This review was first published in and is reposted with permission from Shelf Awareness.
Two people struggling with the roles they must play in society create a haven in The Belle of Belgrave Square, the comforting second entry in the Belles of London series by Mimi Matthews (The Siren of Sussex). Julia Wychwood suffers from oppressive anxiety in London's high society, but she loves riding horses and reading novels: she and her friends are "more comfortable in their sidesaddles than in a ballroom." She nearly faints the first time she is introduced to Captain Jasper Blunt. Unfortunately, her parents expect her to use her dowry to win a husband who will keep her close by so that she can continue to care for them.
Jasper Blunt, although widely hailed as a war hero, is also haunted by rumors of his conduct in the army and the illegitimate children he's hiding at his country estate. He needs a wife with money to pay for the upkeep of the crumbling house in Yorkshire and provide for the children's future. When Julia realizes she must escape her parents and proposes to him, he accepts her condition that he take her away from London and allow her to read and ride all she wants. In exchange, she is forbidden from entering his private study or asking questions about his past.
Julia gradually comes into her own as she settles into country life, bonds with her stepchildren and peels open the mysteries in Jasper's background. If Jasper's secrets are not difficult to guess, the journey to their revelation--resonant of the myth of Eros and Psyche as well as "Beauty and the Beast"--is still emotionally satisfying. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library