The first book of Mary Balogh’s Huxtable Family series is First Comes Marriage. It is the story of four siblings who find themselves moving up in the world. Their parents have been dead for years so the older sister Margaret (Meg) has assumed the parental role. Vanessa (Nessie) is a young widow, Katherine (Kate) helps at the country school, and seventeen year old Stephen works hard at his studies. But this all changes the day they learn that Stephen is to become the new Earl of Merton.
Once the siblings move to the family estate it is decided that the girls must be introduced to society during the upcoming Season. To do this, one of the girls must marry a gentleman of the ton so to sponsor her sisters. It’s presumed that Margaret will marry. She still carries a torch for a certain soldier but will marry another for the sake of her sisters. Nessie decides that Meg deserves some happiness and she won’t find it with a man she doesn’t love. So Nessie proposes to the handsome Viscount Lyngate. It’s not a love match but they will try to have a happy marriage. And the story takes off from there.
I liked this novel but there were a few annoying habits of a couple of the characters that stopped me from loving it. I really enjoy Mary Balogh’s books so I’ll give the second book a try.
3.5/5
Review copy from Dell via Goodreads First Reads
Bookfan 