Tuesday, April 7, 2015
A PROPER ROMANCE REVIEW: A Heart Revealed by Josi S. Kilpack
ABOUT THE BOOK
Amber Marie Sterlington, the Rage of the Season in Regency-era London, has her pick of men, and she knows what she wants most in a husband: a title and a fortune. Why would she ever marry for something as fickle as love? And why would she ever look twice at Thomas Richards, a third son of a country lord?
But when Amber's social standing is threatened, the character of her future husband becomes far more important than his position. After a public humiliation, she find herself exiled to Yorkshire. alone except for her maid, Amber is faced with a future she never expected in a circumstance far below what she has known all her life. Humbled and lonely, Amber begins to wonder if isolation is for the best. Who could ever love her now?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOSI S. KILPACK published her first novel in 2000. Her seventh novel, Sheep's Clothing, won the 2007 Whitney Award for Mystery/Suspense—several others have been finalists in subsequent years. She was also the Best of State winner for fiction in Utah 2012. She has written twenty-two novels, including the twelve-volume Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery Series. Josi currently lives in Willard, Utah. For more information about Josi, you can visit her website at www.josiskilpack.com.
REVIEW
I love Shadow Mountain's A Proper Romance line of clean romance novels. All of them have been wonderful and A Heart Revealed is no different. What I especially liked about this one is the depth that the characters develop and the nature of the challenges that Thomas and Amber face. I've read many regency novels (clean ones anyway) and I love the genre (I'm not sure why because I wouldn't want to have lived then), but I haven't read any quite like this one.
Thomas I liked from the beginning, he's a decent man in search of a wife at his mother's bidding. But after trading part of his inheritance for land, he's invested his future in hard work. Amber on the other hand is very unlikeable for the first part of the book because she's so self-centered. Sadly for her everything changes when she is struck by a strange malady that leads to great humiliation. It was interesting to watch Amber face the changes that came her way especially since she basically has to do it on her own because her own family rejects her. The contrast between her way of life at the beginning of the story and later is acute, but it teachers her a lot of things that she had never noticed before, including the value of love in marriage.
One of the things that I found intriguing about this story was the realistic details that the author includes about the period both upper and lower class. The strength of this story lies in the character development, especially Amber's as she faces a life that she had never imagined would be her's. The story is very believable and full of heart as Thomas and Amber grow to know each other and adapt to their changing circumstances.
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