Kindred Hearts
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
Charming rascal Tristan Northwood seems to have it all: an ancient name, a noble inheritance, a lovely wife, and a son he adores. Women love him, men admire him, and it seems there is nothing he can't do, whether it's seducing a society wife or winning a carriage race. Little does Society suspect that the name means nothing to him, the fortune is in his father's controlling hands, and he has no interest in his wife except a very distant friendship. Society bores him, and he takes dares because he only feels alive when he's dancing on the edge... until his wife's brother comes home from the wars. Decorated war hero Major Charles Mountjoy jerks Tris out of his despair by inspiring feelings of passion Tris had never suspected himself capable of. Almost as terrifying as those feelings for Charles are the signs Charles might return his affection-or, even worse, that Charles sees the man Tristan has been trying so valiantly to hide from the world.
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I enjoyed the plot and characters but some of the dialogue was a little dense (a lot of medical and war jargon and whole paragraphs of dialogue) and the formatting was a little weird. It's separated into “books” and it definitely feels like several novels in one. If I wasn't enjoying it, I could see it becoming a bit of a slog to read. This one is definitely for people interested in early 1800s war or medical history - you can tell the author put a lot of knowledge and research into this.
One major issue for me: I felt the traits given to Tristan's father was a bit unnecessary since the reader knows from chapter one that he cares very much for Tristan and is just scared because he's more an academic - but why wasn't he a doting father rather than completely masking any affection for Tristan only for him to break down in his twilight years? It just seemed an odd choice. Tristan could have been the same character with a more sympathetic father, and it wouldn't have been nearly so frustrating for him or the reader.
Secondly, the scene where Tristan and Charles are caught out by Charles' military friend did nothing to further the plot but was a pretty scary part of the book, thinking this was it for them and we'd have to go through a traumatizing series of events but... nothing happened. And the military friend even had the “if you hurt him, I'll hurt you” talk with Tristan. It just didn't really make sense in the end and we definitely could have done without that.
Overall, a pretty enjoyable, if a bit long, read.
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