{"id":5286,"date":"2015-06-18T19:46:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T23:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5286"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:20:43","slug":"the-soldiers-dark-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5286","title":{"rendered":"The Soldier’s Dark Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Soldier’s Dark Secret<\/a><\/em> (2015) Marguerite Kaye<\/p>\n

\"The-Soldiers-Dark-Secret\"<\/a>Set in England in 1815<\/p>\n

If this hadn’t been on sale AND highly rated, I would never have given in a second look. The title is kinda terrible, and something about the look on the model’s face on the cover weirds me out a little, but I took a chance.<\/p>\n

Jack Trestain was one of Wellington’s best code breakers, but was sent home after Waterloo to recover from his injuries. There, his brother the remaining family find him a changed man: irritable, short tempered, and often lost in his thoughts.<\/p>\n

There was nothing worse than being asked what it was one was thinking, for it was inevitably something one did not wish to share.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Celeste Marmion has come to England to paint the grounds of Trestain Manor before they are re-landscaped, changing the home where Jack and Charlie grew up, but she is also hoping to uncover secrets of her past.<\/p>\n

This story took off for me once they started to look into the mystery of Celeste’s past and we discover more about what is haunting Jack. It is obvious from the beginning that Jack has what we would now call PTSD, but at the time was typically seen as weakness. I quite liked the exploration of Jack’s PTSD and past, although I think it was probably resolved a little too quickly and easily. But this is a romance where the reader is expecting a HEA, not months or years of working out emotional problems.<\/p>\n

I found myself quite liking Celeste, as she delved further into her past.<\/p>\n

\u2018They never beat me. They never touched me. Neither cruelty nor love, but indifference is what they gave me, and forced me to give them in return. That was what was so hard.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that too often characters have a terrible past that is absolutely horrible, when the reality is far more complex and interesting.<\/p>\n

I also quite appreciated how things turned out as Celeste discovered her past. It was far more realistic than I was expecting. <\/p>\n

This was a boinking book, which probably dropped it down a bit in my mind, but YMMV.
\nRating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Harlequin Historical <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Soldier’s Dark Secret (2015) Marguerite Kaye Set in England in 1815 If this hadn’t been on sale AND highly rated, I would never have given in a second look. The title is kinda terrible, and something about the look on the model’s face on the cover weirds me out a little, but I took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[194,30,33,207,26,934],"tags":[547,212,548],"class_list":["post-5286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-5-10","category-british","category-historical","category-mental-health-rep","category-romance","category-trigger-warnings","tag-napoleonic-era","tag-ptsd","tag-regency"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1ng","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25567,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25567","url_meta":{"origin":5286,"position":0},"title":"The Soldier’s Dark Secret","author":"Michelle","date":"December 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Soldier's Dark Secret (2015) Marguerite Kaye (Comrades in Arms) Set in England in France in 1815 Jack struggles to deal with the things he saw during the way, not just the Battle of Waterloo, but before. Dammit! It had been two years. He should be over it by now.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Soldier's Dark Secret","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/The-Soldiers-Dark-Secret-190x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20058,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20058","url_meta":{"origin":5286,"position":1},"title":"The Soldier’s Dark Secret","author":"Michelle","date":"June 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Soldier's Dark Secret (2015) Marguerite Kaye (Comrades in Arms) Set in England in 1815. I'd picked this book up on a whim in2015, and was surprised by how much I liked it. Jack was a soldier for 13 years, and was Wellington's code-breaker during the war with Napoleon. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Soldier's Dark Secret","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/The-Soldiers-Dark-Secret-e1511011096181.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20715,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20715","url_meta":{"origin":5286,"position":2},"title":"The Soldier’s Scoundrel","author":"Michelle","date":"August 28, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Soldier's Scoundrel (2016) Cat Sebastian (The Turner Series) Set in England in ~1815 To be honest, I have avoided reading this book for ages, because the cover squicks me out. Luckily, neither character is anything at all like the models. Oliver sold his commission after taking a bullet to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Soldiers Scoundrel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Soldiers-Scoundrel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10913,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10913","url_meta":{"origin":5286,"position":3},"title":"The Service of the Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"June 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Service of the Dead (2016) Candace Robb Set in York, England in 1399 Kate Clifford is a widow struggling to recoup the financial losses of her husband while trying to maintain her independence and avoid a marriage pushed upon her by family. And also to stay out of politics.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/The-Service-of-the-Dead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2252,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2252","url_meta":{"origin":5286,"position":4},"title":"General Winston’s Daughter","author":"Michelle","date":"February 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"General Winston's Daughter (2007) Sharon Shinn Averie is headed to Chiarrin, where her father and betrothed are with the army, which is currently seeking to make the area part of its empire. On the trip over Averie makes friends with Lieutenant Du'Kai, a Xan'tai member of the Aerberelle Army. 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