Joan Grenier-Winther

Dear Mary Balogh,
I hope this finds you and your family well.
I wanted to write to say how much pleasure I derive from reading your books. I often find myself nodding my head in recognition of a character’s hesitations or fears, drifting into my own thoughts as characters reveal their secret dreams, smiling at silly situations and comments, feeling admiration when they conquer some obstacle, understanding their joy in intimate relationships and in family. Your beautiful prose is a delight. Indeed, there have been many of your books that I have reread, as well as listened to as audiobooks, enjoying them all over again.
Your books also continually remind me to appreciate my relationship with my life partner (and this, after 40 years together), as well as the fine qualities he embodies. While no duke, he has the kindness, sense of honor and duty, intelligence, sensitivity, masculinity, caring nature, and love of children and grandchildren, not to mention passion, that I find in your male characters ~ qualities that I sometimes forget in the day-to-day, especially when we are stressed out being cooped up due to the pandemic. When I read your books, they prompt me to remember what drew me to him in the first place, for those qualities are as strong, if not stronger, as when I met him.
Moreover, I also see glimpses of myself in some of your female characters ~ their strengths, vulnerabilities, wisdom, and occasional foolishness ~ and think that such awareness is never a bad thing, even for the nearly 70 year old woman that I am.
So, thank you ~ for the joy and the insights I get from your writing style, your stories, and your characters.