Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Heart (Signet Super Regency)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mary Balogh makes a habit of giving her readers 'different' heroines or heroes, and situations which are somewhat out of the ordinary: just read Heartless, A Secret Pearl, Indiscreet, More Than A Mistress and many more. In Secrets of the Heart, her hero and heroine are divorced from each other. Divorce, of course, was very rare in the Regency period; a man could only sue for divorce (and only via the House of Lords, no less) if his wife was mentally incompetent or unfaithful.

Sarah was not a virgin when she married George, the Duke of Cranwell. As we find out very soon, she was raped repeatedly as a teenager by her cousin, who also blackmailed her into keeping it a secret. Once he realised that she wasn't the virgin bride he'd been expecting, Cranwell had walked out on her.

We meet them four years later, when they run into each other in Bath - Sarah has finally been persuaded to return to society, in a limited way, under a different name. Cranwell is horrified to see that his sister and his (new) fiancee actually like this woman whom he perceives as little better than a whore, and he would love to shun her... but he finds that he can't.

While I very much sympathised with Sarah in relation to her past and the beginning of her marriage, what I really didn't like about this book was that when she was given an opportunity to mend fences with Cranwell by telling the truth, she not only failed to take it, but she deliberately made matters worse by pretending to be sluttish. And she does this several times. There comes a point when, even in the most painful of situations, people have to take some responsibility for their misfortune. In this book, Sarah failed to do so, and by around halfway through it, I found myself in full sympathy with Cranwell and deciding that she didn't deserve him. And despite the happy ending, which Balogh is so good at, I don't by any means consider this to be one of her best.

I came late to Mary Balogh and it was only by going on-line 6 years ago that I discovered this wonderful writer who until only recently was not published in the UK. I have collected nearly all of her books now and have not yet managed to read everything yet in the TBR pile. I avoided this one because I read the reviews here, written by reviewers I generally concur with and focused on acquiring the books that were more highly rated. However, I did buy a copy recently, persuaded by a UK Amazon marketplace seller in the UK who told me in our email communication that it was her favourite Balogh book. So, here are some thoughts on Secrets of the Heart.

1 - It's not the usual Balogh offering. It's a Signet "super regency" and therefore longer than most of her earlier work. And, sadly, if there is a downside to this novel, it's because it is too long in order to fit the super regency parameters.

2 - It does have a frustrating H/H. The heroine in particular, Sarah Bowen, is at first extremely annoying because, as the other reviewers here have said, she allows a situation to get out of hand by not taking advantage of numerous opportunities to get her POV across. The hero annoys as well because he appears to blindly accept a pack of lies and a web of deceit - in fact "Web of Deceit" might be a better title for this novel.

3 - Now for the good bits. The novel is a bit dark, certainly deep, and full of angst and quite a bit of introspection - in fact the lengthy introspection and internal dialogues are where Balogh seemed to be ever so slightly padding things to fulfil the required length of the super regency. However, I think one can look past these slight failings and appreciate the depth of what she is doing here. The novel incorporates rape, sexual abuse, bullying, mental illness (Sarah's brother Graham and the villain of the piece, Winston Bowen, Viscount Laing). The man is clearly either autistic or borderline psychopathic - he is unable to establish normal relations with others. He is manipulative, sexually violent, and clearly unable to empathise with his fellow human beings. He sets up situations in order to play off people against each other for personal financial and emotional gain. He lies, he badgers, he simply is unable to live within the rules of normal social interaction. And it is he who overshadows the action of all other characters in the story.

Sarah Bowen and George Montagu, Duke of Cranwell are made for each other. But, because of the way in which Sarah's cousin, Winston Bowen, has ruined her life (sexually, socially, psychologically) his actions mean that Sarah and George must suffer deeply before they are able to see each other's worth without the veil of evil this man has cast over them both. I think it is only fair to say that a young, untried, frightened, naïve girl in 1807 would not act the same way as one would in 2007. Admission of sexual abuse is not acknowledged by victims universally even in today's society so it is unfair to expect that Sarah would have admitted everything that had happened to her, for the shame that is so consistent with victimisation would not have allowed her to do so. Admittedly she acts inconsistently in passing herself off as a whore but I wondered as I read the book how any of us would act with our emotional back up against the wall, lonely, frightened and with our bully unrecognised by others, living close by or, as in the case of this story, in the same house.

I think this is not Balogh's best book. However, if she were to re-work some of it, slim it down a bit and sharpen up some of the plot, it would be more than worthy of a re-release. I am giving it 4 stars; I would have like to go for 4.5 - an option Amazon does not give us though many of us would dearly appreciate the option!

PS - the cover on my copy of this book is awful, cheesy and tasteless. I hate to see some of the older Fabio inspired, bodice ripping trashy covers on older romance novels. Sorry - a personal rant!

I've not read Mary Balogh before, and after reading this one, was tempted to stop. However, other reviews claim this book is unusual. I was unimpressed by the female character. I very much wanted to sympathize with her, and of course hated the baddy right off. Unfortunately, she continuously rolled over, not standing up for herself and gaining any sort of backbone until the end of the book. I was distressed that after her four year stint as a divorced lady (during which time she recieved what amounts to regency counseling) and gaining some peace, she returns to her previous powerlessness. While some of the lack of power is believable and understandable, especially given the time frame and circumstance, her inability to protect herself, and her refusal to act responsibly to protect two other young women, left me frustrated with the character and skimming just to get the book done.

