Miss Serena’s Secret by Carolyn Miller (+ The Reveries Reader Group!)

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This was one of the most confusing books I read. I loved it and hated it and loved it. However, I’ve attempted to organize my thoughts in time to post this review on the US release day! Huzzah!

Now before we go any further, let me tell you about how we’re going to manage the reviews on this blog. You know I’ve got a lot of books to read and review as I’ve mentioned before. This is quite stressful.

But … when something is stressful, the best thing in the world is to take it one task – or in this case, one book – at a time! Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the Reveries Reader Group, a way to be accountable for your weekly reading and reviewing. More about that at the end of this post!

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Title: Miss Serena’s Secret

Author: Carolyn Miller

Series: Regency Brides: A Promise of Hope, #2 (Read my review of #1 here.)

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Era: Regency

Setting: English countryside/London

Publisher: Kregel Publications

Source: from Netgalley (in exchange for honest review)

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Miss Serena’s Secret by Carolyn Miller

With devastating scars in her past, Serena Winthrop is sure no man can be trusted—especially not men like the far-too-smooth Viscount Charmichael. His reputation as a charmer and a gambler is everything she despises. And the young artist makes sure that this disreputable heir to an Earldom knows of her deep disapproval whenever they encounter one another.

Henry, Lord Carmichael, is perfectly aware of his charms to the women of the ton. He’s gambled with plenty of their hearts as easily as he does their husband’s money—it’s all in good fun to him. But lately he’s been wondering if there’s more to life—and confronting the idea that his actions might not prove worthy of the admirable wives his friends have found.

When Serena’s brother-in-law asks his best friend to protect his young ward, Henry promises to be on his best behavior and not woo her. But the more he learns of her, the more he realizes she might be his best reason for changing his character. Then the lady’s art leads her to London infamy. Now Henry must choose between the life mapped out for him as the Earl apparent, and the love of his life. And Serena’s secret may mean the end of his titled family line.

The second in a new series by internationally popular author Carolyn Miller is full of the same rich historical detail and evocative writing that readers enjoyed, and familiar characters make appearances here. The witty banter will continue to draw in fans of Jane Austen, Sarah Ladd, and Julie Klassen.

Buy on Amazon ~ Add on Goodreads

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I’ll give the author credit for this: even when the book was finished, I still had no idea what Miss Serena’s secret was. I’m still in the dark. What exactly is the title referencing …?

More on that later, but for now let me just say this was a book I enjoyed immensely, was disgusted with when I thought about it afterwards, and have now come to the point where I’m like, “That was fantastic … except for [insert several different issues].”

I’ll dig into each of these issues in the book – as well as present the (many!) things I enjoyed about it. You can decide whether it’s worth reading as best you can for yourself.

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PLOT: 2/5

This is where the book really failed.

I’m sorry, Ms. Miller, but I just can’t let you get away with this uncommented! I love your books, I need to read more and more of them, but I must say where the plot failed in the eyes of this particular reader. The book was “in exchange for an honest review,” after all. So here’s your honesty.

Much of the plot was based around the idea that Serena had a big secret that she can’t reveal no matter what. As I said in the intro, I still have no idea what the secret was meant to be.

We’re heading into spoiler realm, peoples. Fasten your seatbelts and please skim forward to the next section (Characters) unless you’ve read the book!

Spoilers Follow!

I was a bit confused about what happened in Serena’s backstory with the evil guy, Mr. Goode (take a moment to appreciate the irony).

I thought for the entire book that she’d been raped/forced to have sex with him … and the whole time I was like, “Girl. Why didn’t you just scream? Are you telling me there was no one in hearing of the art room in a private girls’ school for posh ladies when only a man and a girl were alone in there??? BAD SCHOOL! How do they even have a remotely good reputation!?!?”

