Customer Reviews

A Secret Passion (Signet Regency Romance)

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A SECRET PASSION is a book experience not to be missed by anyone who enjoys strong characters and a story that keeps your fingers quickly turning pages to discover what will happen next. This debut book certainly shows SOPHIA NASH'S star power, and I wager it is a harbinger for many more wonderful books to come. I can't wait.

In this first book, Ms. Nash gradually and effectively builds on a battle of wills between her principal characters, Jane Lovering and the Earl of Graystock. It is a battle that both are determined to win until each is confronted by the cold light of truth about what really divides them. Fortunately for the reader, this emotional conflict allows Ms. Nash to entertain us with witty dialogue and sizzling sexual tension that all but lights up the pages, and she keeps that sensuality pulsating to the very end. I especially like the way she handled the initial coupling of Jane and Rolfe by using great emotion and explosive passion that, for me, deepened the journey of her characters as they struggle with their own individual desires and needs.

Another fascinating character was Cornwall, where much of the action inside the story plays out, and Ms. Nash captures it beautifully. I loved how the rough coastline and countryside works against the rough edges of the story, before love enters to soften those edges.

I highly recommend A SECRET PASSION and its author SOPHIA NASH. Her strong writer's voice, skillful use of history and character, and wonderful writing style should be experienced firsthand and savored. For me, it's a keeper and a great read, and I look forward to her next book with great anticipation!

Setting - England, 1816 --- Mrs. Jane Lovering is a widow, not quite out of mourning when her father, unbeknownst to her arranged a betrothal to a tonnish fop, even going so far as to placing notice in the papers. Furious and refusing to be `sold' once again to bail her father out of debt - Jane is told to comply or leave taking nothing than the clothes on her back. She `borrows' her mare, and flees to Littlefield and her spinster aunt, Clarissa Fairchild.

Shortly after arriving in Littlefield, Jane chances upon a rider on a runaway stallion and assumes the rider to be a stable hand. Rolfe Fitzhugh St. James, Earl of Graystock, short-tempered and belligerent, didn't identify himself blaming her for trespassing thereby causing his mount to bolt. Upset, that a mere stable hand would rant at her, Jane further infuriates him by suggesting that she could train the temperamental stallion. He taunted her with an `I dare you' proposition to come back the next day to see if she could do better riding the stallion. An accomplished horsewoman, Jane takes on the dare. The price for losing was a kiss, a kiss that surprised them both - but just don't think `happily ever after' - forget about it! Jane's `secret passion' turned into a `secret' even she wasn't aware of until it was almost too late!

This debut had more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at with two extremely stubborn protagonists! Jane, forced to marry a man much older than herself, thought after his death she was finally free until her father tried to marry her off again to a ridiculous fop with more money than brains. She escaped by running off and being disowned in the process. With few options available she wrote to Harry, her childhood friend asking that he save her from her fathers scheming by marrying her. Before leaving to meet up with Harry, she was again thrown together with the infuriating Earl of Graystock, and does her best to fight the powerful physical attraction she felt towards him. When they both give into passion and he discovers her secret he then, without speaking to her, did the worst possible thing by traveling to London and arranging another betrothal behind her back with her only too eager father. In the meantime she and happy go lucky Harry, are busily planning an elopement. On top of all that, there is another romance taking place as her spinster aunt rediscovers, the Earl's houseguest is none other than the one suitor she'd allow her brother to chase off years ago and has now re-entered her life. Wow! Ms. Nash's fresh and effervescent voice shows great promise proving she's got what it takes. Frankly, I loved this story with all the twists and turns, and the very sensual `foreplay' between the protagonists. This was a really great read that I can highly recommend. --- Marilyn Rondeau, for www.historicalromancewriters.com ---

Oh, what a delight! I brought this book along on a family vacation and ended up reading the book the first day. I could not put it down even when we were walking out to the beach. For the first time, in a very long while, I found an author who knows how to make a Regency sizzle. Break out your fans, ladies. This story heats up. The hero is positively to die for. He's a real man who knows what he wants, but knows how to respect a lady. But it is the intense chemistry between the hero and the heroine that makes this book a keeper. If you want a story that makes you laugh, sigh and want more, more, more, this book is for you. I am so glad there is another book (I just pre-ordered!) coming in August. Sophia Nash is off to a wonderful start for a long and brilliant career. I've just added this author to my automatic-buy list! You should too.

Widow Jane Lovering refuses to allow her father to wed her to another old man for money. She flees to the small town of Littlefield to reside with her spinster aunt, Clarissa Fairchild. It is there she meets Rolfe. At first she thinks he is a stable hand on a runaway horse. She quickly learns he is the obnoxious arrogant, and short tempered Lord Graystock.

Rolfe Fitzhugh St. James, the Earl of Graystock, has never met a woman like Jane before. She remains unbowed before his temper and even goes so far as to offer her help in training his stallion! Rolfe decides to marry her instead of strangle her. But while Rolfe goes behind her back with her knowledge to her father to make arrangements Jane is deciding her own future. By the time Rolfe returns, Jane has met up with a childhood sweetheart Harry who has his own marriage proposal.

As for Aunt Clarissa, it is just her luck that Rolfe's visiting friend, Sir Thomas Gooding (previously his subordinate officer in the military), happens to be one of her suitors from years ago.

