Denise RobinsRecensioni

The book had been almost entirely a family thing- the feelings and problems of married couples and an eye opener in that sense.But when it started getting longer it became boring. What i really liked was the ending which was beatiful and perfect for the story althought not surprisingly strange for such a storyline.
The essence of the book:Mrs.Christina Allen narrates how her married life hadn't worked out the way she had planned and hence was applying for divorce and to be remarried to Philip Cranleigh.She decidedly writes a diary stating the whole truth about her marriage from the beginn. but slowly as she completes the book she understands that she doesnt really want to get married with this new man plus lose her children forever.She lets go of him but ahead with the divorce if Charles needed it.The climax however is that Charles meets with an accident that kills James his son and charles' step mother.Christina returns to nurse injured Charles and take care of things and hopes charles will allow her to stay in their once home and be his wife again to which he gladly consents

Look, sometimes you just have to meet a book where it is. This story is absolutely ridiculous, and filled to the brim with so many stereotypes that if you think about it too hard, your head will spin. Our tragic little heroine, Celia, is perfectly tragic and ethereal and of course everyone who comes into contact with her absolutely adores her. Her wicked stepmother, Isobel, is evil incarnate, selfish and conniving and a total bitch to poor dear Celia. She never loved Celia's father, only married him for his money, and is livid when he dies and she learns that he tied up all his money in a trust for Celia. She hatches a plan to marry Celia off to one of her cronies, Fulke Withers, so that she can have control of Celia's money. Of course she has red hair (and its mentioned several times that she's slovenly and prances around like a painted whore).

Celia was neglected by her father during his lifetime and ill-treated by Isobel after his death. She has been isolated at Storm Castle for most of her life, only going away to boarding school as a teenager and then returning to be a slave to her baby stepbrother. She's basically Rapunzel, locked in her gloomy, gothic turret tower, waiting for her prince to come rescue her.

Her prince is a dark-haired French fisherman named Paul, whom she meets quite by chance one day. On the second day of their friendship, they declare their undying love for each other and start working on plans to get Celia out of Storm Castle so that they can marry. Isobel, of course, forbids it, which only fuels the young lovers' passion. As this all takes place during 1940, there is the backdrop of WWII and the stormy Cornish coast to add to the drama.

And boy is there plenty of drama: attempted rape, abduction, car crashes, elopement, fire, storms, blackmail, secret war missions, bribery. The romance is thin and simplistic by comparison. It was a bit of a mixture of a Disney princess story, a gothic romance, and a really bad, trashy novel that gives romance a bad reputation. Yet it all, somehow, worked for me on some level. Maybe I was just in the right mood, but I couldn't help rooting for silly Celia to free herself from her evil stepmother's clutches and finally marry her dearly beloved Paul.

I can't say I'd recommend this to anyone, but I don't regret buying it or reading it, and am happy to have it in my vintage romance collection.½

I received Dark, Secret Love from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review:

First thing that I have to say about this book is that it was dark. It was very well written and drew you in from the first page. The author warns you from the very beginning what the books is. Of course that only made me want to read it more!

The characters that came and went in her life were all interesting. You can see the way that they all formed her into the woman that she is today. The way that the author tells the stories is very interesting....she doesn't expect you to like them, love them, hate them or even understand them.....she just needs to put them down on paper.

Can I say that I loved this book....no. I did enjoy it though.

I received Dark, Secret Love from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review:

First thing that I have to say about this book is that it was dark. It was very well written and drew you in from the first page. The author warns you from the very beginning what the books is. Of course that only made me want to read it more!

The characters that came and went in her life were all interesting. You can see the way that they all formed her into the woman that she is today. The way that the author tells the stories is very interesting....she doesn't expect you to like them, love them, hate them or even understand them.....she just needs to put them down on paper.

Can I say that I loved this book....no. I did enjoy it though.