“A Delightfully Different Regency Romance” say Readers of Catherine Cookson
Shy, nearsighted caregiver, Gaia Telfair always wondered why her father treated her a little differently than her siblings. She never guessed she couldn’t claim his love because of a family secret, her illicit birth. With everything she knows to be true evaporating before her spectacles, can the mulatto passing for white … for white survive being exposed and shunned by the powerful duke who has taken an interest in her?
Ex-warrior, William St. Landon, the Duke of Cheshire, will do anything to protect his mute daughter from his late wife’s scandals. With a blackmailer at large, hiding in a small village near the cliffs of Devonshire seems the best option, particularly since he can gain help from the talented Miss Telfair, who has the ability to help children learn to speak. If only he could do a better job at shielding his heart from the young lady whose honest hazel eyes see through his jests as her tender lips challenge his desire to remain a single man.
Unmasked Heart is the first Challenge of the Soul Regency Romance novel.
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although i read it all the way through it was a slogging disappointing read. The tone was uneven, sometimes worldly sometimes preachy but never quite hitting the goal (I assume that was to be uplifting and convicting) It was pretty typical of the genre, but with such great themes to work with (self loathing, worthlessness, unconditional love, betrayal and family disappointments) this could have been so much more.
Not what I expected from the description: William was desperate for Gaia’s help with his young daughter who had become mute through trauma. An obvious villain, but too much dithering, but redeemed by a satisfying romantic conclusion.
Hardly any paragraphing; needs MAJOR editing. This was too hard to follow, as the lines and conversations ran into each other. Why would anyone publish a work in this form? Sorry – win’t pick up another piece by this author…
book was well written and took on a serious subject- fun read for an afternoon
Too difficult to read. I don’t know if it is because of the way it was published or due to the transfer to ebook, but, there are no chapters headings, some pages are only a few sentences (and not even complete sentences!). Also you cannot tell who is saying what because they all just run together in one huge paragraph! I deleted it from my nook after page 45, which took me 2 days to try to get through. Couldn’t keep track of the story and had to keep re-reading.
Hi
Preachy
Amazingly captivating read! I’m adding all of this author’s books to my wishlist.
Very romantic and well written. I would read more by this author.
Ok. A little disjointed and some grating misuse of words. I’m 65% through and it should be over by now. Maybe one more boy loses girl to go.
Honest characters presented sincerely.
It’s a long, repetitive anguish filled read, with incorrect usage (course v coarse and fowl v foul) but I stuck with it and enjoyed the HEA. Spoiler – I wanted little Mary to find her voice. It’s faith filled and not the usual storyline of the period. So enjoy it, don’t skim or give up, even if you wish the editing was better and the story was more crisp.