A short and sweet second chance…

Ahh, the Westcotts. Each story has had the same tempo and flavour, yet each couple that found love did so in very different ways. Matilda and Charles were no exception…

I have to say, I loved the (ahem) maturity of these two characters. Age should have no limit on love and here was proof! Much was made of their ages and how society would see and judge their second chance at a relationship. They were in their fifties (not their nineties!) yet the word spinster was mentioned more than once… Being the chaperone, or the recipient of one, marked their second chance and the formality seemed to make their determination stronger…

If I wished for more of why their love had stood the test of time, and how their experiences had not diminished their feelings, it just means I liked the characters and their families so much I didn’t want to leave. That seems to be the hallmark of this series that I hope has many more stories to tell…

A fantastic novella that gives a supporting character from Balogh's series her own happily-ever-after.

Mary Balog’s Westcott series from @berkleyromance needs more love on #bookstagram! I started the series at book 5, Someone to Trust, and I love it and book 6, Someone to Honor, and most recently the novella Someone to Remember (thanks to the publisher & @netgalley for the copy -all opinions are my own!). I really enjoy this historical regency romance series! While not a romantic comedy like Tessa Dare or Sarah MacLean, this regency romances are full of heart and I love the characters. In the most recent t novella, Someone to Remember, both love interest we’re in their mid 50s getting a second chance at love! I blew threw it in one day and decided to pick up the first 4 books from the library! While I have plenty of books to read, I’m indulging my reading mood rather than forcing myself to read something else! Anyways, if you’re a historical romance fan you should check out this series! Book 7 is set to come out later this year & I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Sadly this book couldn’t keep my attention. I’m not sure if it was the novella feel or not but I found myself skimming a great deal just to see if it got better.

Stevie‘s review of Someone to Remember (Westcott Novels, Book 7) by Mary Balogh
Historical Romance published by Berkley 05 Nov 19

I have been utterly enchanted by this series so far, and was particularly excited toward the end of the last book to see that the next was likely to feature a significantly older hero and heroine (older than me, even). Lady Matilda Westcott is the sister of the late Earl of Riverdale, who has been the cause of much of the family’s trials and tribulations throughout the series, due to his bigamous second marriage. Most of our glimpses of Matilda to date have been as companion to their mother, the Dowager Countess, although we saw a different side to her in the last book when she visited an old friend to request his help in securing the well-being of a new addition into the family. Now that old friend is about to make another appearance in her life.


Charles, Viscount Dirkson, courted Matilda when they were in their early twenties and he had yet to inherit his title. He already had a reputation for wild living, and when he visited Matilda’s father to request permission to further the relationship, he was sent away in no uncertain terms. In the years that followed, he gained a far worse reputation as a rake, even after his subsequent marriage. Having met Matilda all over again, however, Charles finds himself fascinated by her and wonders what will happen if they resume their relationship.

Matilda is wary of Charles, in spite of never having met anyone else she wished to marry, and is also of the opinion that she is indispensable to her mother. When a trip to Kew Gardens is proposed for a group of their respective young relatives, Matilda agrees to go with Charles as a co-chaperone. The party has a splendid time, and Matilda and Charles are able to rekindle their feelings for each other. Both are, however, uncertain as to what their families would make of such a late marriage between them – if that is indeed what they both want – and how Matilda’s mother would cope without them. The Dowager Countess, meanwhile, has some quite firm ideas of her own as to what needs to be done.

I really enjoyed this story, even though I would have liked it to be a full-length novel rather than a novella. It’s always lovely to see couples finding happiness at any and every age, and this series has certainly excelled in that regard. This was certainly my favourite out of those I’ve read so far, and very much hope that it won’t be the last we see of the Westcotts.

Grade: A

This was a novella of one of the aunts, Matilda. This was a great addition to the Westcott family saga, especially after the last book hinted at Matilda and Charles history. Both characters were like able, in fact so much so that I wish these two had gotten the full length story instead of Viola and Marcel a few books back as I didn’t find Marcel at all likeable. Charles was much better and Matilda was pretty awesome. Although short, this story satisfied. It could easily have been made full length and held my attention.

Thirty-six years after a squashed romance, a reformed rake and a middle aged spinster are reunited. What an odd and unlikely scenario for a Regency romance! Is it possible to fall in love if one was already in it? Could one fall in love twice with the same person? And how old is too old for love?

