This was such a sweet love story between Ben, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Stratton, and Jenny, daughter and sister of the Duke of Wilby. Their siblings married in the last novel and we first met Ben in the first book of the series when his younger brother took the title after their father died. Several years later now, Ben thought he had come to terms with his father's death and is making a home for himself and his young daughter. When Ben receives a letter from his late mother's family, he has to reasses again his idea of his parents, his place in the Ware family, and his place in the world.

Through this time, he finds himself opening up to Jenny. In essence strangers, they both find themselves reevaluating their prejudices of each other and finding a compatriot to open up to as they see past the facades they keep up around society and their families.

Jenny has been unable to walk since a childhood illness deformed her leg. Resolved to ever be cheerful and mitigate the burden on her family as much as possible, Ben opens her eyes to possibilities she never considered.

Through their bravery and support, they both embark on journeys to find out who they want to be, but their social standings make it impossible for them to ever be more than friends. Or they're brave enough to challenge society next.

I really enjoyed the complexity of Ben's feelings towards his family. As he wrestles with what he knows of them, their actions, and the words of others, he learns to find peace with the past which is a central theme of this series.

In contrast, Jenny seems to have made peace with her past, it's challenging her view of the future that she must overcome to become her best self.

As always, I enjoyed Balogh's style of writing and the slow poetry of the couple finding love.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Feat: class-difference (earl's bastard son & duke's daughter), single-father widower MMC, disabled FMC

3 stars
1 spice

4.5 stars. Illegitimate oldest brother and widower Ben and wheelchair-bound duke’s sister Jennifer are an unlikely match, but their experiences as outsiders even in their own families give them something important in common.

I liked this the best of this series so far. Both main characters are *good* people who love their families, but who long for something more for themselves, as well. As usual, it’s impossible to keep track of the enormous cast of characters, but it doesn’t really matter which cousin’s daughter and neighbor’s nephew are doing what. I was rooting for Jenny asserting her independence, and Ben learning to deserve love.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

*4.5 stars

What I love about this series is the sense of family. Not only are you getting a sweet love story (expect no spice), but the love of family. Ben is the illegitimate son of the Ware clan, but has always been treated as one their own. He has been feeling like a second part of him is missing because he has never known is mother or her family. Ben will find that part of himself and giving him more family than he could ever imagine. In the meantime, he gets to know Lady Jennifer who is a ray of sunshine despite her circumstances. Their’s is a love story that defies all logic but they are so right for each other. This is a summer filled with family—a lot of characters—, discovering , tradition, joy, laughter, and love.

I really liked the two lead characters, it was a true sweet but in the best and most authentic ways. and not the drama of fake conflict.

I have so enjoyed this series by Mary. It has all the aspects of her writing I love most, great characters, strong family relationships, a slow burn romance, and this very gentle, pastoral feeling that I think is hard to find these days.

I very much enjoyed watching Ben and Jenny fall in love and how sone of the family drama was healed.

Always Remember is the third book in the Ravenswood Regency series, centered around Ben Ellis and Lady Jennifer Arden.

I thought it was a heartwarming read with a slow burn romance that moves from friends to lovers.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-historical romance
-friends to lovers
-HEA

*many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

After their siblings marry, Lady Jennifer Arden and Ben Ellis are always thrown into company at Ravenswood, and form a strong friendship. The disparity in their stations makes it clear that they can never be together, but even though in their heads they understand this, their hearts want something very different. As Ben helps Jennifer practice walking and driving in secret, the time they spend together shows them just how alike they are, and how suited they would be to marriage. But the widowed bastard son of an earl can't marry a duke's sister, right?

