What do you think?
Rate this book
Victorian Hearts #1
The Hidden Heart
Raised by her late father in the jungles and tropical forests, Tess Collier reluctantly agrees to return to England and boards the ship of captain Gryphon Meridon, whose promise to protect her evolves into feelings of passion. Reissue.
342 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
109 people are currently reading
1656 people want to read
About the author
Laura Kinsale
29 books1,526 followersLaura Kinsale is a New York Times bestselling author and both winner and multiple nominee for the Best Book of the Year award given by the Romance Writers of America.
She become a romance writer after six years as a geologist--a career which consisted of getting out of bed in the middle of the night and driving hundreds of miles alone across west Texas to sit drilling rigs, wear a hard hat, and attempt to boss around oil-covered males considerably larger than herself. This, she decided, was pushing her luck. So she gave all that up to sit in a chair and stare into space for long periods of time, attempting to figure out What-Happens-Next. She and her husband David currently divide their time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Texas.
She become a romance writer after six years as a geologist--a career which consisted of getting out of bed in the middle of the night and driving hundreds of miles alone across west Texas to sit drilling rigs, wear a hard hat, and attempt to boss around oil-covered males considerably larger than herself. This, she decided, was pushing her luck. So she gave all that up to sit in a chair and stare into space for long periods of time, attempting to figure out What-Happens-Next. She and her husband David currently divide their time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Texas.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
September 18, 2018
3.5/Leer a la Kinsale siempre es un placer y más este libro, que hacía tiempo deseaba leer por la historia de Samuel. Es verdad que, quizá, le falta esa magia a la que nos tiene acostumbrados por ser su primera novela, pero entre sus páginas ya se percibe a la escritora que es hoy en día. Sencillamente deliciosa.
PD: muchas gracias, Anna :) Sin ti, esta experiencia hubiera sido imposible.
PD: muchas gracias, Anna :) Sin ti, esta experiencia hubiera sido imposible.
December 27, 2021
Laura Kinsale made a deal with the devil in order to get romance writing powers - I’m sure of it.
Her way of writing longing and heartbreak and passion is masterful. All of her books make you and the characters really work for that happy ending, maybe more than any other author’s, and the result is that the happiness always feels like such a satisfying relief.
In this one, we meet Gryphon and Tess. He’s a sea captain and the long lost heir to an Earldom (is that the word?), while she was raised in the likes of Tahiti and Brazil (🥺) due to her exploring scientist father.
Gryphon is entrusted to bring Tess back to England after her father’s death, and… that’s about all I’ll give you. Too many spoilers lie ahead!
Was there a harmful description of Brazil, especially regarding the natives? Yes. But this book was written over 20 years ago, and I didn’t feel like the intention was to mock or to harm, which I think is important. I’m sure the book wouldn’t be written like that today.
This was a beautiful love story, in the way only Laura can make it. I cried, but I smiled in the end, which is all that matters. ❤️
Her way of writing longing and heartbreak and passion is masterful. All of her books make you and the characters really work for that happy ending, maybe more than any other author’s, and the result is that the happiness always feels like such a satisfying relief.
In this one, we meet Gryphon and Tess. He’s a sea captain and the long lost heir to an Earldom (is that the word?), while she was raised in the likes of Tahiti and Brazil (🥺) due to her exploring scientist father.
Gryphon is entrusted to bring Tess back to England after her father’s death, and… that’s about all I’ll give you. Too many spoilers lie ahead!
Was there a harmful description of Brazil, especially regarding the natives? Yes. But this book was written over 20 years ago, and I didn’t feel like the intention was to mock or to harm, which I think is important. I’m sure the book wouldn’t be written like that today.
This was a beautiful love story, in the way only Laura can make it. I cried, but I smiled in the end, which is all that matters. ❤️
January 30, 2023
A wonderful tale, spanning some years - it takes us from England over the high seas to South America and Tahiti. Misunderstanding, mayhem, murder - will Tess and Gryphon ever get their HEA? A tortured hero (my favourite), a strong heroine, a cast of interesting secondary characters.
I have only read one other book by this author and I adored it also. I am definitely going to check out more of her books.
The narrator, Nicholas Boulton, is fantastic. Even after reading some of the chapters on my kindle, I still went back to listen to his dulcet tones on audible ...
There was one scene at the end of the book and I just started weeping like a baby - it was so beautiful ...
"Damn," he groaned against her skin.
"Ah, damn, damn ..."
... in his loneliness he thought of her still. She crept into his mind so softly that it sometimes seemed that she was there with him ...
She was so full of life, so ready to love and be loved; while he was ice inside ...
I have only read one other book by this author and I adored it also. I am definitely going to check out more of her books.
The narrator, Nicholas Boulton, is fantastic. Even after reading some of the chapters on my kindle, I still went back to listen to his dulcet tones on audible ...
There was one scene at the end of the book and I just started weeping like a baby - it was so beautiful ...
May 8, 2008
I found myself having a love/hate relationship with this book. I really wanted to like the story and the characters, but there were many things I disliked about both. I will admit that Laura Kinsale is a talented author who writes with intelligence, but I think perhaps her writing style is a bit too intense for my taste. I love tortured heroes, but in my opinion, Gryf's torment was overdone to the point of being depressing. I prefer to watch troubled souls change and grow throughout the course of the story to overcome their adversity, but Gryf was not like this at all. Instead he became more and more miserable as the story progressed, until magically everything suddenly turned into wine and roses in the last few pages. There was a part of me that truly sympathized with him, but another part that was incredibly annoyed with him. I did mostly like Tess. At least she had some spunk, pursued Gryf when he didn't want to acknowledge his feelings, and fought to save him from his worst enemy, himself.
I thought that the story had some pacing issues. Sometimes it was so interesting I didn't want to put it down, yet other times I found it to be pretty dull. I became exhausted by the on-again/off-again relationship of the hero and heroine. They would get together at the beginning of a chapter and be separated again by the end. I found this to be very frustrating, and it continued throughout the entire book. In spite of all the annoyances though, I seemed compelled to keep reading, but I have a feeling it was more because I was anxiously awaiting anything good that might happen to these two characters than anything else. This is definitely a character-driven story that doesn't have a great deal of plot, yet spans a rather epic 2-3 years from beginning to end. Readers who like dark, intense romances may enjoy this, but for me it was a humorless tale that was no walk in the park.
I thought that the story had some pacing issues. Sometimes it was so interesting I didn't want to put it down, yet other times I found it to be pretty dull. I became exhausted by the on-again/off-again relationship of the hero and heroine. They would get together at the beginning of a chapter and be separated again by the end. I found this to be very frustrating, and it continued throughout the entire book. In spite of all the annoyances though, I seemed compelled to keep reading, but I have a feeling it was more because I was anxiously awaiting anything good that might happen to these two characters than anything else. This is definitely a character-driven story that doesn't have a great deal of plot, yet spans a rather epic 2-3 years from beginning to end. Readers who like dark, intense romances may enjoy this, but for me it was a humorless tale that was no walk in the park.