When Lady Matilda and Charles Sawyer (now Viscount Dirkson) were twenty, they had fallen madly in love—but because he had the beginning of a wild reputation, her father refused his suit when the young viscount came to ask for her hand. Instead of staying the course and proving himself worthy, and even renewing his addresses later, he had bitterly run off to sow his wild oats, proving what her parents had expected, and became one of England’s most notorious rakes and hellions.

And what of Matilda? Yes, she had suitors to follow but she refused offers of marriage—becoming instead the prim and proper spinster, fussy companion to her mother, and favorite maiden aunt.

When circumstances bring them back into each other’s circle, the handsome and matured Viscount Dirkson is curiously drawn to this staid woman...and when he glimpses the sparkle of the woman she once was, he decides they are neither too old to try again. So many swoon worthy moments, so many sweet sentiments that brought tears to my eyes. When she finally admits to him how she has always loved him, even from afar, he realizes that he may have buried his love for her decades before but love still remained:
“Matilda.” He sighed and drew her to him, one arm about her waist, the other about her shoulders. “You put me to shame with your steadfast fidelity.”

“Someone to Remember” is by far my all-time favorite in this Westcott series...‪then again, I say that after every one‬. Made my own middle-aged heart flutter!

Rated MILD for kissing.

I’m so happy to have read Someone to Remember because it was a second chance of love story for an older couple. The romance genre needs a story to show that love happens at any age and not just for the young. Matilda Westcott has lived in the background as a spinster and being her mother’s companion. She came to the forefront in the last story (Someone to Honor) to initiate a happy ending for its couple. Now she is about to find her match herself with the love of her youth.
36 years ago, she turned down the marriage proposal to Charles Sawyer, Viscount Dirkson, when her parents disapproved. Now he’s part of her extended family. He invites her to help chaperone and they retrace their own youthful romance from long ago. Matilda starts to remember all those feelings and wonders if Charles is feeling the same thing. Charles is and can’t believe that those feelings are emerging again. They both reflect about how their lives have turned out and wonder about regrets. Matilda brings it all around to live in the present and she feels brave enough to reach out and grab her own happiness.
Mary Balogh develops her heroines to stand up and grab the brass ring when it comes to their happiness. Bringing Matilda to the forefront in this novella was another way to showcase an older heroine and understand the choices she’s made in life. Nothing warms my heart is to happiness in one’s heart and it came across magnificently in Matilda.

This novella in the Westcott series is the second chance story of Matilda and Charles. They knew each other 30 years ago when Matilda, following the advice of her parents, turned down his proposal. They are reunited at a family dinner party and both have to work through the past in order to see where their present might take them. Lovely story of forgiveness and second chances.

A great addition to a fine series. It is good to see a romance between characters who are mature adults. Balogh does her usual fine job of character development and also gives the reader a glimpse of how powerless women were historically.

Review excerpted from my blog post over at FanSciHist (https://fanscihist.wordpress.com/2019/11/13/someone-to-remember-by-mary-balogh/)

My Rating: 4 stars

Library recommendation: Recommended for public library historical romance collections that hold other books in this series.

Warning: Hereafter, you chance spoilers. I will try never to reveal major plot points, but to review any book, you must reveal some parts of the story.


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Number of titles I have read by this author: 2

Love story speed: Medium burn (rekindled romance)

Relationship dynamics: The Middle-Aged Widower (H) / The Middle-Aged Spinster (h)

Sexual content: None.

Triggers: The hero’s thoughts can be quite blunt and unromantic.

Grammar/Editing: My ARC had a couple of omitted words and typos.

Review: This quick-read novella is vaguely set in the Regency period. It is clearly the end-cap to a long-running series, given that much of the plot involves a parade of characters from the previous novels (and over 45% of the content consists of excerpts from the other installments in the series). As a result, more enjoyment is likely to be derived from the story by dedicated readers of the series, especially since these characters receive little additional development.

Matilda and Charles are mature adults rekindling a long-ago failed romance and they both have some residual bitterness about their shared past. This causes Charles to think rather harshly about Matilda to begin with, although his opinion mellows as the novella progresses. Matilda is portrayed as a stereotypical disappointed spinster – one who has never forgotten her one true love and finally has a chance to win him back. While this is not terribly original, in truth, there is not enough of this type of romance, overall: not only with older main characters, but also with (mostly) realistic thoughts about one another, so Balogh deserves praise for showcasing both.

