Jessamine Barry has spent years of her life loving a man that was almost hers – only to have her hopes dashed when he fell in love with another woman.
Well, she’s done with that.
The patient, dutiful personality that caused her to waste time on a man that clearly didn’t have enough love for her to stop him from falling passionately for another is no longer wanted in her opinion.
Instead, Jessamine would like to be the kind of woman that is the recipient of that ardent desire, that allure that some women seem to have.
That’s why when Lancelot Marfleet, second son of an aristocrat, appears to take an interest in her during the London season, she doesn’t consider him a suitor. He’s too much of a respectable cross between her former beloved and her father.
She wants zeal and intrigue, and to be the sort of woman to inspire it…
But will that sort of life truly give Jessamine what she wants?
Anymore I tend to be leery when I go into historical romances. So often they are drowned in descriptions of the leads’ feelings for each other, or their dislike of each other colored by unwanted attraction.
It can get old… And it makes me sad, because I so very much want a good historical Christian romance.
Well, I am happy to say that A Heart’s Rebellion was great!!!
I wanted more than a cookie-cutter romance, and Ruth Axtell provided. First off, I was heartened by accounts of beauty and appearances kept to a minimum. Also, Lancelot’s unassuming personality and Jessamine’s hidden bitterness brought a grounded, different, relatedness to the two characters.
Instead of being instantly enamored with each other, they were just polite. There was a true lack of pretentiousness and forcefulness that I very, very much appreciated for this genre. Here we get character growth and individuality– instead of just the “love story”.
Finally it didn’t seem so cliché!!!
A Heart’s Rebellion has a much more paced, thoughtful romance – thank goodness! There are truly touching, moving moments involving life events and faith in God. It was really quite good – very, very good actually.
I couldn’t help thinking what a lovely movie/miniseries A Heart’s Rebellion would make if only done faithfully.
I am now far more willing to read more books by Ruth Axtell!
Now, if only Christian historical romances would quite having such corny sounding titles!!!
*I received a copy of A Heart’s Rebellion from the Baker Publishing Group. Their generosity in no way influenced, nor sought to influence, my opinion of the novel.
Comments