- this work should be right up your alley. Why is that most romances have tortured heroes (as in heroes with a troubled past) and the heroines have at best an icky uncle, stepfather, or mother? I was wondering about this issue, when I realized that Balogh (and to a certain extent) Carla Kelly and Allison Lane specialize in heroines with very troubled pasts. In most Balogh books, you will be reading about heroines who have experienced much and have suffered much, and have internalized it all. Consider for example, her THE SECRET PEARL, or HEARTLESS or even the more light-hearted traditional Regency LORD CAREW'S BRIDE (light, by comparison, that is). By suffering, I do not mean that the heroine has been physically tortured, but that she has been placed in difficult and even dangerous situations, that she may have been sexually abused, that she has almost certainly been emotionally abused. Other authors write such heroines, but only Balogh writes with stunning emotional intensity. When it works, it works.

Unfortunately, SECRETS OF THE HEART did not quite work for me. It might be that I felt that the heroine was not completely honest with the hero from the outset, explaining her circumstances. It might be that I did not believe Sarah's helplessness in that I felt that she had other choices at the time, and that she elected to choose what she did. [It is not that I make any moral judgments about this, or about her failure to seek help, but in a romance, I would like a heroine who is more perfect that I am!]. Be that as it may, Sarah makes one fateful decision which will haunt her through her brief marriage - and subsequent divorce - from a Duke, no less.

The story actually picks up when the Duke encounters Sarah after many years. She is now in company with his younger sister, much to his dismay and appears to be encouraging a bounder to court the young heiress. As to why Sarah acts the way she does, you will have to read the book. This is one story about which it is difficult to write without giving away the whole story, ending included.

I think why I responded to Sarah less favorably than to Priscilla (A PRECIOUS JEWEL) was over her honesty. Priscilla, a high-class prostitute, is open about her profession and how it will be viewed by society. She is scarcely older than Sarah, when she has to make a difficult choice, and she makes that with courage, with understanding of her future, and in the face of the fact that she has no family, no friends, and no money. Sarah has all three, and yet, she chooses a very different way, closing her eyes to her past actions and how society (or a future husband) might view them. What lodges in my throat is not what happened to her (entirely believable and very tragic) but the fact that she does not confront these sad events until it is almost too late.

If you like a flawed hero and heroine who are really unable to communicate with each other and, where the hero believes the worst of the heroine (and the heroine then lies to him), this book may appeal to you. If on the other hand, you want a Balogh story where the hero and heroine are flawed but at least one of them has a backbone earlier in the narrative, you might want to try one of the other Balogh titles I have mentioned - HEARTLESS (which is a stronger rendering of SECRETS OF THE HEART in my opinion), THE SECRET PEARL (which begins with a married man picking up a prostitute for the night), or A PRECIOUS JEWEL (where a shy and not-very-brave hero goes to a society brothel).

Good but not Balogh at her best is my summary.

This book did not work for me.

I knew the subject matter going in, but was surprised that Balogh seemed to have spent more time on the molestation scenes than she did on the consensual interactions between the hero and heroine.

I also found the hero judgemental and harsh. His fear that the heroine would contaminate his sister and fiance in Bath really tuned me off him and he never regained my regard.

Balogh did a good job in coneying the vulnerabiilty of a woman alone in that society, but is was just too much. Maybe this could have been rectified by showing scenes of a re-united couple reintering society. So much time was spent on the pain, but not much was made of the joy.

The story would have been better served if the writer had instilled a greater balance, preferably with the scaled tipped in favor of happiness.

I was totally glued to this book at the beginning. I love tortured heroes, wronged heroines and a steamy encounters and I thought this book was going to have all this. But I am afraid I was a little disappointed in the end. I think the main problem was that the end was dragged out. By half way through the book I was sick of the heroine and how she was being manipulated by the villain. I know that circumstances were heavily against her, but in the end, she felt too weak for me to really like her. And the other thing I didn't like was that George suddenly changed from hating Sarah to loving her without any real explanation of why he changed his mind. So sadly, not a keeper for me.

From the back of the book: Theirs should have been a perfect marriage. Sarah was as wildly in love with the Duke of Cranwell as hi was with her... until, no their wedding night, Sarah was forced to reveal the secret of her past. And that, midst great public scandal, ended their marriage almost before it began.

Then in fashionable Bath their paths crossed again. The stunningly beautiful Sarah knew it was folly to think this dashing and sought after lord would ever get over her shocking betrayal. His fury made it painfully clear that they should separate again, this time forever.

Sarah could find a thousand arguments against the wisdom -- or likelihood -- of so miserable an edict. For one, the duke's ridiculous masculine pride was no match for the sensuous power of her affection for him... as she counted on love to melt the last shred of his resistance to her passionate surrender...

Honorable non-rake hero of medium height . For me it is one of the best romance I have ever read. When I read it 18 months ago, I could not put it down. I stayed up very late into the night to finish it. Unusual plot etc... Everything I wrote about " the Secret Pearl" applies to this book and applies to many of my other Mary Balogh's favorites like 'slightly Dangerous', "simply Perfect", " No Man's mistress", "The Tangled Web" etc... Many of her heroes are non-rake and honorable.

Another Balogh classic for die hard fans. Enjoyed the book. Some heart pulling moments and absolutely a must read.