By the way, Serena, having your reputation destroyed is preferable to being raped. #priorities

But towards the end, Catherine literally says, “She’s innocent” after Harry asks if they know Serena is infertile BECAUSE of this incident – which by the way, Harry, wouldn’t be a good gauge, but whatever. I guess he’s a guy who doesn’t know anything about all that, so I’ll let that slide.

Which means there was no sex, right? So what are we whining about? A kiss and maybe a little inappropriate touching??? Which is wrong and bad (and that guy is such a creep help why did that stupid school be so stupid) … but it’s not exactly life-stopping?

Get used to having innuendo slung your way if you’re hanging out with creeps and are reasonable attractive. Just sayin’.

I can see how that would lead to you distrusting men, yes, so back story as far as THAT particular reaction makes sense, but not necessarily to the same level of scandal and whatnot, especially since apparently you weren’t caught (???), and your brother-in-law hushed it up anyway, so it’s not a big damage to anyone?

JUST DON’T TELL RANDOM PEOPLE, SERENA, AND EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY!!!

And you absolutely HAVE to tell your future husband that this occurred? And what happened to stop Mr. Creepy from going further? Did someone interrupt? I wish I knew, but I really have no clue whatsoever.

I think the author was probably trying to be vague for the sake of cleanliness (we’ll talk about the “cleanliness,” by the way, later), which I appreciate to the depths of my innocent Christian country soul. But there’s a difference between clean fiction and fiction that doesn’t explain, y’know … what actually happened.

Please explain the events in your novel, or it doesn’t matter because nothing happened. Novels = things happening in an orderly manner. So put the things happening in and make them orderly. Or it’s not a novel.

(Dear Ms. Miller, if you care to explain this to me in the comments, I will accept your word as fact and edit my review to include your thoughts on the subject. I won’t be offended. I know it’s a big no-no for authors to comment on reviews, and I encourage that, but I don’t mind. Really, let me know, and I’ll add it to the review so readers can see!)

[Special Place Just In Case Carolyn Miller Wants To Make A Comment On This Review Because I Think There Is Probably A Serious Explanation For This Plot Hole, And I Want To See It So Bad.]

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CHARACTERS: 4/5

SQUEEEEEEE!!!

OKAY, I WANT A MAN PRETTY MUCH JUST LIKE HARRY IN THAT HE CARES ABOUT HIS FAMILY AND HE WANTS TO BE GOOD AND HE’S GROWING IN GOD AND REALLY TALKING TO HIM AND IT’S JUST SO AWESOME EXCUSE ME WHILE I FAN MY CHEEKS.

Seriously, though, Harry was probably one of the most realistic, most fun, most charming, most intriguing heroes I’ve read in a while. He was just loads of HARRY, that being the only way I can truly describe him.

Serena wasn’t so bad either. I actually like cold-as-ice characters. Lady Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey and my own Georgiana Farjon (Once a Stratton) and Isobel Selle (The Dressmaker’s Secret and Ivy Introspective) are prime examples.

Of course, what makes these characters brilliant is the fact that they usually have a reason for being this way.

Mary was mostly due to personality, but she became sooo much worse after the tragic events of Season 3 (*soft sobbing*). Georgiana lost her mother at a young age and then her father to his grief. Isobel also lost her mother and had the incredible weight of running a girl’s school (a much better one than the one Serena attended *coughs*) put on her shoulders at eighteen.

For Serena, that was supposedly her secret … but …? As I explained above (in the spoiler section of the plot section, haha), this doesn’t really hold out. So she didn’t make much sense to me.

I loved the angle with Serena’s art. That whole bit was quite interesting, and I really enjoyed it quite thoroughly. Everything about it was just so refreshing and interesting. (Apparently I don’t have dibs on the “drawing your love interest for therapy” angle, though. *Alice and I both pout*)

Melanie, Ellie, and Tom are all the best and deserve medals. I want to hug them all. Well, I want to hug Ellie and Tom all the time. Melanie was a witch for that one scene, but I forgave her.