Heartless

Heartless by Mary Balogh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars, but I'll round up.

The moral of this story? For the love of Mike, just tell the GD TRUTH already!!! Most of the story and nearly all of the pain and heartache would have been prevented had the main characters, Anna most especially, just told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. GAH!! Perhaps that's typical for victims of abuse, to trust no one and believe the abuser, but it's maddening to read.

My propensity to yell at Anna via my car stereo aside, much of the book was pretty good, if mostly predictable. The character development for Luc was welcome, since I did not like him at all at the beginning and appreciated his sleuthing and defense of his family by the end.

I do think the expression, "La!" was very overused. It's historically accurate, I'm sure, but to modern ears, a little goes a long way. Every time someone said it was like nails on a blackboard for my ears--even reducing the utterances to just the odious Henrietta would have been an improvement.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, setting is secondary (late 1700s England at a time when hair was powdered and women wore stomachers & wide hoops). A few mild swear words I think, and multiple sex scenes. The deaf character saves the day!

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