MARRIAGE


Mary Balogh (2009). First Comes Marriage.


This is the first of 4 books in the Huxtable series set in the Regency era of England.

Elliot Wallace is Viscount Lyngate who visits a country village to inform a family that their younger brother is now the Earl of Merton...his 3 sisters follow him to London to learn the ways of polite society...one sister, Vanessa, offers herself to Elliot to save her older sister Meg, and Elliot accepts the marriage of convenience, and in time, they both learn about each other's pain, experience some healing, and begin to cultivate a loving relationship.

Favorite quotes:

"...only one thing at which he had excelled...He had loved. Always and unconditionally..." (p.4)

"Perfection ought to be aimed for...even if it is not always possible to achieve. Anything worth doing ought to be done well." (p.226)

"Life is good. Even when good people die far too young and older people betray us, life is good. Life is what we make it. We get to choose how we see it." (p.359)

"He taught me much about living one day at a time, about finding joy in small things and laughter in the face of tragedy. He taught me about patience and dignity and he taught me not to cling. He taught me how to let go..." (p.378)

 

How well are you loving yourself, others, nature, and the divine? What small thing could you begin doing in each of these areas to increase your capacity to love more fully?



 


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