I feel like I read this book with a permanent grin on my face. Both Jennifer and Ben have been important characters in the previous books, and it was fantastic to see how they could get their happy ending, and together nonetheless. Ben was the eldest child of the late Earl of Stratton, and though he was raised with his siblings, he was illegitimate and that stain would always be on his character. Following his brother to war, he found solace in a wife, but who later died leaving him a single parent to their daughter, Joy. Returned from war, Ben struggles to find his place in his family, and is an outsider. So meeting Jennifer, also a fellow outsider, they were kindred spirits, and had found someone who understood them more than any family member could. Jennifer's childhood illness had left her unable to walk, and she struggled to be a part of society in the way that she wants. In her heart, she wants to run, dance, and love, and more than anything, marry and have children. Her brother, the Duke of Wilby, has always done everything he can for her, but he still sees her as an ill child, not a woman who dreams and needs. Ben does, and he helps her with her walking, and carriage driving. Seeing the pair and Joy get into a carriage, with Jennifer at the reins, as a family, was utter perfection, and finally the kick that the rest of their families needed to help them be together. This book was such a wonderful conclusion to the Ravenswood series, and the whole Ware clan were able to find happiness after so long!

I really loved these two characters in the previous books and was really looking forward to the chemistry between them.... I'm still looking. This is a friends-to-lovers/lovers from different worlds trope that is sooo slow and uninspiring it took me months to get through it. I both read an ARC and listened to the audiobook from my local library to plow through.
At the 50% mark, I didn't think it was possible for these two to be more dull or have less chemistry. I wanted to give up. The hashing and rehashing of Jennifer's handicapped leg was so frustrating. Ditto with Ben's parentage/first marriage. The characters are so one dimensional. He's a bastard. She's a cripple. Yeah, so what? How is this STILL the only thing I know about them? But did I quit on this book? No! Like Jennifer, I kept trying to limp through it.
There could've been a plot, ANY plot involved that would make this more engaging. The entire story takes place during the most boring family visit ever. The characters don’t really get together until 90% in, and by then it feels forced. Especially, the one uninspiring love scene… that I guess would be considered open-door?
Then she made the characters wait EIGHT months to get married due to… mourning? Mourning?! They are flouting society’s conventions to marry each other at all and we suddenly care about the conventions of mourning?
I just feel like the two characters that I really wanted to find happiness (the rest of the family can hang) deserved a spicy, joyful romp and drew the short stick instead.
Balogh is such a hit or miss author for me. While I LOVED the Bedwyn Saga, every book/series I've sampled from her since then has disappointed me.

Mary Balogh delivers another delightful romance in the Ravenswood series and I thought it was a heartwarming story. Always Remember is the third book in the series and it nicely deals with overcoming societal restrictions and the family. Ben Ellis is a widower and the illegitimate son of the late Earl of Stratton. Ben is looking for a new wife and a mother for his young daughter Joy and finds himself at a loss. He heads home to Ravenswood to attend the summer fete, and puts his search on hold. Lady Jennifer Arden, sister of the Duke of Wilby, was introduced in the previous book, is a young woman that is wheelchair-bound by a childhood illness and is also going to Ravenswood for the fete. She is caught by surprise by Ben while she was walking on crutches in the garden. Ben wants to help Jennifer better her situation and figure out a way for her to become more mobile. Knowing that nothing more should develop between these two individuals doesn’t stop them from becoming friends. Their hearts didn’t get the message that what they were embarking on wasn’t allowed.

The author did a fine job of creating friction and building a slow burn between the main characters. Jennifer is one of my favorite characters because she is optimistic and a realist. What Ben does for her is open her eyes to the possibilities and yearns for more. Ben is slowly being recognized and not blending into the background and finally finding his roots. He thought it would be opening a Pandora’s box but in actuality, he got his father back. These two were meant to be together because they lifted each other up. With both their families in the story, it was engaging to see the many relationships grow and how they influenced both Ben and Jennifer in their decisions to be together. Society might have deemed Ben’s status as illegitimate, but it was his family that enveloped him into the fold and told him he belonged. Mary Balogh is a master at Regency romance storytelling and Always Remember is quite the masterpiece.

I have mixed feelings about this one, and I'm not really sure how to review it.

Is the disability rep good? I could see it going a lot of ways; I'd be very curious to read some own voice reviews from wheelchair users about the way Jennifer's disability is portrayed and how she and Ben's relationship develops around the disability.

Sometimes it felt like Ben wanted to fix Jenny, almost like he didn't accept her. I bristle at that.

