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Susanna Ives

Amends Kindle Edition

by Susanna Ives (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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England, 1867

Trapped in a wretched slum, Sarah Ward feels powerless to keep her son away from a charismatic crime lord, whom she believes is responsible for her husband’s death. A lost letter offers her a chance to flee to her rural childhood home, away from the pounding factories and soot-filled skies. Yet escape means seeing Markham Litton again, her first love and the man who shattered her heart. She had been too infatuated to understand that he would never tarnish his wealthy family’s honor by marrying a lowly stone mason’s daughter. He had cast her aside, never learning about their child growing in her belly.

Consumed by the loss of his eldest child, widowed Markham struggles to be a good father to his remaining son. The only solace he finds is drifting in the memories of Sarah. In the late hours, he revisits the tender parts of their romance, like her gentle kisses, but not the tears she cried when he left her.

When old lovers reunite, Markham has a chance to show her that he’s changed. He can finally admit the feelings he had kept hidden for so long and try to heal old wounds. But Sarah has changed too. She isn’t the trusting, naïve young woman she once was. She knows from painful experience that some wounds can never be healed, and some secrets must never be told, especially ones that could rip her small family apart.

Print length

342 pages
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Language

English
Publication date

November 8, 2022
File size

1365 KB
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Susanna Ives
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Caroline Warfield
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Jayne-Lynn Tennison
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Sandra Merville Hart
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Laury Arts
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Bree Wolf
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BHV1K2X1
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1365 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 342 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #369,765 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,962 in Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
- #4,647 in Victorian Historical Romance (Kindle Store)
- #5,978 in Victorian Historical Romance (Books)

Customer Reviews:
12 ratings

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Susanna Ives

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Susanna Ives grew up in the country but later found her heart's home in Atlanta's buzz and bright lights. However, after several decades, the traffic defeated her, and she moved again. This time to a quieter, smaller city. She has more hobbies than time. Aside from writing, she enjoys listening to music, cooking gluten-free meals, running at a plodding pace, and binging K-dramas.

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5 star		74%
4 star		26%
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Kindle Customer

Wonderful character driven HEA romance!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

I loved how the author detailed Sarah's journey from heartbreak to finding her true love again. This book felt very authentic to the place, times, and social expectations of this period in England's history. All the principle characters in Amends are developed with hopes and aspirations. Even the villains have a good backstory and redemption. I would love to read a follow up story about Guy or Simon.

Susanna Ives does an incredible job of creating intensity and angst. She is a remarkable story teller who is able to bring her characters' emotional journey to life.
It's refreshing to read a novel that has enormous depth that is not always found in romance novels.

I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy a slow burn romance with intelligent and well developed characters. If you love history as much as I do, it's wonderful not to have jarring anachronisms in a historical romance.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

My only wish is that she would write series and not just stand alones. I always want to learn more about her characters. I would love to see Simon get a book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 8, 2022

I have to admit I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. The cover makes it seem that it might be a rather dry, old-school historical romance. However, this is a suspenseful, compelling read, with the perfect level of steam, and the plot pulled me in to the point I didn't want to put my Kindle down. The MFC, Sarah, and her friends and family, are wonderfully developed characters, and you root for her even as her life take dark turns time after time. I am generally not of fan of the "lost baby" trope, but became so enmeshed in the characters and the storyline here that my only issues really only came up toward the end.

The book is set during the 1860's, in the middle of the unrest between England and the Fenians, and begins with a conversation between the MMC--Markham--and his sister Alice and best friend Simon. Markham is still deep in mourning over his late son, after having lost his wife in childbirth years before, but Alice and Simon are determined to have him return to Yearley Park, where he spent childhood. The plan has been for him to propose to Simon's sister, Hester, but there are hints that Markham is guilty not only over his son's death, but the way his relationship with Sarah ended.