National Holiday version: Join us for Obscure Relative Day! This book has them all!



Full disclosure: I received a free advance review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Someone to Remember was such a lovely romance! Mary Balogh never fails to bring out emotions, and I actually shed a happy tear (or two) while reading.

Matilda as a secondary character in the past, kind of blended in, she was labeled a mild-aged, fussy spinster, and sort of shuffled off to the side. But in the last book Matilda took some initiative and made a bold move that would’ve been considered shocking at the time for the sake of a family member. There were hints at that point of a love lost between Charles and Matilda, and so I was hoping we’d get a romance between them. I was sooo thrilled that she got her second chance at with her first love!

As this is a novella, things do progress quickly between Charles and Matilda, and why shouldn’t they? They knew each other well thirty years prior, and now at a mature age it made sense that they knew exactly what they wanted once reunited. I didn’t feel cheated out of the process because at first Matilda and Charles are tentative, and unsure of each other’s feelings; they feel vulnerable admitting just how much their parting affected them at the time and over the years. But I’m happy to say that they both chose to leave regrets behind, and not dwell on the lost years, because what does that accomplish other than sorrow? And it would’ve made this a depressing read. Instead, their meeting again is a joyful reawakening of the intense passion and love they felt for each other. Matilda and Charles “twinkled” with happiness and it was such a delight!

Matilda might be considered to be in the “shady” part of her middle age, at fifty-five, but before you go thinking that fifty-five is old, think about some of these women and tell me if you see them as elderly: Gillian Anderson is fifty-one, Sigourney Weaver is seventy, Famke Janssen is fifty-four. As a woman turning fifty soon, I can tell you I don’t feel old, well most days I don’t, lol. I didn’t get into running until my mid-forties and I ran my second half-marathon earlier this year. So of course, I’m over the moon that Matilda got her chance to shine and reclaim her one true love.

There has certainly been a bit of controversy with Mary Balogh’s latest addition to the Wescott series, Someone to Remember. I won’t focus too much on that, but I will make a few comments later in the review. This is a lovely story of second chance love with an older couple that I thought was beautifully written and necessary to those readers who enjoy the entire Westcott family. We just can’t leave out, Aunt Matilda!

What I liked:

Matilda Westcott has always done the right thing. She’s taken care of her mother stoically and supported her family unfailingly. Readers have watched her character develop over the course of the first six books in the Westcott series. In early books she comes across as a bit fussy, maybe even a little rigid. But we didn’t know much about her past or how her circumstances landed her where she was. I thought Balogh did a great job of tantalizing the reader with possibilities in the last book Someone to Love where Matilda is reunited with an old love. I’m very happy that she decided to give Matilda a story in Someone to Remember. She brings a secondary character to the forefront so that readers can see a new side to not only Matilda but to the way her family sees her.

The main couple Matilda and Charles are not your typical hero and heroine. At the ripe age of 56, Matilda once again finds love. I thought this was such a beautiful story about love during a later stage in life. Balogh shows their tempestuous love affair from years past and then shows the changes that have occurred to the couple over time. But the one thing that remains is love.

Charles and Matilda’s love story is told in about ten chapters and each one shows great care and attention to detail. Novella’s are not meant to be long. The stories they tell don’t require as much development as a full length novel. In this case readers already know Matilda well. Balogh is an excellent writer of this historical period and I’m never disappointed in her writing.

What I didn’t:

Charles may have needed a bit more attention. Though readers of the series have had an ongoing relationship with Matilda, Charles is relatively new and therefore exciting. As reader I want to know more about him. Why he was so devilish in his youth. Why he chose one path in the aftermath of love and Matilda chose another. We learn a lot in this quick trip to the Westcott world but I always want more! LoL 😂

The big controversy involving this book is pretty simple to understand and really could have been avoided in a couple of ways. First, I would always encourage readers to look at the information provided by the book seller you purchase from. Read the publication details. Read the reviews but also take them with a grain of salt because they are subjective. It was clearly noted that this story was a novella. It was never meant to be a full length novel.