June 14, 2018
I absolutely adore Laura Kinsale's and Nicholas Boulton's collaborations as author and narrator! The Hidden Heart is a fun but sometimes dark story with great potential, but I was a little frustrated with both the heroine, Tess, and the hero, Gryphon. There was a bit too much miscommunication and stubbornness, and Tess's antics and manipulations went a bit too far, in my opinion.
That said, I couldn't get enough of Nicholas Boulton's deep, rich voice and his ability to bring the story and the characters to life.
Blurb:
I'm off to listen to book 2, The Shadow and the Star, because it centers around one of the characters in book 1 and is a story that desperately needed telling! (Thanks for that info, Bean!!)
That said, I couldn't get enough of Nicholas Boulton's deep, rich voice and his ability to bring the story and the characters to life.
Blurb:
When her naturalist father dies on the upper reaches of the Amazon, Lady Tess Collier sets out to fulfill his last wish: return to England and marry. Desperate and broke, privateer Gryphon Meridon takes on an assignment he'd much rather refuse - shepherding a beautiful, eccentric young lady through London's ballrooms.
I'm off to listen to book 2, The Shadow and the Star, because it centers around one of the characters in book 1 and is a story that desperately needed telling! (Thanks for that info, Bean!!)
January 23, 2023
I'm not going to try, honestly, I'll only say it was wonderful. Trademark Kinsale brought to life by Nicholas Boulton. I just really liked how this one was executed.
December 14, 2015
I'm pretty much a Laura Kinsale super-stan at this point, which means I'm probably not the most objective reader of her novels. I'm thinking I'll take a break from her stuff for a while and wait until after the book club read of Shadow and the Star in March before I get to more of her writing. Don't hold me to this. My willpower has been known to crack before.
I spend so much time whilst reading a Kinsale novel thinking things like "take a bow, Kinsale, you've fucked with my emotions again!" or contorting my face to look like a weirdly happy version of the scream face emoji, that I think other historical romances have begun to pale in comparison because they a.) do not make me genuinely feel things like Kinsale's do and b.) don't subject me to the same masochistic "I could never write this well!" pleasure/despair that a Kinsale novel does. This book is a very good 4 star read, but a "very good" Kinsale novel is probably better than most other books I'd describe as "very good." In the mid-section of this book, I grew a little disappointed because a lot of the drama began to seem very superficial and overly-manufactured, but these issues were resolved quickly and intelligently enough for them not to be major issues for me as a reader.
This was Kinsale's first book and I will say that I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her later (Fabio cover!) stories that I've read. It was a wonderful debut novel, however, and it made me think how impossible it would be for a novel like this to be published by Avon Books today. That's kind of sad, right? I'd love for a new Avon historical romance release to be a 120,000 word action/adventure/romance that takes me from Brazil to London to Papeete. Is it just that readers don't buy this type of book anymore or is it that there aren't any writers like Kinsale these days? It's likely a mix of both.
Anyway, a lot of the hallmarks of later Kinsale novels are present in this book:
1.) The hero is tortured x10.
2.) Animals get to play a role as secondary characters.
3.) Most of the novel takes place away from the English ton, and drawing room intrigue doesn't factor so much into the story; in fact, the most tedious and poorly written part of this particular book was the portion that covered the heroine's debutante days in London.
4.) The story has an epic feel and scale due to the fact that it spans continents and years. (Perhaps one of the reasons I most enjoy Kinsale's books is that we're never asked to believe that the hero and heroine's love is real, tried and tested and true based on their having known each other over the course of only a couple weeks/ a house party. The characters have months and months to grow and discover each others most redeeming qualities and biggest faults.)
5.) Weird things that should make me roll my eyes somehow are resolved in such a way that either explicitly acknowledges how ridiculous the plot point is or are resolved in short enough time for it not to screw with the flow of the story or the authenticity of the characters.
Anyway, I've already put a decent dent in my bottle of prosecco, which experience tells me means I've probably begun to ramble about things not actually relevant to the topic at hand (AKA this book). So I will just say that this is a great debut novel, despite a slow start and bursts of concocted melodrama, and definitely presages the even better books that were to follow.
I spend so much time whilst reading a Kinsale novel thinking things like "take a bow, Kinsale, you've fucked with my emotions again!" or contorting my face to look like a weirdly happy version of the scream face emoji, that I think other historical romances have begun to pale in comparison because they a.) do not make me genuinely feel things like Kinsale's do and b.) don't subject me to the same masochistic "I could never write this well!" pleasure/despair that a Kinsale novel does. This book is a very good 4 star read, but a "very good" Kinsale novel is probably better than most other books I'd describe as "very good." In the mid-section of this book, I grew a little disappointed because a lot of the drama began to seem very superficial and overly-manufactured, but these issues were resolved quickly and intelligently enough for them not to be major issues for me as a reader.
This was Kinsale's first book and I will say that I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her later (Fabio cover!) stories that I've read. It was a wonderful debut novel, however, and it made me think how impossible it would be for a novel like this to be published by Avon Books today. That's kind of sad, right? I'd love for a new Avon historical romance release to be a 120,000 word action/adventure/romance that takes me from Brazil to London to Papeete. Is it just that readers don't buy this type of book anymore or is it that there aren't any writers like Kinsale these days? It's likely a mix of both.
Anyway, a lot of the hallmarks of later Kinsale novels are present in this book:
1.) The hero is tortured x10.
2.) Animals get to play a role as secondary characters.
3.) Most of the novel takes place away from the English ton, and drawing room intrigue doesn't factor so much into the story; in fact, the most tedious and poorly written part of this particular book was the portion that covered the heroine's debutante days in London.
4.) The story has an epic feel and scale due to the fact that it spans continents and years. (Perhaps one of the reasons I most enjoy Kinsale's books is that we're never asked to believe that the hero and heroine's love is real, tried and tested and true based on their having known each other over the course of only a couple weeks/ a house party. The characters have months and months to grow and discover each others most redeeming qualities and biggest faults.)
5.) Weird things that should make me roll my eyes somehow are resolved in such a way that either explicitly acknowledges how ridiculous the plot point is or are resolved in short enough time for it not to screw with the flow of the story or the authenticity of the characters.
Anyway, I've already put a decent dent in my bottle of prosecco, which experience tells me means I've probably begun to ramble about things not actually relevant to the topic at hand (AKA this book). So I will just say that this is a great debut novel, despite a slow start and bursts of concocted melodrama, and definitely presages the even better books that were to follow.
March 16, 2015
Romance?? This is NOT a romance!! Romance novels don't have sex scenes with 6 year olds! They don't leave 6 year olds alone with sexually/physically abusive people and then think nothing of it once they themselves are free! Maybe I missed something?? Did she somehow free that kid? Because I didn't see anywhere where she saved that little guy. So, yeah, real fucking romantic. A little kid is being abused by her ex/husband and she goes off looking for the man she loves. umm.... ok.... NOT!