***** There are two, sometimes three, sets of romantic suits going on at once in this deliciously scandalous romance novel. Jane is often coming up with wild plans and attempting to follow through without really considering the consequences of them, or of what her heart tells her. The story is not set in London with all the balls and parties, so no vicious gossiping from anyone in the Ton to speak of. But readers know the tongues in London are blabbing away. This story is the perfect way to spend those rainy afternoon hours. I look forward to Sophia Nash's next release. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This is a very uneven book. I quite liked the hero - as an earlier reviewer pointed out, he is one of the very few romance heroes who actually accept that when a woman says "no" she really means "no". But the heroine was so stupidly stubborn (the author calls it pride) that one keeps wondering that one so lacking in any sense of self-preservation actually managed to reach the ripe age of twenty-three or so. In addition, the heroine was incredibly beautiful, a wizard with horses and able to dash off a novel in her spare time. I do believe she was bad at embroidery, though.
There is what could have been a very touching secondary romance - but the author quickly relegates it to the sidelines, just summing up most developments and resolving everything very patly half-way through the novel. More might have been made out of this.
This phenomenon is quite typical of the novel as a whole: The author often does not know what to write about in scenic detail and what to sum up. So I verged between being growing bored with some descriptions and being annoyed that some other developments happened too fast.
What really annoyed me, however, and almost made me lay the novel aside half-way through, was the heroine's family. I don't want to give away too much, so here are just some hints: Both the heroine's father and brother are involved in a power struggle based on a misunderstanding of an event that occured five years earlier. As a result of their both keeping quiet about vitally important facts, they damage the heroine's happiness to a terrible degree not once, but twice, while both claim they love her. She forgives each of them after half a page. Now I do not think that forgiveness is unbecoming in a character, but to forgive such incredible selfishness (which had caused such suffering) after five minutes, went deeply against my grain. It read like an invitation "go on, trample on me again" - but I already mentioned that lack of any sense of self-preservation...

To sum up, the author shows some promise, but she should rely less on a convoluted plot (with many accidents) and more on convincing character development.

This book was a little out of the ordinary for a traditional Regency romance. For one thing, the heroine (Jane Lovering) is a widow. Having once been sacrificed on the altar of family finances, she refuses to go along with her father's plot again. Her flight leads to encountering Rolfe, the Earl of Graystock. He is out of the ordinary, too. Although he has a secret in his background which makes him a tortured hero, he doesn't bemoan his fate. He accepts what life has dealt him and tries to do the right thing--even when the heroine prefers to marry another man. An honorable man as a hero is one who grabs my heart every time. I must also admit to a sneaking affection for the other suitor in Jane's life. Harry is exactly the happy-go-lucky guy who would make a girl's life happy, yet Rolfe is the one who makes your heart beat quicken. Pick up A Secret Passion and indulge yourself in a passion that refuses to stay hidden.

I just finished reading A Secret Passion and I think it is a beautiful novel written by an extraordinary new author with one of the best romantic voices to appear in many years. This author's debut book is a gift to the Regency sub-genre of romance. With assured writing that combines powerful elements of sensuality, humor, and emotion, this writer creates enchantment. But this novel is not your typical series Regency which is more likely to have at most a peck on the hand at the end. A Secret Passion is bordering on the longer historical romances in its tone and scope. I hope this author's future books live up to the great promise of her first. How about spin-offs of the Thompson girls or Jane's brother, Ms. Nash?

A Secret Passion was just what the doctor ordered! A mini-vacation and diversion from real life. I loved the characters, the period, the setting and, yes, the passion. Nash does a wonderful job of reeling you in and holding your attention until the last page is turned. When will her next book be published? I need to preorder!

This was a fun, fast read with just the right amount of sexual tension, nice give-and-take between the lead characters and interesting subplots. I'd definitely read another Nash book.

Widow Jane Lovering refuses to allow her father to wed her to another old man for money. She flees to the small town of Littlefield to reside with her spinster aunt, Clarissa Fairchild. It is there she meets Rolfe. At first she thinks he is a stable hand on a runaway horse. She quickly learns he is the obnoxious arrogant, and short tempered Lord Graystock.

Rolfe Fitzhugh St. James, the Earl of Graystock, has never met a woman like Jane before. She remains unbowed before his temper and even goes so far as to offer her help in training his stallion! Rolfe decides to marry her instead of strangle her. But while Rolfe goes behind her back with her knowledge to her father to make arrangements Jane is deciding her own future. By the time Rolfe returns, Jane has met up with a childhood sweetheart Harry who has his own marriage proposal.

As for Aunt Clarissa, it is just her luck that Rolfe's visiting friend, Sir Thomas Gooding (previously his subordinate officer in the military), happens to be one of her suitors from years ago.

***** There are two, sometimes three, sets of romantic suits going on at once in this deliciously scandalous romance novel. Jane is often coming up with wild plans and attempting to follow through without really considering the consequences of them, or of what her heart tells her. The story is not set in London with all the balls and parties, so no vicious gossiping from anyone in the Ton to speak of. But readers know the tongues in London are blabbing away. This story is the perfect way to spend those rainy afternoon hours. I look forward to Sophia Nash's next release. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.