On the other hand, he does go out of his way to make things accessible to her. (This is a very low bar for 2024 but this is a historical, so what do we make of that?)

2.5 stars

I think I need to take a break from Mary Balogh's books for a while, because I've had issues with her past few books--and for Always Remember, I desperately struggled to finish the book despite liking the characters.

I liked Jennifer's struggle of having a loving family but also feeling like they were coddling her and holding her back from a life lived more fully. Ben is a good guy and a great dad! But there's a difference between a slowly-paced novel and a deliberately-paced one, and Always Remember is slow as molasses. Balogh's shtick of showing you a scene, and then having the characters ruminate on the scene afterwards (and then sometimes internally monologue more than once!) slows down the story like crazy.

I also wish that the story wasn't confined to the days leading up to the Ravenswood fete and then the fete itself. The pairing of the illegitimate son of an earl + the granddaughter of a duke is really unusual for the time period, but we never saw Ben and Jennifer outside of this friendly family environment.

Mary Balogh brings the second story of the Ware family of Ravenswood in Always Remember, the love story of the illegitimate brother Ben in his search for a second wife. At a family gathering he develops a friendship with Jennifer, the disabled sister of the Duke of Wilby who is married to Ben's legitimate sister.. Ben has always stayed in the background in the Ware family although accepted as part of the family. Ben finds ways to give Jennifer more independence and also discovers that he has respectable relatives of his long dead mother, the mistress of the deceased Earl of Stratton. Wonderful regency romance.

Every now and then I enjoy a good Regency Romance and when I'm in the mood for that I grab a book by Mary Balogh. I have not read the previous two books in this series but I definitely plan to. Always Remember is such a sweet love story between Ben and Jennifer. Both have obstacles to overcome in their lives but it's such a joy to watch them do so together.

The narrator, Rosalyn Landor, as always does an amazing job on this type of book.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 16 January 2024

Remember Love introduced a shocking, heartbreaking situation that nearly destroyed the Ware family and then tells the story of them picking up the pieces and putting themselves back together as they find love. Remember Me continues with the Wares and introduces the Arden family into the mix for that romance. Now, Always Remember continues with that theme, but adds a few complications to make the romance less than easy. For, this pair is nearly as unequal and surprising as it gets for that time and place- an illegitimate brother to the Wares and a duke’s daughter with a physical challenge.

Always Remember, the third of the Ravenswood Regency era historical romances, is a romance set against the ongoing story of the Ware family so works best read in order.

Ben Ellis was reared with the legitimate family of his father and was allowed to call the generous hearted countess as mother and his half-siblings, his brothers and sisters. But, for all that, he has always been conscious of the difference and how society at large views him. He was well provided for and owns his own smaller estate, but now, he’s ready to move on from grieving his deceased wife and find a woman who will mother his little girl and partner him.

Now, there is the mysterious letter from a man claiming to be his mother’s legitimate son with a shocking story to fill in the blank page that was his mother’s history. Is the man’s story true? And, if so, why is he contacting Ben? Lady Jennifer is the surprising person he turns to with his inner turmoil and she is also the woman who dominates his thoughts. Why is he the only one to see her needs and wants behind that cheerful smile she shows the world? Why must he feel the attraction to a woman far above him in birth and status? It can never be.

Lady Jennifer has been unable to walk since a childhood illness wrecked havoc on her body so that her leg twisted and stopped growing. She nearly died and her loving family had to carefully care for her to bring her back to health. Now, as a woman of twenty-five, she is growing impatient with loving coddling and wants to show her independence. Ben is the first person to take her dreams and make them a reality with his practical solutions and clear-eyed view of her. He strives to hide behind the façade of ‘normal’ and yet he’s extraordinary. He sees her as capable, but can he see her as an attractive woman, too? How could it ever work out if they were to act on their attraction?

