It's not often that I find a well written, truly believable, romantic love story but happily, 'Irresistible' is just that. The main characters, Nathaniel and Sophie are beautifully written and act in ways that are true to the period. Nathanial exhibits all of the culturally ingrained, usually well meaning, sexist characteristics of men of that period but is also capable of intelligent, thoughtful growth when it comes to the women of his family and friendships. Sophie might be written just sli...

It's not often that I find a well written, truly believable, romantic love story but happily, 'Irresistible' is just that. The main characters, Nathaniel and Sophie are beautifully written and act in ways that are true to the period. Nathanial exhibits all of the culturally ingrained, usually well meaning, sexist characteristics of men of that period but is also capable of intelligent, thoughtful growth when it comes to the women of his family and friendships. Sophie might be written just slightly too self-sacrificing, but the reason for it is understandable as the book nears its end. She is nobody's victim and as such is a woman to be much admired.

This book sparkles with humor. The horseback conversations between the Four Horsemen are rife with ribald humor, allusions to past events and shared experiences. Their conversations make their long time friendship believable, move the story along, and add a great deal toward understanding to Nat's character. The secondary characters are alternately supportive, protective and mischievous while helping to round out the story. The often contentious, secondary love story between Eden and Lavinia provided me with some laugh-out-loud moments.

I do have a couple of small criticisms. First, I felt that there was just a bit too much 'stopping and starting' with Nat's and Sophie's romantic relationship. Second, another reviewer described Sophie's capitulation to blackmail as irrational; while I find that a little harsh, it's fair to say that she did have resources to bring it to an end well before she did. Both served to slow the pace of the story a bit. That said, it might be argued that the slower pace allowed the secondary story of Eden and Lavinia develop more fully. Their romantic engagement was a good deal more lighthearted and served as a nice balance to Nat's and Sophie's more angst ridden story.

Bottom line: Even though Mary Balogh has let me down a time or two with other books, I found this one simply Irresistible. I doubt you'll feel as if your time or money has been wasted.

After spending the past two years rusticating at his family home in the country, Nathaniel is now taking his sister and cousin to participate in a London season and brave the marriage mart. He doesn't expect to become reaquainted with Sophie, the wife of a fellow soldier who followed the drum, or to develope feelings for her.

Sophie has been widowed for a few years now, living comfortably with a home and pension that the government have given her after her husband's passing. When Nathaniel...

After spending the past two years rusticating at his family home in the country, Nathaniel is now taking his sister and cousin to participate in a London season and brave the marriage mart. He doesn't expect to become reaquainted with Sophie, the wife of a fellow soldier who followed the drum, or to develope feelings for her.

Sophie has been widowed for a few years now, living comfortably with a home and pension that the government have given her after her husband's passing. When Nathaniel, for whom she has harbored feelings for years, comes to London and back into her life she decides to find some temporary happiness for herself and lets him close to her. But she has secrets to keep and her heart to protect and so she must be careful not to get too close.

As their feelings begin to develope more than either of them bargained for and the stakes become steeper for Sophie will she let him into both her heart and her trust for a future together or will they go their seperate ways?
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The third installment of the Horsemen Trilogy, Nathaniel and Eden have their chance at love and marriage (although Eden and Lavinia's story is more of a bonus story to Nathaniel and Sophie's). The chatacters in this book were far less angsty and dramatic than in the previous two books of the series, which made it a far more enjoyable read. Also I felt that Nathaniel was less arrogant and less of a womanizer from his friends, which was a nice change of pace.

After reading Unforgiven, which I found quite disappointing, I nearly gave up on the series. But Irresistible, despite the cheesy name, is a great improvement from the previous book and really redeemed the series for me.

I understand that Sophie's self-confidence was destroyed by her marriage, but I found it very strange that she continued to suffer through the the threats and demands of blackmail without seeking the support of any friends or loved ones. She was under the impression that no one would stand by her if they discovered the secrets of the blackmail...but it wasn't about her. I understand hoping to protect her family, but it wouldn't have affected her freinds and family's opinions of her. They would have helped her take down her oppressor. I guess we all sometimes make unwise decisions when under pressure, but her decisions really just continued to sacrifice her own happiness, security, and well-being.

Even though I may not have completely agreed with Sophie's logic, I really sympathized with her character and was so happy that she got the chance to make a stand for herself instead of someone continuing to take power out of her hands. I will be completely honest though and say that things got drawn out a bit too long though that it began to border on tedious, both with the conflict and between out two main characters.

I was so, so happy that as well as Nathaniel getting some hits in, Pinter landed a couple too. Not that I don't like Natheniel or that I particularly wanted him to get hit. But I absolutely despise when the male lead of the book is able to effortlessly overpower the bad guy to defend the female lead or save the day because it undermines and devalues the entire conflict. I don't want the male lead to be a super hero, I want him to seem human and relatable. If a bad guy is so easy to defeat, why not do so sooner without all the fuss? The fact that Nathaniel doesn't walk away without so much as a scratch on him maked the whole fight more substantial and believable for me, and I'm so happy that Balogh had him take a couple hits.

And I really adored Nathaniel's character, espescially after reading the other two books in the series. Compared to his friends, he is a true gentleman. The only things I didn't really appreciate about his character were the wild streak from his past and his tendencies(in the beginning) to strictly hold the women around him to the stereotypical roles availabe to women during this time (wife, mistress, spinster, ect.). But overall he was sweet and I genuinely enjoyed reading about his character. As for Sophie, although I disagreed with several of her decisions, I liked her character and enjoyed watching her build her confidence, realizing she has things to offer and find her way to happiness.

Great addition to and certainly my favorite from the series. I definitely recommend this book, and so I would recommend the series as a whole because I think this book bring the series together. Plus the mechanizations of their friends are more amusing and endearing if you're already familiar with the characters. It's not a clean romance, but there are only a couple of mature/steamy scenes.