The Deserted Heart

The Deserted Heart (2018) Mary Lancaster (Unmarriageable)

Bringing her brothers home from school, a thick fog forces them to stop at an inn. But they enter to discover not a soul around, even though the doors were unlocked and everything inside looked normal. Since it is too dangerous to continue, they settled in, and are surprised when a lord and his servant are also stopped by the fog and seek shelter.

Charlotte Maybury loves her chaotic family, even if they don’t appreciate her. She is the unmarriagable daughter, with a weak leg and a hint of a stutter. And she doesn’t really mind, since society holds no interest for her.

The Duke of Alvan needs to marry, so he is heading to Overton to propose to Thomasina Maybury, the beautiful oldest daughter, who was interesting enough to catch his eye during the season.

“So, he’s coming to look you over again and see if you’re up to being a duchess?” Horatio said.

“Don’t be so vulgar, Horry,” Thomasina snapped. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, for it isn’t remotely like that.”

Actually, Charlotte thought that is was almost exactly like that.

But Thomasina’s younger sister, Charlie, catches his eye, and the more time he spends with his family, the more interested he becomes in Charlie, rather than Thomasina.

She nodded. “It must be hard to give up your dreams.”

He turned his head quickly and met her gaze. “What of your dreams?”

“Oh, girls are not meant to have heroic dreams.

This was a cute story, with lots of humor, and there is a mystery subplot that was interesting, and I enjoyed it while reading it, but once finished, its flaws became apparent. Charlotte is too perfect–to kind and loving and forgiving. Once the Duke sees Charlotte as worthy, her siblings are suddenly falling all over each other to ask for her forgiveness to how shabbily they treated her. The Duke is moody and brooding, yet able to pull himself out of his depressive episodes on his own. The Duke’s sister is charming and witty and immediately becomes fast friends with Charlotte. And everything works out perfectly in the end, for everyone.

It’s a lot, and once I was out of the story it didn’t hold together especially well.

There was also a sex scene that was seemingly tacked on just to have a sex scene, which: ugh. Luckily, it was easily skimmable, since there was little dialog.

So, for as immersive as the story was while I was reading, in the end it was disappointing.

Publisher : Dragonblade Publishing, Inc
Rating: 7/10

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