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The February book for the Historical Hellions Book Club is Johanna Lindsey's Love Only Once. It is the first book in her massive (12 books) and popular series, the Malory-Anderson Families. I have read a few of Johanna's stand-a-lones back in high school, but don't really remember much outside of her name. This was before I starting using goodreads or tracking my reads, so I'm sure I'll find them again at some point and remember them as I read.
This book focuses on Regina, the niece to the four main brothers of the Malory family. She is accidentally kidnapped by Nicholas who thinks it was his ex-mistress that he was keeping from the ball she had been talking about for months. So the first couple chapters were a little too much info-dump and I wish we would've met the cousins and uncles and everybody a little more naturally. I had to reread a couple pages because I was getting the uncles confused and their brief story lines. Once we got past that though, I loved how they met. Once Nicholas realizes it's not his ex-mistress, he returns to his house expecting a lady having fits. Instead, he gets Regina who is just excited to have another adventure, especially since she hasn't had one since she met her majority. I loved how amused Regina was and so fed up with being on the marriage mart. All of the gentleman she thought she loved or could even stand marrying aren't approved by all three of her uncles (the fourth is exiled at the moment).
Her uncles cracked me up and I loved the banter between the brothers. I also loved the banter between Regina and Nicholas. Where this dropped down from 5-stars for me is when he abandons her at his estate with the horrid dowager-countess. I did understand that she had her own issues, but I also feel like if she wanted a kid bad enough, she would've been able to love Nicholas a little, even just as her nephew. This is the crux of the issues between then, Nicholas is a bastard. He doesn't want it to get out. He also thinks that Regina will revile him once she finds out, which will break his heart. All this despite her loving relationships with some of her cousins whom are bastards as well. Instead he dumps her (on their wedding night) at his estate and leaves the country.
I didn't like that Regina didn't share she was pregnant, but I understood her reasoning. I feel like she should've said something before the baby was born, especially when he didn't come back a couple months later. Granted they didn't know where he was, but I'm sure they could've found him earlier. I also wish he didn't become a slave owner during that time away. It was such a small portion of the book, that it just didn't need to be there.
I also didn't like that Regina didn't realize Nicholas had issues with being a bastard. I know she had cousins that were, but I feel like she would still know society's views on being such and how that can affect someone. I just wanted them to talk it out and stop dancing around each other. I'll most likely continue the series, but it's not at the top of my tbr. Plus it's fun (sometimes) to read older romances. The start of this book was really what shined. I wish it had stayed more along that vein throughout the book.
Have you read Love Only Once?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Love Only Once, Johanna Lindsey, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 344 pages, published 1985
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