⭐⭐⭐⭐ Was I hooked by that book? Yes. Grace Burrowes employs a writing style that takes a bit of time to adjust to, but once you do, you’ll find a well-crafted, interesting tale that will capture your attention and heart.

Christian took up a commission to fight the French to escape his unhappy marriage, only to end up captured by the enemy and tortured for months. He returned to find his wife and son both have died and his daughter stopped speaking altogether. His late wife’s cousin, Gillian, wouldn’t let him wallow, and persuaded him to go see his daughter, Lucy. Christian dragged her with him to his country home to help. Gillian herself was a survivor of an abusive marriage, and Christian, Gillian, and Lucy became each other’s salvation.

MY THOUGHTS

For Christian, it was probably a blessing in disguise that his wife, Helene, wasn’t alive anymore when he returned from the war. She sounded like she would not have been able to deal with all the changes his captivity had wrought. Whereas Gillian handled him with aplomb. She wasn’t afraid to discover and confront all the darkness lurking inside his head.

Christian and Gillian became very familiar with each other very fast. Their romance, in contrast, grew slowly and every action was considered thoroughly. There were strong parallels between the abuse they have both suffered. Christian came to see his suffering differently when compared to Gillian’s torture at the hands of her late husband. At one point he suggested that she was a prisoner of war too.

This thought from Christian summarized it perfectly: “He was a war hero for silently enduring a few months of Girard’s intermittent abuse, while Gilly remained emotionally imprisoned after eight years of silent torture, for which the law and Society both had guaranteed her tormentor impunity.”

The story also gives Christian’s jailor, Girard, a complex character that makes it more difficult to just outright hate him for his actions against Christian.

This is a rerelease of this book and it’s the second time I’ve read this story. I liked it better this time around and I can recommend it if you like historical romance. But be aware that there are heart-breaking issues (handled truly well) that might be hard to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Were you hooked by that book? Let me know in the comments below.

Genre: Historical Romance
Sensuality Rating: Warm
Series: Captive Hearts