The Arrangement

The Arrangement (The Survivors' Club #2)
by Mary Balogh


This is the third of the seven stories of six men and one woman, all severely wounded in one way or another during the Napoleonic Wars before ending up convalescing together at the home of the Duke of Stanbrook.

It took a me a little bit to write this review because while I knew I liked it very much, I had trouble parsing precisely why I did.


The blind viscount Vincent Hunt has run away from home to escape his family's matchmaking attempts only to land himself within the reach of a grasping family's matrimonial schemes. So when Sophia Fry (the mouse) rescues him and thus loses her home, he decides to marry her.

I think what I liked about this book was that they were both so needy and so concerned about whether or not they could make a good spouse for the other. And there is something terribly touching about two sweet and dependent people working so very hard to shore the other up and make them less dependent. Most books you read are about how at least one of the main characters just can't survive, thrive, or live without the other that it is nice to see ones who know very well they can, but chose love and stay together.