A bittersweet and tender romance!

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Someone to Remember (Wescott #7) by Mary Balogh    
After reading 'Someone to Honor' I noted 'the amazingly secretive meeting of Aunt Matilda (Lady Matilda Westcott) with someone she has previously known,' and exclaimed, 'therein lies a story!'
Therein did lie a story! A story of lost dreams, of lives taking different paths and an endearing love lying hidden for more than thirty-six years, pushed into the depths of the couple in question's respective hearts, until they meet again.
Charles Sawyer, Viscount Dirkson, and natural father to Gil Bennington, now married to Abigail Westcott, and Matilda's niece, loved Matilda when he was twenty. Charles had proposed but had been refused by Matilda as her parents disapproved of him and his lifestyle. Matilda has never married, despite various opportunities, and had reconciled herself to being a loving aunt and her mother's somewhat put upon companion. 
Recently, unbeknownst to all but her nephew Bertrand, Matilda had visited Charles to ask him to assist Gil in a custody case for his daughter Katy. As a result the Westcott family has invited Charles to a social gathering 'en famille' to thank him. Charles and Matilda (upon inner reflection and to their own disturbance) find that that the attraction they had for other all those years ago has not lessened.
This is a delightful story of 'second chance' love. And the fact that it is with their 'first chance' love, the road not taken so long ago, makes the story even more bittersweet.
(A little digression, apparently this sub genre is being referred to as 'seasoned', to me a rather ghastly term as it conjures up a seasoned roast chicken or a slab of beef. Not an attractive thought to have ricocheting around in my head! So I am using 'second chance' until some enlightened soul finds a more endearing term.)
Back to the story! I loved that Matilda enjoys traveling in curricles. As we're so enchantingly told Matilda, "remembered that heady feeling of being much farther off the ground than she had expected. The feeling of danger and exhilaration. She laughed aloud." Wonderful!
I love that this apparently staid spinsterish, middle aged woman is a secret rebel with a heart for adventure, who would like nothing better than for Charles to "spring the horses."
Balogh has given us a poignant and at times whimsical (due to the two delightfully reflective and original lead characters) romance that pulls at the heartstrings.

 A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley 

*****

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