I loved Ben and Jennifer and I liked how the author brought them slowly along from friendship to romance pair. The mystery element of Ben’s situation with a would-be brother and maternal side of the family also had me intrigued. But, sigh… I was not utterly captivated. In fact, I set the book down a few times to read or listen to others because I would get bored waiting for the pace to pick up. Part of the reason is because the Ware and Arden family country house party gathering would push in and take over so the plot would stall out for a bit. I love them all, but was more interested in Ben and Jennifer’s romance and the situation with his brother. It does get there, but doddles along the way.

Side note, I loved seeing a crossover figure from the Westcott series in Bertrand Lamarr. Dare I hope for a certain romance to be blossoming for him and a certain young lady Ware?

So, I loved the story, but found it had lag spots. Ben and Jennifer were fabulous and I’m reveling in their swoony romance. For those who enjoy an old-style historical romance with careful attention to character and romance development, I recommend this book/series (and any of Mary Balogh’s books, really).

Two carriages roll towards Ravenswood, the estate of the Earl of Stratton, for an extended family gathering. One carries Ben Ellis and his three-year-old daughter, the other Lady Jennifer Arden and her aunt; he is the earl’s illegitimate stepbrother, she is the sister of a duke; aware that his daughter needs a mother, he is contemplating marriage, but to a partner of modest social status who might be readier to overlook the stigma of illegitimacy; she is wealthy and well connected, but she is crippled. Gradually they fall in love, but the social barriers are formidable. How these are overcome is the focus of this absorbing story.
In the process the novel sensitively explores a whole range of issues which arise from the misuse of power within a patriarchal system, not only physical and psychological abuse, but also over-protectiveness, however well-intentioned.
Highly recommended.

Always Remember by Mary Balogh. This was just a wonderful book!! Loved it and I hope to read more from this author soon! Highly Recommend this book and this author's writing.

Eight years have passed since the fateful events of the last festival at Ravenswood that led Ben Ellis to follow his younger brother, now the Earl of Stratton, as his batman. Widowed during the Napoleanic wars, he now cares for his three year old daughter and is considering re-marrying. The question is, which of the single women in the village would be the wisest choice?

I’ve been waiting for Ben’s story, wondering how Mary Balogh would find him a match when his illegitimacy would preclude a match with someone of his family’s standing in Regency England. I never suspected that it would be Lady Jennifer Arden, after she was introduced in the previous outing in the Ravenswood series. Any previous doubts I had about the portrayal of her character were put to rest in Always Remember, as her personality and disability were further fleshed out and critical thinking gave way to simply enjoying her as a character and in particular enjoying her interactions with Ben and his daughter Joy immensely.

It seems ages since I read Remember Love and Remember Me, so I was glad to see that the beginning of the book was crafted as a lovely refresher and that all of Ben’s siblings, two with growing families, were included throughout.

Remember Me is a gently paced story of a budding friendship that soon turns to love, despite the resistance of the two parties and against the advice of family. It is a delightful story and my favorite of the series so far.
Please note that this is a Regency Romance written for the general market. If you are a reader who prefers a chaste or closed door romance, do skip the final scene in Chapter 24.

This review refers to a temporary digital galley that I voluntarily read through NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own.

I loved the connection between the characters but the book was just hard to finish. It was innocent which I understood but wanted more of a romance vibe. Ben was just trying to be nice. And it felt like that was overtaken into more of an innocent love interest turned love story instead of a widow befriending a family friend. Definitely felt the friends to lovers but it was a side note to the story. I would have been so much more interested if it was just a historical fiction based on the Jennifer’s point of view. The love felt like it was an afterthought instead of the main point.

"Always Remember" is a captivating love tale between two people who, within a short span, forge a profound friendship that blossoms into love. The portrayal of disability in the narrative is particularly striking, a rarity within the realm of regency romance, adding a unique and commendable layer to the story.

This series overall offers a captivating narrative with compelling main characters, and engaging storylines across each novel. However, I find the excessive introduction of irrelevant characters and unnecessary details quite frustrating. While I enjoy reading about the main characters and their adventures, the inclusion of distant relatives and trivial social interactions tends to elongate the books unnecessarily, making them more confusing than enjoyable for me 🤷🏼‍♀️

A lovely slow building story of friendship to love between two characters, (seeing themselves as less than), determined to make the best life for themselves.