Review: Short and Sweet historical romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 25, 2014
Love by Secrets was a short and sweet novel. I enjoy reading historical romance so this one was right up my alley. The story was captivating, truly well-written. It was also very fast-paced and while I like that aspect of it, I felt I would have given the book five stars had it been a tad longer, depicting more of Connor, as well as allowed for Emily and Ethan to spend more time developing a closeness.Aside from that, I enjoyed reading about the characters, and those balls; how exquisite the ladies were when dressing up. The descriptive rudiments convinced me and pulled me deeper into the story. I felt like I was in that period of time and attending these lavish events as well.Now, Emily's character irked me at first. I wanted to slap the living daylights out of her for such naivety in regards to falling for appearance and silly winks, and even making a rather impulsive assumption as to who the love letters came from. However, I feel Ethan should have done more in trying to appeal to her. There wasn't much he did, for conversation or charm, so I could see how Emily would be taken by Connor in the beginning even if that man had his hidden agenda. Like I said before though,  there should have been more about him and his activities.As for Ethan, aside from not being more out there, I liked his kindness and the way he respected Emily and her family. He was also very selfless in the way he treated his relatives and more particularly, his cousin Colby. My oh my, his gambling had some serious conclusion before he finally opened his eyes and saw what his life was becoming. Thankfully he sorted himself out toward the end. I also just discovered his character would be the main focus in book two so I'm actually looking forward to reading more into his story.Overall, Love by Secrets was an enjoyable, quick read. The author did a good job in conveying all the right elements of a sweet historical romance and I look forward to continuing the series, as well as read her other works. I recommend giving this one a try.