Dutiful Jessamine Barry is tired of waiting patiently for a man to decide her future. So even though Lancelot Marfleet, second son of an aristocrat, is taking an interest in her during the London season, she refuses to consider him as a suitor. Instead, she's ready to take fashionable society by storm--and finds a rakish young man all too willing to help her do it. When things go too far, Jessamine will learn that the man who is faithful through thick and thin is more worthy than the one who speaks pretty words. But will her disgrace keep Lance from reconsidering her as a wife? And when tragedy strikes and Lance becomes his father's heir and a titled gentleman, will he think she only wants him now because of his title?
I requested to this book from NetGalley possibly a little over a month ago. I know it's a late review (and I am truly sorry, to those in charge of reading everyone's reviews from Revell), yet, I couldn't continue reading A Heart's Rebellion when there were so many hints that this was a novel that acted a bit like it was part of a series-- and I had the first book already! So I took the time to read Moonlight Masquerade, in order to better understand Jessamine, the heroine from A Heart's Rebellion, and her negative feelings towards Rees Phillips, the hero of Moonlight Masquerade. I am very glad I read both novels because when I first started reading A Heart's Rebellion, Jessamine was not getting any charitable feelings from me. I finally understood why she was so unhappy, and I enjoyed both books. I am also currently out of the country and my internet has been very unreliable, even for days at a time, but thankfully it is working right now.
A Heart's Rebellion is an intriguing read. I do have to admit that I was bored when I first began it, but as the book hit it's climax, I was in tears over the guilt that Jessamine carried. I think Ruth Axtell wrote Jessamine's rescue very well (trying not to spoil anything for anyone), and how Lance dealt with his feelings. All the emotions from the book were very real. She didn't skirt around the issue of guilt, but she also didn't skirt around wonderful fact of God's forgiveness. I did not expect to be in tears, but I was.
I do think that Axtell writes well. The only negative I have to say is that she is very slow sometimes - but when there is action, I enjoy it. I'm sure i'll be reading another of her books .
All in all, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