I mean, even if the child abuse scene depicted were historically accurate... I don't want them in my fucking romance novels! How am I supposed to feel all soft and warm when I'm utterly horrified by the mere idea of what the author portrayed?!
no no no.
And if that weren't bad enough, and in my book it is! then the whole entire book was one heartbreak and frustration and wrong doing after another!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, the whole fucking thing! With the exception of a few 'warm hearted' scenes of forced romantic entanglements the book was all pain and suffering. Until the last chapter and a half. When they sailed off into the sunset to live happily ever after.
Bah fucking humbug!
And top it off with... I didn't like a single character in this book! I loathed them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, why the hell did I read it?
Good fucking question. Really!
All I can say is the writing was good, the plot (aside from the kiddy abuse) was good. I enjoyed aspects of it, like the banter and aspects of the characters' qualities. I also got so far into it, I couldn't turn back. So plowed through. I regret it. Honestly I do.
I wish I'd closed (deleted) the book the moment I realized it was not progressing how I wanted. And DEFINITELY should have tossed the book after the kiddy porn. Any book that includes that isn't for me, I can't stand that stuff. Implying sexual abuse in the past, that I can handle, or even having it 'recounted' I can take. But not in the way it took place in this book. Oh, yeah, I already bitched about this! sorry!
I mean, even if the child abuse scene depicted were historically accurate... I don't want them in my fucking romance novels! How am I supposed to feel all soft and warm when I'm utterly horrified by the mere idea of what the author portrayed?!
no no no.
And if that weren't bad enough, and in my book it is! then the whole entire book was one heartbreak and frustration and wrong doing after another!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, the whole fucking thing! With the exception of a few 'warm hearted' scenes of forced romantic entanglements the book was all pain and suffering. Until the last chapter and a half. When they sailed off into the sunset to live happily ever after.
Bah fucking humbug!
And top it off with... I didn't like a single character in this book! I loathed them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, why the hell did I read it?
Good fucking question. Really!
All I can say is the writing was good, the plot (aside from the kiddy abuse) was good. I enjoyed aspects of it, like the banter and aspects of the characters' qualities. I also got so far into it, I couldn't turn back. So plowed through. I regret it. Honestly I do.
I wish I'd closed (deleted) the book the moment I realized it was not progressing how I wanted. And DEFINITELY should have tossed the book after the kiddy porn. Any book that includes that isn't for me, I can't stand that stuff. Implying sexual abuse in the past, that I can handle, or even having it 'recounted' I can take. But not in the way it took place in this book. Oh, yeah, I already bitched about this! sorry!
April 11, 2021
I sobbed like a baby.
I know some had issues with pacing, but it didn't bother me. I'm kind of used to Kinsale's writing, in that sense. I adored both characters, especially Gryff, but then all Kinsale's hero's are lovely. She writes male vulnerability better than anyone, and Gryff might be one of the finest. The last scene was absolute perfection.
I know some had issues with pacing, but it didn't bother me. I'm kind of used to Kinsale's writing, in that sense. I adored both characters, especially Gryff, but then all Kinsale's hero's are lovely. She writes male vulnerability better than anyone, and Gryff might be one of the finest. The last scene was absolute perfection.
August 24, 2025
Ms. Kinsale is a magical writer. Certain passages were written with such eloquence and poignancy, they brought tears to my eyes. Her words strike you right in the solar plexus, and it takes a moment—sometimes longer—to catch your breath again. She’s that kind of author. The kind whose writing lingers, whose emotional depth sneaks up on you and refuses to let go.
November 10, 2017
Estoy entre 4 y 4,5.
Me ha encantado los personajes, todos ellos.
Es una historia de amor a primera vista, flechazo, pero aún así. Se desarrolla con pausa y tranquilidad, dando tiempo a todo, a conocerse mejor, a querer más si cabe, ha hacer tonterías y luego arrepentirse.
Tess, es increíble, como asume todo con una madurez y una fingida seguridad. Sin embargo, tiene esa inocencia con respecto a cosas simple de la vida, que te daban unas ganas de achucharla.
Grif, me ha tenido en una cuerda floja todo el tiempo. Ha habido veces que le entendía y empatizaba con él. En otras ocasiones, de verdad, le hubiera mandado a la porra (por no decir algo más fuerte).
La historia está maravillosamente contada, como es capaz esta autora de describir los sentimientos en cada momento. He llorado de alegría, de frustración, de ira.
Volveré a leer este libro, porque me ha dejado una sensación de plenitud y calma, como pocos libros me han dejado. No le he dado 5, porque Grif me lo ha estropeado con sus miedos (justificado o no) constantes.
Me ha encantado los personajes, todos ellos.
Es una historia de amor a primera vista, flechazo, pero aún así. Se desarrolla con pausa y tranquilidad, dando tiempo a todo, a conocerse mejor, a querer más si cabe, ha hacer tonterías y luego arrepentirse.
Tess, es increíble, como asume todo con una madurez y una fingida seguridad. Sin embargo, tiene esa inocencia con respecto a cosas simple de la vida, que te daban unas ganas de achucharla.
Grif, me ha tenido en una cuerda floja todo el tiempo. Ha habido veces que le entendía y empatizaba con él. En otras ocasiones, de verdad, le hubiera mandado a la porra (por no decir algo más fuerte).
La historia está maravillosamente contada, como es capaz esta autora de describir los sentimientos en cada momento. He llorado de alegría, de frustración, de ira.
Volveré a leer este libro, porque me ha dejado una sensación de plenitud y calma, como pocos libros me han dejado. No le he dado 5, porque Grif me lo ha estropeado con sus miedos (justificado o no) constantes.
August 8, 2024
Review from 2015
A+ for narration / B for content - 4.5 stars.
Nobody who has listened to Laura Kinsale’s wonderful prose brought vividly to life by the massively talented Nicholas Boulton can be in any doubt that the dozen audiobooks they have produced (so far – fingers crossed) have shown again and again exactly what an audiobook can and should be. Every aspect – writing, performance, direction and overall production have combined to put these titles at the top of the heap when it comes to romance audios, and they undoubtedly represent a pinnacle of achievement in the field.
But all good things must come to an end – unfortunately – and The Hidden Heart – the first of the author’s published works – is the last of Ms Kinsale’s books to come to audio. While I enjoyed it, I can’t help thinking that perhaps it would have been better to have had a different title as the Kinsale/Boulton swansong. I realise that these things can’t always be planned, but this isn’t my favourite Kinsale story; the pacing is uneven, the protagonists spend large chunks of time apart and there were times I wanted to throttle the hero!
