A lovely instalment in the Westcott series, focusing on a woman dealing with the repercussions of being betrayed in Regency culture. My only concern is that the cast of characters is quite large in this series and it is sometimes hard to keep the relationships straight.

Wow. How do I begin to review this book? Let me start by saying that Someone To Care is a sweet, heartbreaking, captivating story from start to finish. I wasn't sure how the book would turn out just from the first few chapters as it seemed like the ending could go either way for the two major characters. But without giving away any spoilers, the story did have a HEA which was very much to my liking - although I was hanging on by a very thin thread at the outcome of Marcel and Viola!

The story of Someone To Care begins with quite a scandal of sorts for the beautiful and refined Viola. Deceived to believe she had a proper noble title, Viola was cast out of proper society after learning her marriage and life as a Countess was a farce. Believing that she needed to escape it all - her family, her life, and her past, and maybe even her own future - Viola set out to leave on her own to who knew where. And that was when the fun began. Along the way she meets an old friend whom she had fallen madly in love with at a much younger age - or at least what young people knew of love. The Marquess of Dorchester had been in love with her too fourteen years ago when they met and became friends. But alas, she had told him to go away for fear that their fierce attraction would ignite an illicit affair - she had been married at that time and he was a widow.

Oh, how delightful it was to read Viola and Marcel's (the Marquess) story as the author intricately writes their feelings about their lives, and eventually their feelings for each other. A slow friendship develops between the two although they had both decided to run away together and become lovers. What they both had decided, if not between each other, then surely with themselves that it would be a brief fling without either of them needing to be attached to each other. The agreement of sorts was made and the two lovers lived in seclusion for a couple of weeks.

It is during this time that they were together that the author brilliantly wrote Viola's feelings on her downward path to self-isolation and her disruption of a peaceful life. She had thought she was the Countess and even lived that way for twenty years. But when the truth came out that she wasn't truly married to the Earl, her world fell apart. Thinking that her family and her in-laws blamed her, she decided to flee and get away from everyone and everything. While certain parts of the book was a bit long in the description, that didn't deter me one bit from reading through though. The author made me feel Viola's anger, her loneliness, and her rejection.

And Marcel. What can I say about Marcel? He was incredibly handsome, mysterious, and self absorbed, although a gentleman in every way. His attraction to Viola was clear although he was rejected by her many years ago. Then fate had intervened and brought her back into his life again. He wanted only a brief flign to "get her out of his system" because he wasn't prone to falling in love or even loving anyone. He was a widow at a young age and still carried the guilt and hurt after many years. But Marcel was much misunderstood and I don't think he even truly understood himself. He lived in his own isolation of sorts - isolating himself from his two children, his family, and society. He wanted to be a loner, a "rake" because he felt he was incapable of love. And this all stemmed from the sudden death of his wife many years ago. He didn't think himself capable of loving Viola and in fact, he forbade himself from doing so although he was starting to go that route. As a reader I saw that right away of course, but the author wrote Marcel so delightfully flagrant and clueless that it was such a delight to learn about Marcel's slow and true feelings develop for Viola.

Onto Marcel's family. His children were raised well by his sister in law yet because of his self imposed guilt, he rarely saw his children. Even after eighteen years of neglect, he later learned that they still loved him as children are supposed to love their parents, I suppose. Estelle was the adorable daughter, frightful of her father but so desperate for his love and attention. The son, Bertrand was stoic and growing into his own manhood but still had unresolved issues. The two children were delightful to read and it was through their interference that Marcel decreed that he and Viola were betrothed. While it was a fake betrothal to save the reputation of Viola, there was something truthful within that lie.

I could go on forever talking about this story but I won't simply because you have to read it for yourself. Ms. Balogh's words were engaging and enticing, flowery in prose yet straightforward, and drew me in from the first few paragraphs. All of her characters - major and minor - were a joy to read and learn about. I couldn't say I had one single favorite character because I liked them all. They were all equally enjoyable to know in the story.

Alas, the happy ending was what I had hoped for and perhaps the author will delight us again in writing more about Viola, Marcel, and their endearing but crazy families.
Thank you for the ARC and the chance to read Someone To Care.

Mary Balogh has the ability to truly make me feel her characters. Although she writes romance novels, to me the bedroom scenes are truly secondary and not neccessary to the story. That is not true in many romance novels. In Balogh's novels, My heart swells and breaks a little with these characters. In Someone to Care, she has truly nailed it for me. I really related to Viola and Marc as well as Marc's children. The romance is well crafted. The past and present make sense. The characters from the other novels are fun to see again. I loved the first one in the series. I liked books 2 and 3 but book 4 is back in the "loved" category for me. From the other books, I didn't really like Viola that much, although she does become more sympathetic in book 3. Even so, the first chapter of Someone to Care captured me and I didn't want to put it down until I had finished the book.

Mary Balogh never disappoints, and this is an outstanding entry in her Westcott family series. The hero and heroine are in their forties with grown children, so older than usual romance genre main characters. But that only means their story is rich in experience and complicated backgrounds. And because this is the fourth series entry, plenty of younger characters, both family and friends, from the previous books play a large part in the narrative. This novel is highly recommended, and I look forward to what comes next.

Nobody does a better job at writing Victorian fiction than Mary Balogh! I really enjoyed this story of Viola and Marcel - older than the usual characters in historical fiction. Reconnecting after many years they find a second chance at love. Fun

Great story! This is the fourth book in the Westcott series. I've enjoyed all of them.