Review: Teeming With Misunderstandings/Secrets
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 7, 2013
Keene challenges his friend to a duel to defend the honor of the wife of another friend.  If only that wife had been honest with her husband before their marriage there wouldn't have been a misunderstanding/secret that lead to the duel.  Keene's father, who has always had a resentment toward his son and heir (another misunderstanding/secret) threatens to have Keene arrested or exiled for his involvement in a duel unless he is willing to marry his distant cousin Sophie.  Keene has not seen Sophie for years and he remembers her as being a bit wild and impetuous and he worries she may still act in an unsuitable fashion, but he has his own secrets for why he consented to the marriage.  Through a series of misunderstandings Sophie's parents believe she is pregnant.  When Keene offers to marry her they accept his suit and insist on a hasty wedding before he learns the secret and cries off. So many misunderstandings and secrets that it seemed a bit overdone on that plot device and made me feel it was enough already and everyone should just come clean and confess.  Despite that, and a few editing errors such as misspelled words and lack of clarity of who was saying what sometimes during dialogs, I did like the book and was intrigued enough to find out how all would be resolved in the end.