC meeting one another, having a brief fling (imagine Elizabeth Bennet having a fling! Wait, someone has probably written a P&P variation exactly that way), then separating, lost to one another (they both lied about their names) and finding each other later--when they finally fall in love. Usually, Regency heroines are either completely chaste until the wedding night--basically the last page--or they might break the rules about sleeping together late in the book after both are pretty deeply in love. Starting the book the way she did, with Judith shyly but happily jumping into bed with Rannulf Bedwyn, it seems like Mary Balogh was setting herself a challenge to see if she could still make the romance work, forging a proper novel out of it despite the irregular inciting incident.

I think she really did. It worked well, IMO.

Judith is sent to live with relatives where she has to cover her beautiful hair and wear shapeless, unflattering clothes, and work more like a servant than a family member. Rannulf shows up to court her cousin, but keeps finding himself interested in Judith. Of course, she's more like Fanny in Mansfield Park, a poor relative who shouldn't be considered in the same way as her highborn cousin, and while everyone wants to keep her covered up and hidden, she can't help but shine through sometimes, almost by accident. I suspect the author of imagining Judith as a version of Venus, the one found in Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," except, you know, not naked. This description near the end seemed to suggest it stronger than others:

There was a noticeable breeze on the hilltop. It sent her dress fluttering behind her and flattened it against her at the front. It lifted her hair in a red-gold cloud behind her back... she gazed back at him, her head tipped proudly back, a soft smile on her lips, her cheeks flushed. She was all beautiful, breathtaking goddess and woman...

Maybe I read into it. But I'm about half sure I'm right.

There's a villain, and Rannulf gets to intervene and protect her from him and see that he gets what's coming to him, and that's fun. And there's some excellent healing going on in Judith as she discovers she's internalized some unfair criticism that she can finally crawl out from under. She may be "slightly wicked"--by the norms of the time--and so is he, to be fair (though gender norms are not fair) but despite that, she's a very sympathetic heroine who the reader is sure deserves all the happiness.

The author wins her little challenge. Good book. I think the next one is about her sister-in-law Freyja, who is unruly and competitive and gives tomboy vibes. Should be good.

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