by
Julie Lessman
Back Cover: "Ten years ago, Emma Malloy fled Dublin for Boston as a battered woman, escaping the husband who scarred her beautiful face. The physical and emotional wounds have faded with time, and her life is finally full of purpose and free from the pain of her past. But when she falls for her friend Charity's handsome and charming brother, Sean O'Connor, fear and shame threaten to destroy her. Could Sean and Emma ever have a future together? Or is Emma doomed to live out the rest of her life denying the only true love she's ever known?"
A Heart Revealed, book # 2 in Julie Lessman's Winds of Change series brings us to Emma and Sean's story. Having gotten to know the characters through Lessman's Daughters of Boston series and the new Winds of Change series, I was thrilled to read their story finally. The story takes place in the early 1930's during the great depression and continues the saga of the the whole O'Connor family beginning with Katie and Luke's wedding. Sean and Emma take center stage, however we also get to see the struggles between Katie and Luke, Mitch and Charity, and Marcy and Patrick. The ladies get quite emotional in this chapter of their lives and the men end up sleeping on the couch quite a bit.
Sean struggles with his attraction to Emma. She never divorced her abusive husband and she keeps trying to push Sean into the arms of another woman because she wants him to be happy. There are some interesting twists to their story which keeps you guessing whether they'll end up together or not. Lessman has written an excellent, emotional charged story without preachiness or sermons while portraying the passion of true love. I highly recommend it. While A Heart Revealed can be read as a stand alone, I highly recommend starting with the Daughters of Boston. You'll probably grow to love the O'Connor family as much as I have.
A HOPE UNDAUNTED NOW FREE ON AMAZON KINDLE, CBD.COM, B&N.COM, SONY E-READER AND ANY OTHER E-BOOK FORMAT TILL SEPTEMBER 30. Can be downloaded on PCs, Macs, Droids, i-Phones, i-Pads, etc courtesy of Julie Lessman.
Thank to Donna and The Baker Publishing Group for providing me with a courtesy copy of the book. It in no way influenced my review.
Pages: 505
Publisher: Revell
Released: September 1, 2011
ROBIN!!! Thank you SO much for the excellent review -- I am blessed!!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Julie
Oh, these do sound like wonderful books, and I am glad that you wrote about this one and brought them to my attention. It sounds as if this is a series that I can really get invested in and enjoy. Thanks for the great review, Robin!
ReplyDeleteLoved your review! I just finished this one and enjoyed it as much as you did! I so am going to read the Boston series!
ReplyDeleteI love family sagas and ones that follow different people thru time. I bet I'd really like these books.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to add that if you've never read any of Julie Lessman's other books - YOU NEED TO!!! She is HANDS DOWN my favorite author, and she once again has written a book chock full of love, humor, passion, and story, story, story!!
ReplyDeleteThis is the 5th book sharing the lives of the very Irish O'Connor family (The Daughters of Boston series is the 1st three, and the Winds of Change series continues where the Daughters of Boston left off), and I just absolutely LOVE how Julie incorporates SO MUCH the lives of the characters we have grown to love from her previous books! So by the time you get to this book - A Heart Revealed - you already know and LOVE Sean and Emma before even starting the book!
This one is a bit different than all of Julie's other books - because Emma is married, there isn't the heated romantic passion right off the bat and then all throughout the book (which is kinda Julie's "thing" in all of her other books.) Sean and Emma's story shows their love blooming through friendship, but don't worry - she still gives us plenty of her trademark passion and drama through Luke and Katie and Mitch and Charity!! And don't worry - things will definitely heat up for Sean and Emma too, so don't lose heart!! :-)
The book is also full of the regular "Julie Lessman" roller coaster-like ups and downs and then of course back up again...with of course a surprise or two thrown in!! I promise - this one will be one for the KEEPER shelf - along with ALL of her other ones!! A definite must read!