ALWAYS REMEMBER: BEN'S STORY

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ABSTRACT (ENGLISH)
Two people living on the periphery of their families take center stage in each other's life.

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Publisher: Berkley
Page Count: 368
Two people living on the periphery of their families take center stage in each other’s life.
Continuing her Ravenswood series, Balogh puts the focus on Ben Ellis, the widowed, illegitimate older brother of the
Earl of Stratton, and Lady Jennifer Arden, the mobility-impaired sister of the earl’s new brother-in-law, the Duke of
Wilby. Introduced in the previous novels in the series, the protagonists have already been established as kind,
family-oriented people who keep their dissatisfactions buried. Ben wants to provide a loving mother to his young
daughter even as he hides his childhood grief over losing his own mother. Conscious of his outsider status, he has
also accepted that his marital aspirations must be lower than those of his aristocratic family. When he notices Lady
Jennifer Arden struggle to walk with crutches, he intends only to assist her in gaining more independence of
movement. Yet their stilted acquaintance morphs into a deeper understanding of each other, and sexual desire
starts to disturb the resignation they had both felt about their socially prescribed limitations. Their un-courtship
progresses over passages of Lady Jennifer acquiring new mobility aids tailored to her body’s abilities, culminating in
a moving dance scene. The incorporation of a differently abled protagonist into the love plot without a savior
narrative or magical transformation makes for a welcome departure from the genre’s tradition of pairing romance
with normative bodies. On the other hand, the narrative is bogged down by a great deal of detail about numerous
minor characters and an uncharacteristically clumsy info dump about Ben’s past. Balogh's power in dramatizing the
inner life, with meditations on the complexity of human emotions and connections, compensates for this weakness to
some extent.
A slow-paced Regency romance that reflects on bodily diversity and inclusivity.
Audience: Fiction
ISBN: 9780593638385
Price: $28.00
Author: Balogh, Mary

DETAILS

Publication title: Kirkus Reviews; Austin

Volume: XCI

Issue: 21

Publication year: 2023

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 Publication date: Nov 1, 2023

Publisher: Kirkus Media LLC

Place of publication: Austin

Country of publication: United States, Austin

Publication subject: Library And Information Sciences, Publishing And Book Trade, Literary And Political
Reviews

ISSN: 19487428

Source type: Trade Journal

Language of publication: English

Document type: Book Review

Publication history :

Online publication date: 2023-10-07

Publication history :

First posting date: 07 Oct 2023

ProQuest document ID: 2883232938

Document URL: https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/always-remember/docview/2883232938/se-

2?accountid=153138

Copyright: Copyright 2023, Kirkus Reviews. All rights reserved.

Last updated: 2023-10-29

Database: Research Library

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