JUNE 2019 - AudioFile
Kate Reading, winner of multiple Earphones Awards and a prolific narrator, flawlessly narrates this story of love, loss, and redemption. Lady Lavinia Kent and commoner Finn Trewlove fall in love when they are young. Separated by Lavinia's parents, each blames the other and keeps tragic secrets. When fate brings them back together, will love conquer all? Reading's British accents, reflecting all levels of society, are beautifully executed. She captures the haughty coldness of Lavinia's mother and Finn's reprobate father. As Lavinia, she portrays youthful naïveté and, later, world-weariness. As Finn, she provides a deeper voice and a natural, assured manner. A.C.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 12/03/2018
Heath’s emotionally stirring third Sin for All Seasons novel (after When a Duke Loves a Woman), set in Victorian England, captures the essence of young but enduring love. Finn Trewlove and his siblings were raised in London’s underbelly by Ettie, who took in bastard children the nobility farmed out. Now employed as a horse slaughterer, 21-year-old Finn meets 15-year-old Lady Lavinia (aka Vivi) when her father demands her beloved horse, Sophie, be sacrificed after throwing Vivi to the ground. Finn rescues Sophie, and for two years, he and Vivi clandestinely meet to visit her, sharing moonlit nights in conversation and friendship. When Finn finally initiates their passionate romance, their naive and hasty plans for the future are cruelly halted by Vivi’s noble family, and they don’t meet again until eight years later, wounded but hoping secretly that their love will win out over circumstances and social pressures. Heath unfolds their story in two time periods, putting a new spin on the familiar romance trope of separating young lovers of different classes. This tender and intimate story will make readers’ hearts sing. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Feb.)
Booklist
RITA Award–winning Heath’s flair for stellar character development, exquisite use of sexual tension, and a story line that fluently incorporates Victorian history, in this case baby farming, into the plot all add up to another sure bet for fans new and old of this exemplary storyteller.”
JUNE 2019 - AudioFile
Kate Reading, winner of multiple Earphones Awards and a prolific narrator, flawlessly narrates this story of love, loss, and redemption. Lady Lavinia Kent and commoner Finn Trewlove fall in love when they are young. Separated by Lavinia's parents, each blames the other and keeps tragic secrets. When fate brings them back together, will love conquer all? Reading's British accents, reflecting all levels of society, are beautifully executed. She captures the haughty coldness of Lavinia's mother and Finn's reprobate father. As Lavinia, she portrays youthful naïveté and, later, world-weariness. As Finn, she provides a deeper voice and a natural, assured manner. A.C.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-11-13
Youthful sweethearts separated by the parents of the aristocratic heroine cross paths after 10 years of heartbreak.
One of the Trewlove siblings raised in the slums of London (When a Duke Loves a Woman, 2018, etc.), Finn has been building a ritzy women's gambling club (a far cry from his first job as a horse slaughterer). His ambition is partly an attempt to avenge being betrayed by his first love and lover, Lady Lavinia Kent. So when he encounters her without any wealthy finery, living with nuns in shabby Whitechapel and rescuing illegitimate children dumped in unscrupulous "baby farms," he is suspicious. Having once been thrown in prison when he was expecting to elope with her, he struggles to reconcile her present self with his belief that she was a callous rich girl. Lavinia has mourned her lost innocence after having seemingly been deserted by Finn and left to the mercies of an uncaring family. As an adult, she has finally fled from her socially acceptable fiance and dedicated herself to saving orphans—for a reason most readers can guess, thanks to the prologue. The novel's soap opera-style misunderstanding makes the reader fear that this will be a needlessly prolonged plot that could have been shortened by one honest conversation between the protagonists. Fortunately, they confront each other early in the novel and realize that their past anger needs to be directed at other parties, not each other. Much of the remaining story explores the possibility of a happy-ever-after when the memories of a once-passionate attachment have been dulled by worldly griefs.
Recommended for readers looking for a romance about second chances. A strong addition to the Sins for All Seasons series.
