Irresistible by Mary Balogh

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

First published in 1998, but newly available in audio, Irresistible is the final book in Mary Balogh’s Horsemen Trilogy, which features a group of friends who served together in the Peninsular War, and whose fearless feats of derring-do earned them the nickname the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It’s a gently moving and compelling friends-to-lovers story that has a few flaws (mostly relating to some of the heroine’s actions) but which I enjoyed very much in spite of them.

Sir Nathaniel Gascoigne has spent the last couple of years rusticating on his Yorkshire estate drowning (as he sees it) in female relatives – five sisters and one cousin. With four of his sisters now settled, he’s looking forward to having the place to himself once he has found suitable husbands for his youngest sister and cousin, and is heading to London for the Season for the first time in two years with exactly this intention. He also plans a reunion with his fellow Horsemen (two of whom are now happily married) and to have a bit of *ahem* fun whilst he’s in town and break his two-year dry spell ;). One morning shortly after his arrival in town, he and his friends are riding in the park when they are delighted to meet an old friend, Mrs. Sophia Armitage.

Sophia – known as Sophie – is a widow who followed the drum for a number of years and was well-liked by all, becoming good friends with the Horsemen. Her late husband’s heroic deeds have garnered her a house, a small pension and a degree of celebrity that has given her entrée to the best society, and she was content with her independent, comfortable life – until the first of the letters arrived. She tries to maintain a degree of composure by telling herself they are bills, debts… but it’s clear that she’s being blackmailed, although for what and by whom isn’t revealed until later.

She and the Horsemen – Rex (Indiscreet), Kenneth (Unforgiven), Eden and Nathaniel – fall easily back into the ways of their established friendship even though they haven’t seen each other for three years. She’s “good old Sophie” to them, someone so familiar that she’s like one of the lads – yet it’s quickly clear that while she faces the world – and her old friends – with a warm smile and the no-nonsense, down-to-earth manner that earned their friendship and respect in the first place, Sophie isn’t happy, and that her cheerfulness is a carefully constructed and maintained façade.

Things change drastically for Sophie a few days later when Nathaniel sees her safely home after a society gathering, and they end up sharing a passionate and completely unexpected kiss. Sophie has always known, deep down, that she was more than half in love with Nathaniel, but put it down to the same sort of dazzled infatuation felt by all the other women in the encampment for all four Horsemen. She had never thought to have anything more from him than friendship, but now, seeing the opportunity to have something she’s longed for, to be able to experience real passion of the sort she never experienced in all her years of marriage, she decides to grab it with both hands, and invites Nathaniel to her bed.

Nathaniel is just as surprised by the intensity of his attraction to Sophie, whom he’s never really thought of ‘in that way’ before, but her passionate, uninhibited response to him is a revelation, as is the lithe, shapely body she’s hidden for so long beneath dark-coloured, shapeless clothes. Their night together was full of discoveries for Sophie, too; for the first time in her life she felt wanted and desirable, and something of the youthful confidence she lost following her marriage returned to her. She proposes a discreet affair during the remainder of the season – a suggestion Nathaniel is only too pleased to accept.

Their next encounter is somewhat awkward, given neither of them knows quite how to conduct such a liaison, but the sex is fabulous and they’re looking forward to more of the same over the coming months – until Nathaniel begins to suspect that Sophie is in some sort of trouble and unable or unwilling to ask for help. He’s not wrong – but Sophie can’t bear the thought of the information she’s being blackmailed over coming to light; not only would the ensuing scandal ruin her, it would extend to her family and likely affect her brother’s business and scotch her niece’s marriage prospects. Plus she can’t bear the thought of having Nathaniel and the other Horsemen pity her should they discover the truth.

Here’s where we get to those flaws I mentioned earlier. In some ways, I could completely sympathise with Sophie’s desire to stand on her own two feet, make her own decisions and choose her own friends, and I could easily understand her anger at having her wishes ignored when Nathaniel and the others decide to act to protect her when she’s specifically told them not to. On the other, however, her behaviour was nonsensical; she’s a woman alone being blackmailed to the point of penury; she’s already sold her jewellery in order to pay the most recent demands and it was clear there would be more. Her rejection of not just Nathaniel’s help, but Nathaniel himself, felt like stubbornness for the sake of it; she knows Nathaniel and his friends to be decent, honourable men and values their friendship, yet fails to understand the true nature of friendship or to realise they will not be repelled by the secret she was so desperate to protect… which wasn’t even her secret in the first place.

That was my biggest issue with the storyline. Otherwise, Sophie and Nathaniel’s romance is well-developed and the love scenes are sensual – and I also enjoyed the secondary romance between the one remaining bachelor Horseman and Nathaniel’s very independent, sharp-tongued cousin.

I went to check my review of the previous books in this series, and was surprised to find out that Unforgiven came out in 2016 – so there’s been quite a gap! Fortunately however, Rosalyn Landor is on hand to grace the narrator’s chair and provide continuity, and it will come as no surprise when I say that she delivers a wonderfully expressive and engaging performance to round out the series. Her smooth, contralto voice enables her to voice male characters without sounding as though she has to strain to maintain a lower pitch, and she voices all four Horsemen and other male characters distinctly, so that in group scenes it’s easy to tell there are a number of different speakers. But it’s her interpretation of Sophie that is the real stand-out here. Ms. Landor is as adept at voicing grand-dames as she is ingénues and every shade of female character in between; she gives Sophie a mellow tone, and delivers most of her dialogue in a measured, equanimous way that aptly reflects the no-nonsense side of her character. But she does a terrific job when it comes to conveying her more emotional side, too, Sophie’s heartbreak at having to push away her friends and the man she loves, her loathing of the blackmailer (who sounds like a totally smarmy bastard!)… it’s all there in her voice, and she brings Sophie to life in such a sympathetic way, it made me want to keep rooting for her even when she was at her most irritatingly self-sacrificing.

Irresistible is classic Mary Balogh; gently moving and deeply emotional, with well-rounded, complex characters, a sensual romance, and well written familial relationships and friendships. Rosalyn Landor’s expert narration brings the whole thing to vivid, vibrant life, making this an audiobook I’d recommend in spite of its flaws.

Caz

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