Saturday, November 19, 2016

Review: Love by Secrets by Debra Elizabeth

Title: Love by Secrets
Author: Debra Elizabeth
Genre/Age: Historical Romance
Series: Age of Innocence Series (Book One)
Publisher: Self-published
Format: ebook via Author
Rating: ✺✺✺
LinksGoodreads
Synopsis(Regency Novella)
Eighteen-year-old Emily Richardson is excited to attend this season's society balls and begin her search for a husband. She is thrilled when the dashing and handsome Connor Preston begins to show her more attention. After each ball, Emily finds a love note in her drawstring reticule, and she expects a marriage proposal from Connor any day.

When her father objects and forces Emily to accept the proposal from Lady Tisbury's shy nephew, Ethan Richardson instead, her heart is broken. How can she love her new husband when her heart belongs to the man who wrote her such beautiful love letters?

**Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for honest review.**

Emily is looking for love. Having just turned eighteen years old, her first season is upon her and so is her chance to find a suitable match for a husband. Her beauty makes catching the eyes of gentlemen an easy task, but Emily won't settle for just anyone. She wants her suitor to romance her. And she gets exactly what she's looking for when she begins to receive sweet love letters from her unknown admirer.

Ethan has waited for Emily to become of age in order to share his feelings with her. Yet, he isn't as straightforward with his affection as others may be. And while he does attempt to woo Emily, it seems that she has set her sights on another who Ethan is sure would not be a good match for her.

This book is a novella and very quick paced. It bounces around between characters and scenes with several different plotlines happening simultaneously. All of the characters are intertwined, but not all of the plots are connected to the main couple of the story.

It's very ambitious for a novella-lengthed book, which is only half the word count of a traditional novel. Too ambitious, in a way. At times, it was difficult to tell who this book was really supposed to be about. We don't get nearly as many scenes with our main couple together as I would have liked to see, in order to develop a strong relationship between them.

However, this book does introduce us to characters that are seen in subsequent installments in the series. So in actuality, this could be considered a short introduction to the series with a love story on the side. Having read the third book of the series, I can definitely say that good things are to come!

In closing...
Secret admirers, love letters, and sweet misunderstandings. Three suns!

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