Lady Tess Collier, daughter of the Earl of Morrow, had a most unconventional upbringing in some of the world’s most inhospitable places as she accompanied her naturalist father on his travels. When the earl dies in Brazil, his will requires her to return to England and settle down to a normal life with a husband and family. While perhaps not something Tess would have chosen for herself, she is nonetheless determined to honour her father’s wishes; so his friend and executor secures passage for her aboard the Arcanum, a clipper under the command of a young Englishman whom she comes to know as Captain Gryphon Frost.
Frost is actually Gryphon Meridon, the rightful Marquess of Ashland who, as a boy, saw his entire family perish at sea due to the treachery of his uncle, who coveted the family’s wealth and the Ashland title. Knowing his life is still in danger from his ruthless relative, Gryf opts to lie low and now makes his living at sea, running operations of dubious legality in the Americas.
A+ for narration / B for content - 4.5 stars.
Nobody who has listened to Laura Kinsale’s wonderful prose brought vividly to life by the massively talented Nicholas Boulton can be in any doubt that the dozen audiobooks they have produced (so far – fingers crossed) have shown again and again exactly what an audiobook can and should be. Every aspect – writing, performance, direction and overall production have combined to put these titles at the top of the heap when it comes to romance audios, and they undoubtedly represent a pinnacle of achievement in the field.
But all good things must come to an end – unfortunately – and The Hidden Heart – the first of the author’s published works – is the last of Ms Kinsale’s books to come to audio. While I enjoyed it, I can’t help thinking that perhaps it would have been better to have had a different title as the Kinsale/Boulton swansong. I realise that these things can’t always be planned, but this isn’t my favourite Kinsale story; the pacing is uneven, the protagonists spend large chunks of time apart and there were times I wanted to throttle the hero!
Lady Tess Collier, daughter of the Earl of Morrow, had a most unconventional upbringing in some of the world’s most inhospitable places as she accompanied her naturalist father on his travels. When the earl dies in Brazil, his will requires her to return to England and settle down to a normal life with a husband and family. While perhaps not something Tess would have chosen for herself, she is nonetheless determined to honour her father’s wishes; so his friend and executor secures passage for her aboard the Arcanum, a clipper under the command of a young Englishman whom she comes to know as Captain Gryphon Frost.
Frost is actually Gryphon Meridon, the rightful Marquess of Ashland who, as a boy, saw his entire family perish at sea due to the treachery of his uncle, who coveted the family’s wealth and the Ashland title. Knowing his life is still in danger from his ruthless relative, Gryf opts to lie low and now makes his living at sea, running operations of dubious legality in the Americas.
Tess is beautiful, intelligent, wealthy and naïve, her life with her father having in no way prepared her to navigate the drawing rooms and ballrooms of English society. Gryf is engaged to transport Tess to England and also – unbeknownst to the lady – to keep an eye on her as she moves about in society and do his best to ensure that she doesn’t fall into the clutches of any unscrupulous fortune-hunters.
Given that Gryf is already more than half in love with Tess but knows she can never be his, this task is akin to torture – but he can’t afford to turn down the fee that goes along with the job. Tess doesn’t expect to see Gryf again after they’ve arrived in England, so she is very surprised when he shows up at a party at Morrow House, purporting to be the cousin of another one of the guests. Guessing that “Mr Everett” doesn’t want to be exposed as blockade runner, Captain Frost, Tess plays along and is delighted to encounter him at other events in the coming weeks.
The two become closer and very soon, it’s clear that their feelings for each other are mutual, and eventually – but not without much metaphorical gnashing of teeth on Gryf’s part – they plan to marry. It’s obvious, as this happens well before the half-way point of the story that things are going to go wrong, and when they do, they go very, VERY wrong indeed. The story is quite complicated, with lots of twists and turns and there were several times along the way I felt like tearing my hair out along with my earbuds and howling “Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!”
Most of my frustrations stemmed from Gryf’s fear of letting himself get close to people. Having lost his family when he was young in such tragic circumstances, his trust issues make perfect sense, as do his difficulties with allowing emotional attachment. Like many of Laura Kinsale’s heroes, he’s deeply troubled; and his insecurities and vulnerablities cause him to say and do some things that are cruel and unwarranted. That’s not to say he’s an unlikeable character; in the early part of the book he’s charming and romantic, and I enjoyed listening to his interactions with Tess and the development of their relationship. He is devoted to Tess – even when he’s trying to push her away – and everything he does is because he wants the best for her, even though he often goes about it in a misguided way.
Tess somehow manages to be a relatively well-adjusted young woman for the most part, although she makes a disastrous decision when she believes Gryf has betrayed her and marries a cruel, perverted man – Gryf’s cousin, Stephen Eliot. The listener isn’t privy to much that happens during their brief marriage, although there are a few scenes that, while not graphic, some may find disturbing.
The Hidden Heart is beautifully written; the plot – in spite of the frustrating parts – works, the central relationship is intense and the listener can feel the truth of the emotion between the characters. But even though I tend to like angsty romances, I found some of the situations in the story a bit hard to take. Tess and Gryf go through the wringer and then some, and seem to lurch from torment to torment without ever gaining a moment of happiness for themselves until the very end of the book – and even that is precarious right up until the last minute. In fact, had I not been listening to the gorgeously modulated tones of Nicholas Boulton, I can’t help but wonder if I’d have stopped listening once or twice to give myself a break from the almost unrelieved tension.
As he has proven time and time again, Mr Boulton is extremely adept at getting to the emotional heart of the characters and the story of whatever book he’s narrating. Whether in narrative or dialogue, his pacing is perfect and his acting choices are spot-on; Gryf’s smarmy cousin Stephen is endowed with a suitably unpleasant demeanour and manner of speech that frequently made my skin crawl, and he once again brings his considerable range of dialects and accents to the various minor and secondary characters, from salty old Sea-Dogs to Tahitian matrons. Each adds richness and colour to the overall listening experience and sounds completely authentic. Given that Gryf is – I was going to say “another”, but he’s actually the first! – one of Ms Kinsale’s archetypally tortured heroes, Mr Boulton’s interpretation of him was always going to be pivotal to the success of the audio. By echoing Gryf’s confused, conflicted emotions in his voice, he manages – as he did in Seize the Fire – to transform a difficult, sometimes unsympathetic hero into one whose actions are, at the very least, understandable, even if they aren’t always rational or laudable.
In spite of these reservations, I enjoyed listening to The Hidden Heart, and can forgive the weaknesses in the story because of the wonderful writing and the terrific performance. Just make sure you’re surrounded by lots of soft cushions when you’re listening, in case you want to punch something!
February 28, 2011
Review: The Hidden Heart is book one in the Victorian Hearts Series by Laura Kinsale.
This historical romance is about Lady Collier and Lord Ashland.
