Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Heart (Aincourt)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First the criticisms. Yes, this book is sometimes quite slow, with Camp doing a lot of telling. It is an unfortunate necessity since the protagonists have lived with a sham marriage for 7 years. The reader needs to know their history, and there is no easy way to convey all that. So the first half of the book is a bit slow while the author gives the reader all the necessary info. In addition, if you've read the other books (or either) recently, the redundancy is annoying. Read some other things in between to alleviate that problem.

Michael and Rachel have indeed built their own individual prisons that keep them from recognizing the truth about their relationship, their feelings, and each other. Indeed, they do not know each other at all. Their oh-so-polite marriage is something both want changed, but they feel helpless to do anything about it after so many years. But then rumors crop up, misunderstandings are set up, and the pursuit of truth leads to an untenable situation in which Michael must pretend he's his illegitimate half-brother, and Rachel must find an inner reserve of strength and struggle with what she thinks are adulterous feelings. Her "revenge" when she finds out that Michael's been deceiving her is priceless!

I found the mystery in this book to be interesting and slightly surprising. I like it when I don't have it totally figured out well before the villain is revealed. The book also features a decent cast of secondary characters.

Rachel grows a lot in the book, discovering inner depths and suppressed dreams. Michael shows that he's more than a kind but distant gentleman; he's also a highly intelligent investigator and talented master of disguise who has loved her since the day he met her.

Get through the first 1/3 or so of the book, and the pace really picks up. As for the far-fetched idea that Rachel doesn't recognize her husband: they live apart most of the year, they really don't know each other well, they've never consummated the marriage, Michael is a master of disguise, Rachel hardly expects him to be doing what he's doing, and people tend to believe what they want to believe. Put all that together, and it's not quite so far-fetched for the short time that she's hoodwinked. She is still rather naive at that point in the story, after all.

It's a 3 & 1/2 star book, but I'm giving it 4 stars to help its overall rating. It's really not a bad book.

I am so glad I do not select my books by some of the negative reviews given here. I had just completed Devin and Miranda's story and was so happy I had already purchased the book on Michael and Rachel. First off, I love series books, if done well, and the characters are able to be developed so thoroughly that one really comes to care about them in depth. Just enough of Michael and Rachel was in the first book that you immediately loved and cared about both of them and so wanted them to have the love that other siblings had.

This couple just got off on the wrong foot so to speak, and neither seemed gusty enough to break out from the pattern they had established. On the eve of her wedding to Michael Trent, the Earl of Westhampton, Rachel Aincourt tried to elope with another man. Her plan failed and she was returned to Michael but she refused to accept this man as her husband for real. Rachel just felt this now was her life and what she deserved, trapped in a loveless marriage. Michael hides so much from his wife and this contributes severely to them ever becoming close. He doesn't even tell her that he works as a Bow Street Runner, which of course becomes a major part of the story.

A pattern of stilted awkwardness had developed when either got to close or things became too intimate and both were so wanting this to change but seemed locked into their own prisons, refusing to bend or recognize the potential for love in their relationship. Rachel had become much less afraid and more gutsy, perhaps because of her sisters influence.

The interesting twist that Michael had a double life and really was able to be a totally different person. When Rachel suddenly stumbled on this other person, James, and found Michael's alter ego, the man she always wanted to love and desperately wanted to make love to things really do heat up. Finally the ice melts for this couple and seven long years later they have blissful passion.

The mystery that surrounded their lives was just enough to intrigue the reader without taking away from what was the main story, their developing love story. I don't really understand how anyone could feel this a dull read. As part of this overall series I could only, happily give it five wonderful stars.

I like Candace Camp, and I like the general plot of this book--two married people finding unexpected love with each other. But this book was really wooden in parts. I agree with the other reviewer who said Ms. Camp does a lot of "telling." I found the parts where she tells the reader what happened in the other books in the trilogy especially unnecessary and dull. Why didn't Ms. Camp's editor cut out the superfluous material (like a page on what Rachel is embroidering on a christening gown)?

Rachel's and Michael's characters aren't very believable, either. On the one hand, Rachel's a naive socialite who enjoys her life of fashion criticism and gossip; on the other, an assertive detective who yearns for meaningful work? And Michael: a passionate investigator and master of disguise with successful relationships at many social levels; but a diffident bookish type who won't approach his own wife over -seven years- and can't discover she'd welcome him? I'll try another Camp book, but this is not her best work.

I didn't like this book, but not because it was slow. I didn't mind the slow part, and I did think it was necessary to explain how the circumstances of their marriage was the way it was.

But . . .

First, I had really come to like Michael from the first two books in the series. He comes across as a steady, reliable person, with a lot of depth. In short, I had really come to like him. I did not recognize Michael at all in this book. He acts totally out of character for how I had expected the other Michael to act. Also, I felt that Michael deserved better than second-hand love, a love that was given to him "because he was always there", that "she could come to like him also". I really think Michael deserved better than that, he deserved to have his wife love him for all his real qualities. Instead, Michael comes across as Rachel's second choice - we never actually see her totally renouncing her first love. (And she could easily have done so - who hasn't had a first, yet long ago love?)

Second, Rachel does not get developed at all this book. We get to see that she's beautiful - and that men desire her - but that's it. I know she's quiet - but even quiet people can have SOME personality.

