SBD: more Balogh and a mystery

After reading A Matter of Class, I moved on to Balogh's Simply Perfect.

Spoilers follow.

I think I have too modern a sensibility to appreciate the big horror of this book -- the hero has an illegitimate child whom he loves, and he is contemplating sending her off to school so he can get married to fulfill his family's obligations (heir to a dukedom). And when he reveals his illegitimate child, everyone is horrified and embarrassed, and they all expect him to abandon her.  Well, except for financial support, which would be the only suitable connection between them.  I couldn't really understand why everyone took such offense at him actually caring about his child, regardless of the circumstances of her birth.

 

The heroine was sort of interesting, in that she consciously chose her independence via running a school, even when there were easier, more socially acceptable ways of surviving (marriage).

 

Some dialog early on made me roll my eyes.  They talk about handicapped children and whether they are educable.  Although the word "handicap" existed at that time, it didn't come to mean disabled until World War I or later, not post Regency.  

 

Eh.

 

Moving on, I switched genres entirely to mystery:  Mahu Surfer by Neil Plakcy.  Am liking it a lot.  Read a later book in the series, circling back now.