Lady Tess Collier was raised by her father, after her mother’s passing. Her father was an eccentric and wealthy man, who raised his daughter on scientific expeditions through forests and jungles. When her father became ill, he realized his mistake in keeping her from society. He made her promise that in his passing, she would return to England and marry well. Tess returned to England and began looking for a suitable husband. Her guardian hired Captain Gryph Frost to befriend Tess and to screen her suitors in exchange for money.
The moment Gryph met Tess, he was drawn to her strength and character. He found himself falling for her and denied his feelings due to his emotional and complicated past. Captain Gryph Frost was actually Lord Gryphon Meridon of Ashland. When he was 12 years old, his ship was attacked and his entire family killed. The murders were orchestrated by his dead aunt’s husband, in an attempt to take over the Meridon title and fortune. Gryph was left with the Meridon insignet ring, the dead to the ship, and horrific memories.
Tess received offers of marriage from several suitors and Gryph discouraged suitor Stephen Elliot. Stephen was Gryph’s true cousin, son to the man who murdered his family. Gryph hid this secret, along with Stephen’s secret sexually sadistic side. Tess claimed she would marry Stephen unless Gryph took his place. Gryph agree and that’s when the trouble started. A young, newly pregnant, 19 year old girl claimed that Gryph was the father of her unborn child. This was of course a lie, but she fed these lies to Tess along with the truth about the deal he made with her guardian. While this was happening, Gryph’s closest friend died of heart failure. When he returned to Tess, she turned him away and married Stephen. Gryph was lost without the love of his best friend and his former fiancée. He vowed to never let anyone get close to him again for fear of losing them. Gryph refused the money from the guardian and explained that the man she married was sadistic and Mr Taylor must travel to London to find Tess.
Gryph was right about Stephen. Tess was being held in the cellar without heat or light. The guardian removed her from Stephen’s clutches and had the marriage annulled. Tess travelled to find Gryph and tricked her way onto his ship. She tried to convince him they belonged together, but he refused her. After months aboard the ship, she again tricked Gryph onto and island where they made love for the first time. After discovering she was still a virgin, he agreed to marry her. They were married and he drove her away, saying he didn’t love her.
Tess was later captured by Stephen again and held against her will in a farmhouse. When Gryph discovered she was taken, he went to Ashland and fought with Stephen. Stephen was killed, but not before telling Gryph that Tess was dead. Gryph was arrested for attempted theft and murder. Believing Tess was dead, he accepted the punishment of death. With Stephen’s death, Tess was free and contacted a solicitor. On the day of the hanging, Gryph’s sentence was overturned by the Queen in place of prison. Tess gave birth to their son and Gryph’s new trial began.
The court deemed that Gryph was Gryph Meridon and that due to these recent developments, he was not attempting theft and the murder was in self-defence. Gryph was free, but did not return to Tess when he discovered she and her son were alive. Gryph agreed to speak with her regarding her trust and was overwhelmed with emotion from seeing his son and wife. He explained that he always loved her, but is afraid of losing those he loves. Gryph and Tess lived happily ever after aboard his father’s ship.
I found myself wanting to love the characters and the story, but just couldn’t connect with them. Tess was a strong woman, but constantly reduced herself to games and trickery to get Gryph to love her. Gryph was naive for a man of the world, and lacked passion in life and love. Throughout the story, Tess and Gryph were constantly being pushed apart and after awhile I just didn’t care if they decided to stay together or go their separate ways. I think there should have been more love in this love story.
This historical romance is about Lady Collier and Lord Ashland.
Lady Tess Collier was raised by her father, after her mother’s passing. Her father was an eccentric and wealthy man, who raised his daughter on scientific expeditions through forests and jungles. When her father became ill, he realized his mistake in keeping her from society. He made her promise that in his passing, she would return to England and marry well. Tess returned to England and began looking for a suitable husband. Her guardian hired Captain Gryph Frost to befriend Tess and to screen her suitors in exchange for money.
The moment Gryph met Tess, he was drawn to her strength and character. He found himself falling for her and denied his feelings due to his emotional and complicated past. Captain Gryph Frost was actually Lord Gryphon Meridon of Ashland. When he was 12 years old, his ship was attacked and his entire family killed. The murders were orchestrated by his dead aunt’s husband, in an attempt to take over the Meridon title and fortune. Gryph was left with the Meridon insignet ring, the dead to the ship, and horrific memories.
Tess received offers of marriage from several suitors and Gryph discouraged suitor Stephen Elliot. Stephen was Gryph’s true cousin, son to the man who murdered his family. Gryph hid this secret, along with Stephen’s secret sexually sadistic side. Tess claimed she would marry Stephen unless Gryph took his place. Gryph agree and that’s when the trouble started. A young, newly pregnant, 19 year old girl claimed that Gryph was the father of her unborn child. This was of course a lie, but she fed these lies to Tess along with the truth about the deal he made with her guardian. While this was happening, Gryph’s closest friend died of heart failure. When he returned to Tess, she turned him away and married Stephen. Gryph was lost without the love of his best friend and his former fiancée. He vowed to never let anyone get close to him again for fear of losing them. Gryph refused the money from the guardian and explained that the man she married was sadistic and Mr Taylor must travel to London to find Tess.
Gryph was right about Stephen. Tess was being held in the cellar without heat or light. The guardian removed her from Stephen’s clutches and had the marriage annulled. Tess travelled to find Gryph and tricked her way onto his ship. She tried to convince him they belonged together, but he refused her. After months aboard the ship, she again tricked Gryph onto and island where they made love for the first time. After discovering she was still a virgin, he agreed to marry her. They were married and he drove her away, saying he didn’t love her.
Tess was later captured by Stephen again and held against her will in a farmhouse. When Gryph discovered she was taken, he went to Ashland and fought with Stephen. Stephen was killed, but not before telling Gryph that Tess was dead. Gryph was arrested for attempted theft and murder. Believing Tess was dead, he accepted the punishment of death. With Stephen’s death, Tess was free and contacted a solicitor. On the day of the hanging, Gryph’s sentence was overturned by the Queen in place of prison. Tess gave birth to their son and Gryph’s new trial began.
The court deemed that Gryph was Gryph Meridon and that due to these recent developments, he was not attempting theft and the murder was in self-defence. Gryph was free, but did not return to Tess when he discovered she and her son were alive. Gryph agreed to speak with her regarding her trust and was overwhelmed with emotion from seeing his son and wife. He explained that he always loved her, but is afraid of losing those he loves. Gryph and Tess lived happily ever after aboard his father’s ship.
I found myself wanting to love the characters and the story, but just couldn’t connect with them. Tess was a strong woman, but constantly reduced herself to games and trickery to get Gryph to love her. Gryph was naive for a man of the world, and lacked passion in life and love. Throughout the story, Tess and Gryph were constantly being pushed apart and after awhile I just didn’t care if they decided to stay together or go their separate ways. I think there should have been more love in this love story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2012
Wow... so... wow.