Third, even though I usually like mysteries as a subplot, and the mystery was quite good, having read all Agatha Christie's books, it was all to obvious who the culprit was. (There, I gave you a really big hint).

Candace Camp, as always, writes beautifully, and it is always a pleasure to read a novel of hers, even if I didn't like the characters.

In her defense, I would have to say that she had set the book up to be a very hard one to do - a marriage that was a sham for ten years to suddenly turn into a real one is a very difficult concept to pull off well - but I guess I was expecting some kind of flash of brilliance, which this book definitely did not have.

Oh, and the name Lillith, by the way, is a very funny one to use for such a nice lady. I'm sure she didn't know that the original Lillith was the demon of sexual temptation in Jewish lore! The person who should have been named Lillith was actually Lady Vesey!

I wish Ms. Camp would re-write this book!

I was surprised and pleased that the characters in this book are the ones who themselves have created their own separate prisons, and must free themselves of false assumptions of what one another is feeling. I find this true in real life; that my own false perceptions can be more of a barrier than anything created by other people. I also thought that Rachel was very typical of the women of her time, and I liked the way she slowly but surely matured and became a more perceptive woman, something that is a very real phenomenon in most women's lives. Other readers will enjoy this book, if they put aside modern concepts and think in terms of the period. The vocabulary is fine.
Mary JO

Seven years ago, her father arranged for her to marry an Earl, Michael Trent, but she loved another. So Rachel Aincourt eloped with her beloved Anthony Birkshaw, but Michael and her father catch up the duo before she is compromised. Michael marries a heartbroken Rachel.

Michael loves his spouse when he married her and still does, but he hides his feelings because he knows she still cherishes another. He also hides from her his work as a Bow St. runner behind the face of a quiet aristocratic gentleman. Starting with her carriage being stopped by a highwayman who acts like a friend of her husband to being led by Anthony into the London slums, Rachel enters her husband's other life. When they meet with him in disguise, Rachel finds herself attracted not knowing that the stranger is her spouse. While she works through her feelings, someone else has other plans for her and the men in her life.

SECRETS OF THE HEART is an exciting Regency romance that hooks the audience from the moment Rachel's coach is stopped. The story line is fast-paced and readers will fully appreciate Michael, a sort of Scarlet Pimpernel though not a dandy, and wonder about Rachel's immaturity, mindful of Marguerite though no Citizen Chauvelin pressure. Fans of an electrifying historical romantic suspense will want to read Candace Camp's pleasant thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I thought it was a very good read, I liked the fact that the heroine was very proper in the beginning but then became adventurous as the story progressed. I have not read the first two books in this series, so I wasn't bored with going over what went on there. The scene where she tricks her naked husband and locks him out of her room at the inn was so funny. The husband spends a lot of the book being jealous, which is very statisfying.

and I'm so glad I'd bought it before I saw them. I loved this book!!. I normally buy books with 4 and 5 star rating and this book has taught me my error. I bought it as I liked the synopsis then got home, read the reviews and thought I'd made a terrible mistake. So after reading the other 2 in the trilogy I sat down last night to give it a go. And after putting it down to reluctantly go to bed , finished it this morning. Yes I admit I was dreading the part when Michael would have to pretended to be his illegitimate half brother !! but it was really OK. I think it helped as you are lead to beleive that in the other 2 books everyone in the family can see the love growing in Rachel for Michael apart from the couple themselves. When ever they are in a room together the chemistry is there but they are so shy like awkward teenagers that they never seem to be able to look each other in the eye. So I found it possible that Rachel never really saw the real man and could have been hoodwinked easily.
Now I just have to find another book that will hook me as quickly and I can be very hard to please.

Frankly, I am surprised that it receives only 3 stars from most reviewers. Actually, this is a much better book than other romances I've read. The infatuation of young and innocent Rachael and her elopement was credible but the subsequent 7 years of sham marriage is a bit hard to stomach. We see Michael as an intelligent, kind and generous man who is madly in love with his wife. How he could remain cool and polite towards her while on fire for her all this time is hard to believe. The middle part drags on a bit with the misunderstanding between the couple ,the masquerade and the murder investigation which keep the reader a bit impatient to know how the problems are resolved and they profess their love for each other.All in all, it's well-written and enjoyable.This is the first book I read by this author and it will definitely not be my last. I've just ordrered SO WILD A HEART, the first of the trilogy.

I thought the book was sexy and funny. The dilemma these two have gotten themselves into is funny at times and sexy in the old fashioned way that forbidden attraction is sexy. This is missing today where so little is forbidden.

I liked Rachel's role as an innocent, but married, lady socialite who watches at her more outspoken and confident freinds, then breaks free of her role as an unproductive woman without compromising her principles. I like her honesty when she says, " I do not think Michael would assume that I could do anything difficult, either,. I never have, so I cannot think why he would think I could."

Michael introduces his wife to passion while he is disguised as his brother. This is a case of two people who should know each other intimately, but do not, and have finally become intimate after years of marriage. It is infidelity with your spouse. So It is morally all right. We get the the excitement of an affair without the fallout, the loss of respect for the characters involved and the comedy provided by a husband who assumes a certain right to boss his wife around and a wife who ignores the authority of the disguised husband she does not recognize.

This is the first book I have read by Candace Camp so I have nothing to compare to, but I will be reading more books by the author. I do not hesitate to put a book down that does not draw me in. This book held my attention and imagination, and I enjoyed the story to the end.