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A review by jackiehorne
The Secret Heart by Erin Satie
3.0
A promising, if flawed, historical romance debut, with lots of unusual, intriguing emotional moments, but some confusing ones, too. The writing is strong, with a hint of the literary, which I find quite appealing.
Caro Small, daughter of a dissolute aristocrat and sister to a parcel of dissolute brothers, is barely holding on to respectability. Her secret love of ballet—not watching it, but performing it, taught by a former governess (really a mistress of her father's)—makes that hold even more precarious. Caro hopes that during a visit to the country estate of a schoolmate she'll be able to find a respectable man to marry her, so she'll be able to remove her younger, bookish brother from the negative home-life he (and she) have been subject to.
Adam, Earl of Bexley and future duke, a relative of Caro's schoolfriend, is suspicious of Caro already—she warned her schoolfriend that her suitor had a venereal disease, something no reputable gentlewoman should know anything about (she picked up the gossip from her dissolute brothers). Yet when Caro discovers Adam's secret—he takes out his frustrations and guilt over the disappearance of his wild sister and the betrayal of his best friend by engaging in bare-knuckle boxing matches—she thinks she can blackmail him into keeping hers. What's more, Caro, recognizing Adam's physical attraction to her, decides to seduce Adam, knowing that this good man will not allow himself to ruin a gentlewoman and not marry her. The seduction isn't quite what Caro had envisioned, though (a fascinating scene). So often we have male protagonists who actively avoid the marriage-mad, entrapping women; it was refreshing to have a story from HER POV for a change, and to be asked to buy into such a character as heroine.
This becomes difficult, though, when Adam is accused of murdering his vile cousin, and Caro announces that he and she were together when the killing occurred, thus simultaneously clearing Adam and making it known that they'd engaged in carnal relations. Caro feels bad about her actions—"He'd been right to accuse her of opportunism. She had seen an opportunity and she had seized it. Of course she had. And then she'd done it again. This time within spitting distance of a corpse, scheming for herself" (Loc 1776)—but doesn't take them back. Though Adam insists he won't marry her, she uses her feminine wiles, and his obvious physical attraction to her, to persuade him to do so.
The murder subplot is a bit dull, with evil villains without half the nuance of our main characters. Wish the focus could have been more on our protagonists, without having to take time away to deal with flat villain characters.
It's rare for a romance to present courtship and relations between the sexes as a power struggle; I admired Satie's interesting in facing this issue head-on. But still, I had a difficult time caring for Caro, or fully sympathizing with her manipulative behavior. I'm not usually one to judge a character, but the narrative here doesn't give me enough to sympathize with, to explain or to counterbalance her negative behavior, at least when she is manipulating Adam.
The story takes a turn for the better when Adam and Caro start to work together against Adam's intolerant, hide-bound father, who, for obvious reasons, objects to his heir marrying the disreputable Miss Small. I really enjoyed the way Caro and Adam manage to win each other over, and to put one over on stuffy papa.
I'll definitely be on the look-out for future titles from Satie.
Caro Small, daughter of a dissolute aristocrat and sister to a parcel of dissolute brothers, is barely holding on to respectability. Her secret love of ballet—not watching it, but performing it, taught by a former governess (really a mistress of her father's)—makes that hold even more precarious. Caro hopes that during a visit to the country estate of a schoolmate she'll be able to find a respectable man to marry her, so she'll be able to remove her younger, bookish brother from the negative home-life he (and she) have been subject to.
Adam, Earl of Bexley and future duke, a relative of Caro's schoolfriend, is suspicious of Caro already—she warned her schoolfriend that her suitor had a venereal disease, something no reputable gentlewoman should know anything about (she picked up the gossip from her dissolute brothers). Yet when Caro discovers Adam's secret—he takes out his frustrations and guilt over the disappearance of his wild sister and the betrayal of his best friend by engaging in bare-knuckle boxing matches—she thinks she can blackmail him into keeping hers. What's more, Caro, recognizing Adam's physical attraction to her, decides to seduce Adam, knowing that this good man will not allow himself to ruin a gentlewoman and not marry her. The seduction isn't quite what Caro had envisioned, though (a fascinating scene). So often we have male protagonists who actively avoid the marriage-mad, entrapping women; it was refreshing to have a story from HER POV for a change, and to be asked to buy into such a character as heroine.
This becomes difficult, though, when Adam is accused of murdering his vile cousin, and Caro announces that he and she were together when the killing occurred, thus simultaneously clearing Adam and making it known that they'd engaged in carnal relations. Caro feels bad about her actions—"He'd been right to accuse her of opportunism. She had seen an opportunity and she had seized it. Of course she had. And then she'd done it again. This time within spitting distance of a corpse, scheming for herself" (Loc 1776)—but doesn't take them back. Though Adam insists he won't marry her, she uses her feminine wiles, and his obvious physical attraction to her, to persuade him to do so.
The murder subplot is a bit dull, with evil villains without half the nuance of our main characters. Wish the focus could have been more on our protagonists, without having to take time away to deal with flat villain characters.
It's rare for a romance to present courtship and relations between the sexes as a power struggle; I admired Satie's interesting in facing this issue head-on. But still, I had a difficult time caring for Caro, or fully sympathizing with her manipulative behavior. I'm not usually one to judge a character, but the narrative here doesn't give me enough to sympathize with, to explain or to counterbalance her negative behavior, at least when she is manipulating Adam.
The story takes a turn for the better when Adam and Caro start to work together against Adam's intolerant, hide-bound father, who, for obvious reasons, objects to his heir marrying the disreputable Miss Small. I really enjoyed the way Caro and Adam manage to win each other over, and to put one over on stuffy papa.
I'll definitely be on the look-out for future titles from Satie.