Simply Perfect

by Mary Balogh, 343 pages

Miss Claudia Martin has overcome personal losses and worked hard to start and expand her successful girls' school. The students, teachers, and business of running the institution are her life and she is honestly happy. But when a wealthy, titled, charmer of a man shows up in her office to offer what appears to be a simple favor via a mutual acquaintance, her safe, familiar life begins to feel increasingly topsy-turvy. Joseph, Marquess of Attingsborough, is attempting to do his duty as a duke-in-waiting and follow his father's dictates about marrying well and settling down to produce some heirs. But Joseph has secrets and dreams that may prove to be incompatible with what his father, and the rest of proper society, finds appropriate, and he's slowly starting to realize the capable Miss Martin may be among them.

This Regency romance is surprisingly engaging. Yes, romance is the big plot, but the characters actually appear to have lives that hold significance for them outside of their budding relationship. And Balogh gives them time to interact with one another on the level of business associates and then friends who grow to understand those aspects of each other's lives long before notions of another dynamic come into play. She also makes them imperfect in personality, if not in form, but without going overboard, and gives both the characters and the setting enough substance to make the reader sense the weight of the personal and societal pressures they encounter.

Simply Perfect is part of a handful of Simply... titles focused on the girls' school and its staff and students, so many of Balogh's other lead couples weave in and out of the story in supporting roles. While having so many side characters to remember can be a bit of a task, their presence also gives the setting a nicely fleshed out feel as it's clear they all have their own interlinked stories outside the central plot instead of existing only to serve it.

Thanks, Jen H., for another successful recommendation!