The events of this book are so up and down, back and forth, and all over the place with improbabilities. It shifted around so much that after a while I stopped trying to surmise what strange new misery was going to befall these characters next. And - BOY O' Boy, there were miseries aplenty. Not that I mind angst. Actually, I LOVE angsty romances. But this angst felt contrived and the characters did not handle it in ways that I felt were appropriate, even when one considers all extenuating circumstances. Because if it wasn't some twisted villain trying to torment them, it was the characters themselves orchestrating their own misery.
Ok ok ok, before you say it... YES the hero had a tortured and painful childhood. Utterly terrible. And I felt for him. And I could accept this childhood trauma (and probable PTSD) as an adequate explanation for some of his behavior. But time and time again, over and over again, and just when you think 'OK FINALLY he's going to have some kind of believable breakthrough' - NOPE, denied. There was no relief for the reader in his back and forth rejection of the heroine, and then subsequent love, and then rejection again. When he wasn't pushing her away - cruelly - he was desperate to keep her. When he didn't act like he hated her, he loved her so desperately he thought he'd rather die than lose her.
And of course this is the primary issue this hero has, he is terrified to love for fear of losing. But you can only take that explanation so far before it loses its credibility... and this story stretched it past its breaking point. These two do fall in love fairly early in the book. And then events occur that do sort of reignite his trauma and it does make it easier to accept that he's simply afraid to lose her. However, my frustration reached a crescendo when Give. Me. A. Break. It was so painful to read. I know how awesome of a writer Kinsale is, and I seriously doubted at that point that she could redeem this hero after that.
The heroine, by contrast, was relatively level-headed most of the book. The only time when I got really ticked off at the heroine was when .
Still, I couldn't put this book down. I think mostly it was due to my desperate hopes that at SOME point throughout this story, the reader might be tossed a little bit of crumbs here and there, to get to see the hero and heroine have some moments of happiness without immediately finding some way to mash it and destroy it in a few paragraphs. That didn't happen until the VERY end, and by that point I'm not sure I was buying it anymore.
The events of this book are so up and down, back and forth, and all over the place with improbabilities. It shifted around so much that after a while I stopped trying to surmise what strange new misery was going to befall these characters next. And - BOY O' Boy, there were miseries aplenty. Not that I mind angst. Actually, I LOVE angsty romances. But this angst felt contrived and the characters did not handle it in ways that I felt were appropriate, even when one considers all extenuating circumstances. Because if it wasn't some twisted villain trying to torment them, it was the characters themselves orchestrating their own misery.
Ok ok ok, before you say it... YES the hero had a tortured and painful childhood. Utterly terrible. And I felt for him. And I could accept this childhood trauma (and probable PTSD) as an adequate explanation for some of his behavior. But time and time again, over and over again, and just when you think 'OK FINALLY he's going to have some kind of believable breakthrough' - NOPE, denied. There was no relief for the reader in his back and forth rejection of the heroine, and then subsequent love, and then rejection again. When he wasn't pushing her away - cruelly - he was desperate to keep her. When he didn't act like he hated her, he loved her so desperately he thought he'd rather die than lose her.
And of course this is the primary issue this hero has, he is terrified to love for fear of losing. But you can only take that explanation so far before it loses its credibility... and this story stretched it past its breaking point. These two do fall in love fairly early in the book. And then events occur that do sort of reignite his trauma and it does make it easier to accept that he's simply afraid to lose her. However, my frustration reached a crescendo when Give. Me. A. Break. It was so painful to read. I know how awesome of a writer Kinsale is, and I seriously doubted at that point that she could redeem this hero after that.
The heroine, by contrast, was relatively level-headed most of the book. The only time when I got really ticked off at the heroine was when .
Still, I couldn't put this book down. I think mostly it was due to my desperate hopes that at SOME point throughout this story, the reader might be tossed a little bit of crumbs here and there, to get to see the hero and heroine have some moments of happiness without immediately finding some way to mash it and destroy it in a few paragraphs. That didn't happen until the VERY end, and by that point I'm not sure I was buying it anymore.
June 18, 2014
Every time I finish one of Laura Kinsale's books, I love her a little more. The way she writes just works for me. One of the things every reader loves about romance is the guaranteed happy ending. No matter how bad things get for the hero and heroine, we know it's going to work out in the end. So when I find a writer like Kinsale, who keeps the hero and heroine from achieving any kind of hint at happiness for the majority of the book and does it with such intensity and macabre humor, I grab hold and won't let go.
In The Hidden Heart, we are introduced to heroine Tess Collier, peeress and daughter of a prominent naturalist. As an aside, I appreciate that Kinsale often has her heroines spend time overseas, away from stuffy old England. It gives her an excuse to play with heroines who are more independent, capable and practical than I imagine the average debutante actually would have been and Tess is no exception. The story starts with Tess's father dead from illness in the jungles of Brazil after traveling all over the world together in pursuit of specimens. She has given a deathbed promise to him that she will return to England and marry.
Gryphon Meridon is a sea captain running operations of dubious legality throughout the Americas at the time of the book, which appears to be around 1863. He is an orphan as a result of the nefarious dealings of a cousin and has been hiding out at sea since he was a boy. To say he has trust issues is understating the case. It's probably more like PTSD given his nightmares. He's given the task of watching out for the socially naive heroine as she makes her debut to London society.
For some readers, Kinsale is too intense and this book is no exception. There's a character who has been subjected to child abuse and Tess is also abused over the course of the book (not by the hero). Then there's the character deaths and Gryphon's aforementioned mental illness. But as I read this book, I was gleeful. Maybe that says more about me than the book, but I find Kinsale *hilarious* and not in some kind of bizarre, ironic way. I think it's intentional. In this book, there's a parrot, a thwarted suitor and a goofy scheme by the heroine and her friend that seem calculated to defuse some of the tension of the story without defusing the tension between the hero and heroine. Prince of Midnight and Flowers from the Storm, two of my favorite Kinsale books, do the same. She seems to understand both the inherent tragedy and the inherent ridiculousness of human life, which in my view keeps her very intense writing from feeling like purposeless angst.
Though there is an evil villain plot, this is a character-driven book. Even Queen Victoria doesn't get to save the day here, a fact which surprised and impressed me. Usually when royalty comes into the picture, they become the star, which is why I think in historical romance they don't appear all that often, even with all the Dukes marching about. And, again typical with Kinsale, it's the hero holding up the show, which is also something that might annoy some readers, but that decisively works in her favor with me. In fact, the way Kinsale keeps up the pressure on her characters all through the book is what so captivates me.
The only thing that gave me pause was the special license they obtain to marry since they were in French-administered Tahiti at the time, married by a French priest and no one but Gryf knows he's an aristocrat. I didn't do any research on that though so it very well could be accurate. In any case, it's a minor point in an otherwise fabulous book.
Like Prince of Midnight, Flowers from the Storm and The Dream Hunter, I'll certainly be rereading this again once I've finished the rest of her works. I love romance novels, but it's rare that I deem one a keeper. This, like nearly every Kinsale book I've read, totally is.
