Remember When Blog Tour with Review

Welcome to my stop on the REMEMBER WHEN Blog Tour! Check out my review & learn about the author below!

Author: Mary Balogh

Series: Ravenswood #4

Publisher: Berkley

Release Day: Jan. 7, 2025

Special thanks to Berkley Publishing for a complimentary copy of this title. Opinions expressed are my own.

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Discover the beauty of second chances at love and life in this heartfelt new novel from New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh.

Review:

REMEMBER WHEN, the fourth book in Author Mary Balogh's Ravenswood Series, highlights two characters facing midlife crisis's while deciding what to do with their remaining years. It's a book about self-discovery, second chances and choices. It's a sweet love story.

The Dowager Countess of Stratton, Clarissa Ware Greenfield, has returned home to Ravenswood after the last of her children left the nest, launching happy lives of their own. Clarissa seeks solitude in which to contemplate her life choices, both good and bad, and decide what to do as a soon-to-be fifty-year-old widow on her own for the first time in many years. Who is she now that she's no longer a wife and her children don't need her? Her thoughts turn to her childhood friend, Matthew Taylor, and what might have been if she'd made different choices all those years ago. Matthew left the country for ten long years after the death of his wife and newborn child, eventually returning to become the town's carpenter even though he's a gentleman's son. He's content with his low-key life and has no desire to claim his heritage. Clarissa hopes to resume a friendship of sorts with Matthew and uses the excuse of commissioning him to build a crib for her grandchild in order to speak with him. As talks about the crib turn to long walks around Ravenswood, a reconnection of hearts, souls and desires occurs leaving the two with a big decision. Neither knows what the future holds, but self-reflection reveals the answer...if they're brave enough to embrace it. 

Author Mary Balogh has rendered another heartfelt love story that tugs on readers' hearts with REMEMBER WHEN. As always, characters are well-developed and worthy of our empathy. The self-reflection/discovery journey traveled by both Matthew and Claire allows readers a front row seat to the turmoil and need for resolution felt by both characters. Strong support characters round out a cast filled with family and friends. Balogh honors the traditions and setting of the small-town time period, and I love that the main characters refuse to be cowered by expectations any longer.  Fans of second chance, mature relationship, heartfelt historical romance will enjoy this one!

  

Synopsis:

The Dowager Countess of Stratton, Clarissa Ware, née Greenfield, has just presented her younger daughter to the ton, and the rest of her life belongs only to herself. She returns to Ravenswood, intending to spend the summer alone there. But the summer has other plans for her.

Born a gentleman, Matthew Taylor has chosen to spend his life as the village carpenter. Growing up, he and Clarissa were close—dangerously so, considering his family’s modest fortune. As a young man, he never would have been a suitable match for the daughter of the wealthy Greenfields. Clarissa married Caleb Ware, the Earl of Stratton, so Matthew married another, though he was widowed soon after.

Now everything is different—Clarissa has already lived the life expected of her by society. And Matthew is as attractive and intriguing as he was when they were young. As their summer friendship deepens into romance, they stand together on the precipice of change—essentially the same man and woman they remember being back then, but with renewed passion and the potential to take their lives in an entirely new direction.

About the Author

Mary Balogh grew up in Wales and now lives with her husband, Robert, in Saskatchewan, Canada. She has written more than one hundred historical novels and novellas, more than forty of which have been New York Times bestsellers. They include the Bedwyn saga, the Simply quartet, the Huxtable quintet, the seven-part Survivors’ Club series, and the Westcott series.