Customer Reviews

The Heart's Desire

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This captivating novel by new author Anna Furtado, "The Heart's Desire," is a delightful tale about two women who fall in love during the early Renaissance. The year is 1458 and Mistress Catherine Hawkins, who owns and runs "The Shoppe of Hawkins & Hawkins" in Willowglen Township, England, is getting ready for the Feast of St. Remi. Catherine, a truly extraordinary woman and purveyor of herbs, spices, and fine linens, is a well-known and respected member of the Spice Vendor's Guild. She is well educated and has extensive knowledge of herbal medicine.

On the eve of the Feast of St. Remi, Catherine lays eyes on the most beautiful woman she has ever seen...she is at once smitten. Unbeknownst to her, this woman-Lady Lydia-is captivated by Catherine as well. Lydia, devises a scheme whereby she can get to know Mistress Catherine better. Catherine and Lydia are aware of their love for each other, but both are too afraid to reveal their hearts' desire. Not understanding her intense feelings makes it harder for Catherine to profess her love for Lydia. Lydia yearns to express her love for Catherine, but she too is afraid of offending her, and of losing her friendship. Will the women realize their dream?

Furtado has done her homework. "The Heart's Desire" reads as if it were written with a quill dipped into ink, made visible by candlelight, at a small shop, on a quaint cobblestone street in England. Everything from the tone of the book to its language is impeccable as this historical novel takes you back to the fifteenth century. From the very first page, to the last, you feel enamored to these brave women, as they fight circumstances beyond their control. I cannot emphasize how well written Furtado's novel is and how much I enjoyed it. I was sorry to finish reading it. The characters are so real that I felt I had actually made their acquaintance. The Heart's Desire is the first installment in the Briarcrest Chronicles with book two hopefully on the horizon. I highly recommend the book to all you romantics out there.

I can't really add anything to the three wonderful reviews by AGermain, CRosenberg or Joyce McNeil except to say that I agree with them.

It has been a long time since I read a romance from this historical period and it was a very nice change.

This was a lovely story rich in drama and surprisingly violent in part that fit in perfectly with the story and the period of time the novel takes place.

It's lovely to think that the Duchess of Briarcrest and her companion Hilary could have existed and that Lydia, a daughter of a duke, and Catherine the daughter of a merchant had a chance at happiness together. This story seems more feasible in 1458 than it would in 1858. and I am glad I had the chance to read it.

The novel has depth and you will want to take your time reading it so save it for a lazy weekend.

What if it was feasible to have your heart's desire? Would you take the chance?

Going about her daily life, one woman never places much thought on the questions. That is until she meets a woman who invokes feelings of wonder in her. What do these feelings mean? Should she allow herself to act on them? Each woman finds themselves puzzling over the same questions. As they interact with each other daily, feelings start to grow stronger and stronger. Will they allow themselves the chance at love? Are they each other's heart's desire? And just who is the person that wants one of the women for themself? Will this person pose a threat to the women's happiness? Can their chance at love be strong enough to overcome such a threat?

Told in the days of ole, the story takes the reader on a wonderful journey of life, love, heartbreak, danger and the overwhelming question of: "Will love conquer all?" Noted as the first in a trilogy, The Heart's Desire can only be a great beginning to what should be a fantastic series.

First in the Briarcrest Chronicles, `The Heart's Desire' is a wonderful offering from author Anna Furtado. She brings two very different women - one with means, one without - together in this intriguing historical romance. Catherine Hawkins has inherited her father's spice shop and operates it to make a living. During the town fair, she meets Lydia, a noblewoman with an interesting family. An immediate, but confusing, attraction leads the two down a perilous path of discovery.

Lydia takes some time to become an apprentice in Catherine's shop and the two become close, but don't become lovers. Eventually, Catherine is invited to spend some time at Briarcrest, the home of Lydia's aunt and her companion. Both Catherine and Lydia's eyes are opened here, but Lydia's father has decided it is time for her to marry. Now that both women have found their heart's desire, how are they going to survive?

I'm looking forward to reading `The Heart's Strength,' the next in the series. It has recently become an addition to my `to be read' bookshelf, but won't stay there for long.

I enjoy reading a little history into a romance.

The meeting of Catherine & Lydia is love at first sight except they don't know what to do with it.

When Catherine is invited to Briarcrest, all resistance is lost.

This is a keeper to be read over and over again.

The author pulls you into the story in a way that enables you to feel that you are a part of it all -- a member of the township, a participant in the May Day celebrations, and a guest in the home of the lovely couple, Beatrice and Hilary.

Indeed, the author brings the settings to life and invokes her characters with a passion for life!

Reading this one was a most enjoyable experience!

The Heart's Desire is quite different from a lot of lesbian romance. Granted, I don't think it's very good, but it is different. Its chief difference, and in my opinion its chief problem, is that it is not at all about these two women falling in love. Catherine and Lydia both start the book quite attracted to each other, and it only takes them a very little while to discover the attraction is mutual. Thus the book entirely bypasses examining what makes Catherine and Lydia fall in love with each other. Of course, it doesn't help that they apparently both fell in love at first sight. How or why I never figured out, even after finishing the book. It also skips the question of how these two fifteenth-century women realize that they are sexually attracted to each other. (Not that the book needs to become a coming-out tale, but like I said, it skips this question entirely.)

The question is not "will these two women fall in love", or even "how do these women fall in love", but rather, "given that these women have fallen in love, can they make a life for themselves in fifteenth-century England". Once we realize they aren't the only recognizeable-as-lesbian characters around, it doesn't seem that difficult. Of course, I find the ease with which they are able to live together in a fairly open manner, along with the ease Catherine has in owning an herb shop, to be rather too convenient and simplistic to be believable.

Also, probably because we don't see Catherine and Lydia fall in love, both women remain quite two-dimensional.

Another frustration I have with this book is that it is quite heavily into man-bashing. Many of the men are quite awful, and I can't think of more than one living male character who is positively portrayed. As I've said on other reviews, I don't think that man-bashing is at all necessary or even desirable in telling a lesbian story. To me, it just weakens a story.

This is one of the only lesbian books I'm considering getting rid of, and since I'm always loathe to get rid of books, that says something.