In The Hidden Heart, we are introduced to heroine Tess Collier, peeress and daughter of a prominent naturalist. As an aside, I appreciate that Kinsale often has her heroines spend time overseas, away from stuffy old England. It gives her an excuse to play with heroines who are more independent, capable and practical than I imagine the average debutante actually would have been and Tess is no exception. The story starts with Tess's father dead from illness in the jungles of Brazil after traveling all over the world together in pursuit of specimens. She has given a deathbed promise to him that she will return to England and marry.
Gryphon Meridon is a sea captain running operations of dubious legality throughout the Americas at the time of the book, which appears to be around 1863. He is an orphan as a result of the nefarious dealings of a cousin and has been hiding out at sea since he was a boy. To say he has trust issues is understating the case. It's probably more like PTSD given his nightmares. He's given the task of watching out for the socially naive heroine as she makes her debut to London society.
For some readers, Kinsale is too intense and this book is no exception. There's a character who has been subjected to child abuse and Tess is also abused over the course of the book (not by the hero). Then there's the character deaths and Gryphon's aforementioned mental illness. But as I read this book, I was gleeful. Maybe that says more about me than the book, but I find Kinsale *hilarious* and not in some kind of bizarre, ironic way. I think it's intentional. In this book, there's a parrot, a thwarted suitor and a goofy scheme by the heroine and her friend that seem calculated to defuse some of the tension of the story without defusing the tension between the hero and heroine. Prince of Midnight and Flowers from the Storm, two of my favorite Kinsale books, do the same. She seems to understand both the inherent tragedy and the inherent ridiculousness of human life, which in my view keeps her very intense writing from feeling like purposeless angst.
Though there is an evil villain plot, this is a character-driven book. Even Queen Victoria doesn't get to save the day here, a fact which surprised and impressed me. Usually when royalty comes into the picture, they become the star, which is why I think in historical romance they don't appear all that often, even with all the Dukes marching about. And, again typical with Kinsale, it's the hero holding up the show, which is also something that might annoy some readers, but that decisively works in her favor with me. In fact, the way Kinsale keeps up the pressure on her characters all through the book is what so captivates me.
The only thing that gave me pause was the special license they obtain to marry since they were in French-administered Tahiti at the time, married by a French priest and no one but Gryf knows he's an aristocrat. I didn't do any research on that though so it very well could be accurate. In any case, it's a minor point in an otherwise fabulous book.
Like Prince of Midnight, Flowers from the Storm and The Dream Hunter, I'll certainly be rereading this again once I've finished the rest of her works. I love romance novels, but it's rare that I deem one a keeper. This, like nearly every Kinsale book I've read, totally is.
March 20, 2025
This is my second Laura Kinsale book, and she seems to be a master at completely breaking down heros, and I eat it up. This book is kind of wild, but I enjoyed it. My biggest issue was having the same name has the heroine, which is my own issue and did not affect my rating at all. This book was written in the eighties, and definitely shows with certain descriptive words used to describe dark-skinned servants, and kind of being a bit pro-imperialism. Both things were probably historically accurate for the 1870s, and not as frowned-upon in the 80's, but a bit jarring for a modern reader. It was still pretty tame for a more old-school romance, and was a fun read.
Read
January 5, 2024Some elements of this book I can't/won't defend but it's absolutely bananas that this is Kinsale's first book. What a talent.
February 27, 2016
Actual Rating: 3.5
I feel like I start every review of a Kinsale novel with the same sentence: I am a HUGE fan of her books and I cannot express enough how almost impossible it is to find one you really dislike, or even find middling. In the case of The Hidden Heart, I really enjoyed it overall but it did have some issues.
A positive thing I'd like to highlight that I'm really coming to appreciate in Kinsale's work are the villains. I was sufficiently super creeped out by the atmosphere and creepiness in The Prince of Midnight, but I have not been so scared and unsure for a historical romance heroine as I was in this book. There is one scene in particular where the writing is so evocative and stifling and I don't think it will leave me for quite some time ().
Gryf was a lovely, honorable man with a tons of baggage - duh, he's a Kinsale hero :). However, his continued insistence on not letting Tess in emotionally felt childish after a certain point, especially when the conflict would be resolved within a page or two, but then suddenly he'd pull back once more. There were several moments where I was almost willing Tess to just pick up and leave because no man would be worth some of that nonsense. ()
My main issue with the book is that it relied too much on the common Big Misunderstanding(s) trope and it began to grate. JUST. TALK. TO. EACH. OTHER. I also found Gryf's actions toward the very end unbelievably selfish, silly, and unearned despite what he'd gone through.
All in all, despite what I focused on in this review, I really enjoyed this first book in the Victorian Hearts series (and I hear The Shadow and the Star is even better!) despite some flaws. Why? Because Kinsale's prose and storytelling is so far above and beyond a lot in this genre, so even with the above outlined issues, this was a great and satisfying read.
I feel like I start every review of a Kinsale novel with the same sentence: I am a HUGE fan of her books and I cannot express enough how almost impossible it is to find one you really dislike, or even find middling. In the case of The Hidden Heart, I really enjoyed it overall but it did have some issues.
A positive thing I'd like to highlight that I'm really coming to appreciate in Kinsale's work are the villains. I was sufficiently super creeped out by the atmosphere and creepiness in The Prince of Midnight, but I have not been so scared and unsure for a historical romance heroine as I was in this book. There is one scene in particular where the writing is so evocative and stifling and I don't think it will leave me for quite some time ().
Gryf was a lovely, honorable man with a tons of baggage - duh, he's a Kinsale hero :). However, his continued insistence on not letting Tess in emotionally felt childish after a certain point, especially when the conflict would be resolved within a page or two, but then suddenly he'd pull back once more. There were several moments where I was almost willing Tess to just pick up and leave because no man would be worth some of that nonsense. ()
My main issue with the book is that it relied too much on the common Big Misunderstanding(s) trope and it began to grate. JUST. TALK. TO. EACH. OTHER. I also found Gryf's actions toward the very end unbelievably selfish, silly, and unearned despite what he'd gone through.
All in all, despite what I focused on in this review, I really enjoyed this first book in the Victorian Hearts series (and I hear The Shadow and the Star is even better!) despite some flaws. Why? Because Kinsale's prose and storytelling is so far above and beyond a lot in this genre, so even with the above outlined issues, this was a great and satisfying read.
April 8, 2023
5 STARS
Loved it. What an adventure this was. Between the evil schemes and misunderstandings, I had trouble putting this down. No one does a tortured hero better than Laura Kinsale. This book had it all, adventure, suspense, romance and tragedy. Released in 1986, a true classic romance.
Never say die.