When the POV shifts to Sarah, the plot truly takes off. She is a young woman who has been through tragedy and despair, but she has continued to try to do her best for her young children. She lives in the Manchester slums, barely eking out a livelihood with her widowed friend and their family members, and is under the protection of the leader of an Irish gang. Her late husband was implicated in killing a man before he hung himself in prison, and she was betrayed years before by Markham, the father of her son Nicholas. She has done her best to move on after being denounced by her father, Markham's stonemason, and kicked out of Yearley Park, but now her aging mother has reached out to her and is pleading for her to return home.

Sarah's life and the people around her are described so well and the narrative just flows. You understand her deep fear for pre-adolescent Nicholas, and her baby daughter Josie is heartbreakingly sweet. When Sarah meets Markham's son, affection-starved Ethan, later in the book, their relationship is also beautifully written. Sometimes children in novels serve to be only part of the backdrop or are plot machinations, but these children are characters in their own right.

I also have to give the author credit for Guy O'Keefe, the Irishman who has kept Sarah and her family under his protection. He is by turns commendable and terrifying, with a personal code of morality honed by the roughness of his decimated homeland and his awful childhood in the slums. At times you hate him, but you understand him. He could have been just another stock villain, but is expertly shaded and comes to life on the pages.

This is very close to being a 5 stars book for me, but I do have a few caveats:

--minor usage/repetition/anachronism issues here and there

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD:
--I wanted Markham to have more backbone, give Simon and Alice an ultimatum, and have his mind made up about declaring himself to Sarah earlier. (He's really not fair to poor Hester, either.) He looks down on Sarah's former fiance for being self-absorbed and too concerned about his personal honor, but Markham has been the exact same way for years. I also didn't like the fact that he is happy to make love to Sarah without any kind of discussion about preventing another pregnancy (the fact that she doesn't bring it up is kind of surprising, really).

--You are supposed to forgive Simon at the end, because Sarah does, but I wasn't ready to. He was truly loathsome toward her. From the wager to his language and comportment as an adult, he showed her not a modicum of respect until the very end. His sister Hester was a well-shaded character throughout; why not him?

--Along those lines, whatever happened to the thoroughly nasty Alice? She should have continued to be an obstacle to the HEA, but mysteriously disappears.

--Poor Nicholas. This is where the "hidden baby" trope always hits me hard. Yes, he has his HEA, but that kid has been trough so much.

Overall, this is one of the most compelling historical romances I've read in a long time. It's well worth reading. I haven't read a book by this author before, but I will definitely seek out more books by her.

I read an advanced reader copy of this book and this is my voluntary review. Opinions are my own.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 15, 2022

This was really a 3.5 star book but I’m rounding up to 4. What I did like; the overall story, Sarah’s growth as a woman, Lady Hester.

Sarah becomes pregnant at 17 with Markham’s child after Simon dares him to bed her. He then calls her all sorts of terrible things and leaves her heartbroken and facing the wrath of her father. Her life just doesn’t get better from there. After she learns of her fathers death she returns home and of course meets up with Markham who, as soon as he sees him, recognizes that Nicholas is his son.

Things I wasn’t impressed by… Markham. He was not repentant enough for me. Sarah was still too smitten with him and in my opinion forgave him rather too quickly. I liked her character but she was just way TOO forgiving. No thank you! I really hated that Markham judges Hollingsworth so quickly and called him a coward when what he did was so much worse! Lady Hester was the only character who seemed like a genuinely nice person. I felt bad for her getting the wrong end of the stick. I’m hoping this author writes her story and gives her a great storyline. Simon ended up being okay in the end but what a shmuck! I guess those were the times though. The rich men have no consequences for their actions!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Helpful

1motts

Slow start but don’t give up!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 9, 2022

The emotional topics in this story are relevant whether it’s 1867 or 2022–betrayal, despair, loss, love, trust, and the very different lives between the wealthy and the poor. In addition, I enjoyed the large part children played in this novel, which is unusual in historical romance.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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