Secondly, the publisher should have corrected the page length number to reflect the number of pages in the actual story and not in the story plus excerpts from the previous books. That was clearly a mistake in hindsight. Also, the publication details nor the description of the book notes that approximately a third of the length is excerpts. That is a lot. And I’m sure some readers did not feel like they got their money’s worth.

Bottom Line:

Controversy or no controversy this is a very good novella. As a reader of this series I wanted Matilda’s story. I wanted her happy ever after. Balogh gave me a well developed character that I already knew and loved and just told me another story about her. I didn’t need the full length though more time with this family is always appreciated. I do think Balogh was a bit short changed on how this book was marketed but that is certainly not a black mark on her writing. Read it! It’s good!

Thirty six years ago, Lady Matilda Westcott and Charles Sawyer were a pair of twenty-year-olds, passionately in love and eager to be married. When Matilda’s parents flatly refused Charles’s suit, Matilda accepted their decision with no thought of disobeying them. In order to ensure Charles was gone from her life, she declared that she never really loved him. A heartbroken Charles returned to his former rakish ways, soon fathering an illegitimate son, and having countless affairs, even after he eventually married. Matilda never found another man she wanted to wed, and so devoted herself to caring for her crotchety mother.

Fate has decided to throw Matilda and Charles, now Viscount Dirkson, back into each other’s lives, as Matilda’s niece has married Charles’s illegitimate son. Though both are wary of meeting again after all this time, they are far from being indifferent to each other. Matilda’s life took a decidedly different path than Charles’ did. Without a family of her own, her desire to feel needed was revealed in her intense, almost overbearing, care of her mother, who seems to find Matilda’s attentions annoying at times. Charles is now a widower, and has toned down his wild lifestyle, even dismissing his last mistress.

As the Westcott and Sawyer families begin to socialize, Charles continually seeks out Matilda, and the former youthful sweethearts slowly begin to fall in love again. Perhaps their love never really went away. They eventually come to tell each other the truth of their feelings back thirty plus years ago, and why they took the actions they did. They come to the conclusion that regrets are pointless, but they can still have a future together. Charles proposes, and Matilda accepts.

Mary Balogh is a genius at pulling on my heartstrings, and slowly developing her characters and their romance. I loved watching poor old Aunt Matilda blossom, and regain her sense of fun, then face her fears head on. I felt the love between this long estranged couple and felt that their future together would be a joyful one. Though they share some lovely kisses, I was a bit disappointed that their intimacy wasn’t explored a little further, only because of their unique circumstances. Mary Balogh doesn’t write explicit sex scenes, but she doesn’t usually shy away from sharing private bedroom moments. Because Matilda was still an innocent, I would have truly enjoyed reading about her (hopefully) satisfying experience, perhaps even in retrospect, just her reliving it the morning after. Having said that, few other authors can create such warmth and closeness. SOMEONE TO REMEMBER is brilliantly written. It’s an emotional novella, with plenty of family affection, tears, reconciliation, and one of my very favorite things, a second chance at love.

There’s always something that links all the books in an ongoing series. It’s often family – or at least found family. Sometimes it’s place – even if occasionally that’s work place rather than home place.

At first, in the terrific, long-running Westcott series (start with Someone to Love and settle in for a fantastic binge-read), it seemed like it was family. And it sort of is. The late, unlamented Humphrey Westcott is a presence throughout the series, even in his absence.

Very much in his absence, as the series only kicks off because he’s kicked off.

But now I’m starting to think that the link between all the entries in the series is that all these people, at least one in each story, had lives that were blighted in some way by the late unlamented, and their story is their chance at a Happy Ever After that he denied them, or delayed for them, or did or would have derailed in one way or another.

While it’s fairly obvious exactly how Humphrey blighted the lives of the children who thought they were legitimate – only to discover they were not (Camille in Someone to Hold, Abigail in Someone to Honor), or the wife who discovered that she wasn’t (Viola in Someone to Care) it’s a bit less obvious here.

But still relevant. It’s not that Humphrey had the direct ability to prevent his older sister’s marriage – because he didn’t. But his misbehavior did. His sister Matilda and his parents wanted to believe that Humphrey’s terrible behavior were the result of him being led astray by his scandalous friend Charles Sawyer. Sawyer’s behavior after Matilda rejected his suit certainly lent credence to that belief.

