Mary Balogh does it again with the latest instalment in her Ravenswood series, Remember Me. The book gives us angst, gives us several love stories worth crying over, and tells multiple family stories while managing to balance out its narrative. It’s not my favorite Balogh ever, but it’s still a good book.

Lady Philippa – Pippa – Ware is the eldest child of Earl of Stratton, and unfortunately her marital prospects are nigh on to nill thanks to a family scandal. Her brother chose to expose their father’s extramarital affair in public, and this has shrouded the entire family in scandal. It takes Pippa years to agree to have a season, but when she gets to London, she soon finds herself in the sights of an impossible man.

Lucas Arden, Marquess of Roath, is under the gun in a different way. His grandfather, The Duke of Wilby, believes he’s dying and he wants his bachelor heir to get to marrying and popping out kids ASAP. He thinks Pippa would be perfect for Lucas, but Lucas and Pippa are at odds because she heard him make a cruel remark about her virtue. She approaches him at a ball and asks him if he remembers her. He does, and he knows very well why he said what he said and why he cannot marry her. Cue matchmaking relatives trying to prove to Lucas and Pippa that their love is worth fighting for.

Remember Me benefits from an incredibly charming cast. I genuinely liked Lucas and Pippa and their sprawling families and their quirks. Their courtship worked for me, as did the stirrings of lust and warmth in their marriage. Pippa, in particular, is worth caring about, stuck battling her poor reputation and lucky enough to basically be instantly adopted by the Arden clan.

The last quarter of the book feels rushed and a little too saccharine, yet in the midst of that overt sweetness there are wonderful moments that I couldn’t discount.

But this doesn’t make it to an A-level read because of the intense way the meddling, particularly by the Duke and his wife, plays out. If you don’t like meddling, matchmaking relatives you’re going to hate this book; it’s not a trope I’m terribly fond of, but here it starts out well – until it becomes ridiculous, as if the Duke of Wilby would marry Lucas and Pippa to each other by hook or by crook. The thing is that he had excellent chemistry with Pippa himself, so it ends up reading like something of a quadrangle in an unintentional way.

Yet everything and everyone else in the book – Lucas’ beloved cousin, Jenny, the wonderful relationship between Lucas and his siblings and Pippa and hers, the careful portrayal of the error – make this well worth reading. Remember Me is not Balogh at her absolute best, but even her B grade reads are works of art.