Patricia Gross

Ms. Balogh, you are a truly wonderful writer, but I have had a hard time reading your books due to the way you portray your heroes, as whoring, and promiscuous men. Even in today’s world with it’s flagrant lack of morals and values, I have a hard time thinking that many women would be okay dating men who thought it was acceptable to pay for sex. I find it even harder to believe that women in the Regency period would have felt the same. Perhaps I am naive or I’m just fortunate to have a husband and friends who value women as they are intended to be valued, for who they are and not as objects to be used or purchased for their pleasure. I’ve wanted to write to you about this for some time but hesitated, until now. Why now? Well, It seems you have changed or have taken a reprieve from your usual character portrayal with your Westcott series. I have loved this series, not only because of the wonderfully crafted stories but because of how you’ve portrayed the men, not as man whores, but as men to be desired and respected because their singular focus isn’t about sex, but more about their lives and the people in them whom they care for and cherish. And lord forbid they should be celibate for any given period of time, as if they will die without sex, and yet you’ve done that, and remarkably well, I might add. I applaud you and thank you, for giving us a series of books that we can go back to over and over. And thank you for putting men in a much more wonderful light, and according to my frame a reference, a truer light. I hope that you will continue to write your men as you have in the Westcott series, for I truly do love the way you write and want to continue to enjoy more of your stories.