Sawyer became such a figure of scandal, even after his ascension to his father’s title, that it made him a byword as a rake and a rogue. And Matilda comforted herself with that, even as she continued into spinsterhood, at the beck and call of her rather waspish mother.

Or so it all seemed. For years. Decades even. Until Matilda inserted herself back into Charles’ life, however briefly, in order to wrest some happiness for one of those blighted nieces at the end of Someone to Honor.

Only to discover that very few of the things that either Matilda – or her mother – assumed long ago were quite the way they appeared to be. Humphrey’s long-ago scandalous behavior was certainly not due to the malign influence of Charles – more likely the other way around.

And that even 36 long years is not enough to erase a love that was meant to be. After all, it’s never too late to become the person you might have been.

Escape Rating A-:With one half of an exception, I’ve loved every single book in this series, and Someone to Remember is definitely not an exception to that!

But Someone to Remember is different from the other books in this series. First, this is a novella, so it’s rather delightfully short. (It’s even shorter than it appears to be from the description as a fair bit of that page count is devoted to teaser chapters for ALL of the previous books in the series).

Second, while one could start the series in any number of places – Humphrey casts such a long shadow that his disgraceful actions are explained at least a bit in every story – there’s no way to start the series here. Someone to Remember works because we have read what has come before and are already rather deeply involved with the Westcott family. And some of what makes this story so lovely is the way that the assumptions that we – and Matilda – have come to during previous events get so delightfully turned on their heads in this one.

Third, this is a story that has more internal life than external. It’s a story where more – much more – is thought and felt than occurs on the surface. Matilda, and Charles spend a lot of this book thinking about the past and their missed chances – the many roads not taken – and those events in the past are more dramatic than what happens in the present.

It’s not so much that this is a second chance at love story as it is that it exemplifies a quote from John Greenleaf Whittier that goes, “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” Charles and Matilda spend much of this story contemplating those ‘might have beens’, looking back at all that they did, and just how different the present might be if they had done things just a bit differently. And yet, the problem with wanting to change things is that things change. Just because things might have been different, doesn’t mean they would have been better.

They’ll never know what that different past might have looked like, even though neither of them can stop thinking about it. All they can do is move forward into a new and brighter present – and future. And it’s lovely to read a romance between two 50somethings that, while different, is every bit as romantic as any story in this lovely and charming series.

And this series is blissfully not over. After all, Humphrey Westcott blighted a LOT of lives. The next book in the series will be Someone to Romance, this time next year.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

I love Mary Balogh’s historical romances and have been following her latest series, “A Westcott Story” (or the “Someone to. . .”) since the beginning. The upcoming release, Someone to Remember, is billed as a novella. At 272 pages, it’s shorter and simpler than the longer novels in the series. It’s probably best to read some of the others in order to understand the large Westcott family and their sphere of influence before reading this one.

This is Mathilda’s story. Previously known as the spinster aunt, a fussy stickler for propriety, Mathilda was usually present but generally invisible until the previous book, Someone to Honor. Then she comes briefly to the fore—boldly, if secretly, approaching a man from her past to help solve a crisis in the family.

That action draws the man, Viscount Dirkson, into the Westcott world where he and Mathilda rediscover one another.

Interestingly, Mathilda is in her mid-to-late fifties, making her an unusual heroine for a Regency Romance. Her only prior experience with love was when she was a debutante. She was courted by Dirkson, who was then merely Charles Sawyer. Charles was very young (as was she) and known to be wild. When he asked her father for her hand, her father refused. Obedient daughter that she was, Mathilda sent Charles away. He became even wilder, seemingly proving that her parents were correct to deny his suit. But Mathilda never loved another.

A good deal of this short novel is taken up explaining the backstory and reminding the reader of who’s who in the expanding Westcott saga. But, since the Westcotts are old friends by now, I was pleased to get the reminders and a hint of what they are currently up to. The progress of the now-resumed romance proceeds smoothly and chastely. There are no surprises, except, perhaps for the reaction of Mathilda’s grumpy mother. The book lacks the steamy love scenes of Balogh’s other books, though it does imply that Mathilda and Charles are not too old to feel passionate. It’s a good, solid romance that gives Mathilda a voice. It also introduces new single young people who may well end up getting books of their own.

Someone to Remember is the seventh (and penultimate?) instalment in Mary Balogh’s Westcott saga, which has followed the fortunes of the various members of the large and close-knit Westcott family after the discovery that the late Humphrey Westcott, Earl of Riverdale, had committed bigamy and that his second marriage was therefore invalid. This discovery naturally had serious repercussions; his son and two daughters lost titles, fortunes and status; his widow couldn’t even claim to have been a wife, and the earldom diverted to a cousin who didn’t want it. Through six books, readers have followed the fortunes of various family members in the wake of these events, and now we come to Matilda, Humphrey’s older sister, a woman of mature years – fifty-six – who has appeared throughout the series as the dutiful spinster aunt who fusses over her mother because it’s something to do and has gradually faded into the background.

In order to understand the relationship in Someone to Remember, it’s necessary to refer back to the previous book in the series, Someone to Honor, so please be aware that this review contains spoilers for that book. Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert Bennington returned from fighting at Waterloo to discover his late wife had left their four-year-old daughter in the care of her parents, who are now refusing to return her to his care. Although Gil was an officer, his illegitimacy and humble origins made him unacceptable to his in-laws; his father was a nobleman – Viscount Dirkson – but his mother was the daughter of a blacksmith who refused all offers of support from the viscount, and allowed Gil to believe that he had washed his hands of them. When Gil joined the army, Dirkson purchased a commission for him, but after that Gil made it clear that he wanted nothing more to do with him.

But when Abigail Westcott married Gil, the entire Westcott clan naturally became interested in the situation; and when Matilda learned that Dirkson was Gil’s father, she took the unprecedented – and rather scandalous – step of paying a call upon the gentleman at his home in order to ask him to speak for Gil at the upcoming custody hearing. It was clear from the moment Dirkson’s name was mentioned that he and Matilda had some shared history, and it’s soon revealed that they had once been in love and hoped to marry, but that Matilda’s parents had opposed the match and persuaded her to give him up.

When Someone to Remember opens, Alex, the Earl of Riverdale, announces that he has invited the viscount to dinner by way of thanks for his help and support in the custody case. Matilda is profoundly unsettled by this turn of events, but puts a brave face on it, telling herself that she can manage to spend one evening in company with the man with whom she’d once been deeply in love. She already knows he has aged well, that he’s still handsome and vital, whereas she herself has become somewhat drab and disregarded, especially by her mother, who almost never has a kind word to say to or about her.

Dirkson is hugely conflicted over seeing Matilda again. On the one hand, he’s angry with her for stirring up emotions he’d thought long dead and buried, but on the other, he can’t seem to stay away from her. But his anger soon turns from being directed towards Matilda to anger on her behalf when he realizes how invisible she has become to her family. They don’t mistreat her or ignore her, but none of them really see her:

She was a person by God, even if she was past the age of fifty. Even if she was a spinster. She deserved a life.

Someone to Remember is a gentle, charming story of love lost and found. There’s not a lot of plot, but Mary Balogh excels when it comes to exploring emotions, character and relationships, and she packs quite a lot of that into the short page-count as Matilda and Charles think back on their youthful relationship, ponder their mis-steps and how their choices have shaped their lives ever since. The best thing about the story, though, is watching Matilda transform from a woman who had dwindled into a shadow of her former self into one revitalised by love and happiness. When we first met her earlier in the series, she came across as a rather stereotypical spinster aunt, somewhat fussy and always on the verge of reaching for the smelling salts, but as the series has progressed, she has been revealed to be a more complex character, one with a dry wit and sense of humour that is perhaps a little rusty from disuse, and a woman with a mind of her own who is compassionate and deeply loyal to her family and those she loves. Fellow reviewer Janet Webb wrote an interesting piece on Matilda’s presence and influence throughout the series, and if you’ve read it, many of the pointers to the things that have brought Matilda to this point in life have been dotted throughout the series like a trail of breadcrumbs, and it’s been masterfully done.

Dirkson’s backstory isn’t one filled with sunshine and roses either. After Matilda rejected him, he went off the rails a little (and had the affair that produced Gil) and earned himself a reputation as a rake of the first order. His marriage was arranged and while not unhappy, was not one in which either party felt love or passion for the other (he was wayward and she had no real interest in men) but the connection he feels to Matilda has endured and starts coming back to life as he realises that he very much wants to take advantage of the second chance life is offering him.

There’s an engaging secondary cast consisting of the younger generation of Westcotts, I enjoyed watching Matilda’s mother admit to having made a mistake when she talked her daughter out of marrying Dirkson -and for anyone wondering about the state of Gil’s relationship with his father, there’s more on that, too. Someone to Remember is a quiet story but a satisfying one that shows it’s never too late to find – or rekindle – love.

Note: The Amazon listing says this is 272 pages (and it’s priced accordingly), but Someone to Remember is a novella of around 110 pages; the rest of the page count is taken up with sample chapters of other books in the series.

This was quite simply a lovely novella by Balogh. I had been intrigued by Matilda and Charles failed romance in Someone to Honor and it was great to see them both get their happily ever after. It was also refreshing to see a romance featuring characters outside the conventional age bracket. My only complaint was that it was just a shade to short. I know it was a novella, but I really would have enjoyed reading more about Matilda and Charles life after their wedding, especially their relationship with each other and their family (such as Charles more fraught connection with his first son, Gil). That one complaint aside, this was a lovely little read that I've come to expect from Balogh.

First, I think it's important to note that this is a 10-chapter novella, and the story itself only makes up 60% of the ebook; the last 40% is excerpts from the previous six books in the series. Don't go into this expecting a novel-length story!

The good: I loved the development of Matilda's character, which struck me as somewhat reminiscent of Anne Elliot in "Persuasion." She grew a lot beyond the prim spinster of the earlier books, and some of her inner thoughts were rather insightful and heartbreaking.

The bad: I guess I expected more of a conflict, or that there would be more issues for Matilda and Charles to resolve? They talked a few times and then got engaged. If I had been involved with someone over 30 years ago, I think I would need to hash out a lot more stuff before I'd be ready to reunite! I also wanted to see more of how their relationship would work out, but (being a novella), it just ended. I would have been thrilled with a full-length book, so this felt a little sparse at times.

I also felt like Charles' past was presented as being just a bit too irresponsible, which led me to dislike him; I could buy that he was a rake, or that he messed up and wasn't involved in his son's life, but both faults together made him pretty flawed, and that was barely addressed.

In short, I'm glad we got Matilda's story, but I wish it had been longer and more fleshed-out.

In the last Westcott book, we learned a surprise about Mathilda’s past- she had a disappointment in love and so had he and then they met again with that old magic still there. I needed that story… and, here it is. It was all I could have hoped for in a reunion romance.
Review

Someone to Remember is the seventh installment of the Westcott series. Each could be read standalone in a pinch. However, the further one gets in the series, the harder it is to read standalone since there is a great deal of family togetherness and references back to their connections.

Mathilda, oldest daughter of the Dowager Countess, has long since been on the shelf. She has been living out her days fussing over a mother who doesn’t need the fussing. Her life is gray and she tries to be content. Until she encounters Charles once again while on a family mission for her niece Abigail. He is all that she remembered and regrets. She pushed him away when her parents declared him unsuitable and has wondered for over thirty years if she was right to do so- he certainly lived up to his rakish reputation. But… Now, they are in company again and she knows that she never stopped loving him, but can it still matter?

Charles once loved Mathilda and they spoke their love and then she pushed him away because of his reputation. If he had the rep before that, he certainly added to it afterwards and didn’t give it up until later. His encounters with her are unsettling and he’s angry with her for making him feel when he thought he got past all that decades before. But, he can’t stay away from her and finds himself escorting her to the places where their tenderest moments happened. Dare he try again with an older, mature Mathilda? Would her answer be different?

This was a long novella and this second chance reunion romance fit into that shorter page count perfectly. It was as developed as the author’s longer works, brought out the emotions, and engaged the reader with the characters and their romance. I liked how it explored their past and why it didn’t worked, who they were then and now, and how a renewed romance would work in their present. Mathilda has to step out of the gray shadows and she is a lovely personage when she emerges. Charles is right there to encourage her even while coming to terms that his own behavior in the past led to her rejection and now he must show that he’s not that young rakehell and that his family would welcome her with open arms. For those who wanted a bit more with Gil and his father, this is explored a little, too.

This one was light and full of tender romance and I adored it. Now, I’m looking forward to the next Westcott series installment. This is a great series for those who love Regency era romance with a focus on family and personal growth as much as the slow-burn lightly spiced romances.

My thanks to Berkley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.