He began to pull for his ship…for the ship that had saved his life with her steady light. She materialized out of the darkness, solid and real, patiently waiting, the one love that had not deserted him. His life came down to that: that as long as he was alive, he would have her. And when she went down, he would go too.
Loved it. What an adventure this was. Between the evil schemes and misunderstandings, I had trouble putting this down. No one does a tortured hero better than Laura Kinsale. This book had it all, adventure, suspense, romance and tragedy. Released in 1986, a true classic romance.
November 14, 2014
Perfect way of popping my Kinsale-cherry :)
This could have been a 5 star read if the hero wasn't so incredibly infuriating.
Loved all the angst, though :) and the story was beautifully written *.* I cared and suffered for both characters deeply. Can't wait to read the second book in the series!
This could have been a 5 star read if the hero wasn't so incredibly infuriating.
Loved all the angst, though :) and the story was beautifully written *.* I cared and suffered for both characters deeply. Can't wait to read the second book in the series!
October 3, 2017
Reread of a classic bodice-ripper(ish, though not really) romance.
While I admit that this is not one of my favorite Laura Kinsale books, I was surprised to read a couple of reviews trashing the book for pedophilia rape scenes, and other issues pertaining to this. I have to say I was astonished. Especially after just finishing up this latest reread. While there is no question that there is a child involved and the implication is there, there is NO actual child rape scene. I guess it goes to show that the author has written the books in such a way that one's imagination can fill in the rest. Which is also disturbing, in its own way. Huh. The second assertion was that the hero and heroine didn't immediately jump on the modern sensibilities train and by God, take steps to save the child/children immediately!
Well. I guess I'm more likely to expect my historical fiction characters to behave more like historical characters than someone from the 21st century. But that's just me. YMMV.
And I also guess that since all of those issues were resolved in book 2, The Shadow and the Star, published way back in 1991, I never looked at this story as being quite so perturbing.
*takes a deep breath, and sighs*
If you can get past all that, this is a good prequel to The Shadow and the Star, which features aforementioned young child as the hero. THAT book is one of my old favorites, though I think I'd rate the audio version the best.
While I admit that this is not one of my favorite Laura Kinsale books, I was surprised to read a couple of reviews trashing the book for pedophilia rape scenes, and other issues pertaining to this. I have to say I was astonished. Especially after just finishing up this latest reread. While there is no question that there is a child involved and the implication is there, there is NO actual child rape scene. I guess it goes to show that the author has written the books in such a way that one's imagination can fill in the rest. Which is also disturbing, in its own way. Huh. The second assertion was that the hero and heroine didn't immediately jump on the modern sensibilities train and by God, take steps to save the child/children immediately!
Well. I guess I'm more likely to expect my historical fiction characters to behave more like historical characters than someone from the 21st century. But that's just me. YMMV.
And I also guess that since all of those issues were resolved in book 2, The Shadow and the Star, published way back in 1991, I never looked at this story as being quite so perturbing.
*takes a deep breath, and sighs*
If you can get past all that, this is a good prequel to The Shadow and the Star, which features aforementioned young child as the hero. THAT book is one of my old favorites, though I think I'd rate the audio version the best.
December 1, 2016
I would've given this book an extra star because Laura Kinsale, for all her faults in this book, writes well, well enough for me to forget I'm reading, has created characters that I liked, even if they did do things that seemed out of character, considering we're supposed to respect and like them. Plus the hero wasn't a rake and was vulnerable, wasn't afraid of it or an ass 'because' of it. However, it all went south once Kinsale chose to casually use child sexual abuse as a cheap plot device. Some of her antiquated ideas about women belonging to husbands --even when they are pedophiles, abused them, their right over them is more important than the women's happiness apparently-- or her casually racist descriptions of 'Indians' and other races, missed opportunity that contemporary writers can use to condemn old and sadly current ways ranked as well but I could have liked the rest of the book. But no, she almost sociopathically introduced a pedophile ring to us, another abused child who could have been rescued and then chose to not have her characters worry about them later, contrived them to be so self-absorbed that they could just walk away with very little, and in case of the hero apparently none whatsoever, regret.
After finishing the book, I poured over one GR review after another, wanting to share my dismay, but shocked and horrified that none but only one --ONE!-- that discussed the appalling way child abuse was dealt, or rather not dealt with.
After finishing the book, I poured over one GR review after another, wanting to share my dismay, but shocked and horrified that none but only one --ONE!-- that discussed the appalling way child abuse was dealt, or rather not dealt with.
June 13, 2013
The Shadow and the Star, which I read a few months ago, is the sequel to this. When her father dies, Lady Tess Collier must leave the wilds she's spent her life exploring with him and return to England, with the mysterious Captain Gryphon Meridon as her protector...but his secret past affects both their lives. I didn't like this quite as much as The Shadow and the Star, but I liked it a lot: the brave and adventurous Tess and the appealingly vulnerable Gryf are a memorable pair. And the plot made a little more sense than usual, actually, though it relied a little too much on misunderstandings and miscommunications.
September 16, 2016
The hero is useless. Couldn't give any good explanation as to why he kept pushing her away.
December 17, 2020
This felt very 80s.
In her 1986 debut, Kinsale tells the epic international love story of young heiress, Tess Collier, and swashbuckling sea captain and occasional pirate/lost English lord, Gryphon Meridon. They’re reintroduced under unfortunate circumstances, after her father’s sudden death in the remote jungle of Brazil, Gryf is charged with taking Tess home to England and overseeing her search for a suitable husband. Despite her grief (of which there’s suddenly no sign of), they fall into insta-love, which reveals the book’s first stumble: it doesn’t really focus on Tess enough and seems uninterested in seeing events from her perspective. And again, the hero-centric approach seems fairly par-for-the-course when it comes to this generation of historical romances. Once Tess is back on the London marriage mart (a setting Kinsale seems utterly bored by), these troubled love birds eventually declare that they love one another and decide to marry…before page 130!
When couples become emotionally bonded so quickly in these Old School romances, it inevitably creates a structural problem for rest of the novel, which Kinsale tries to resolve with a series of Big Misunderstandings and lots of avoidant behavior on Gryf’s part. As befitting a sprawling 80s romance, we are also treated to two completely over-the-top villains: Louisa Grants-Hasting, the scheming “Other Woman” who pursues Gryf as he yearns for Tess (possibly my least favorite trope ever), and Stephen Elliot, a homosexual-BDSM-pedophile-sadist who just happens to be Gryf’s cousin and the man who unjustly inherited Gryf’s rightful title. Yeah, it’s gross. The homophobic conflation of pedophilia and queerness has done real, lasting harm to the gay community and to find those toxic ideas reinforced here was extremely disappointing, to say the least.
[Regarding Stephen’s on-page pedophilic behavior – if The Hidden Heart were published today, it would have a content/trigger warning for child sexual abuse. The novel doesn’t have graphic depictions of child rape, but it comes very close and is highly suggestive. I found it tough to read.]
Unfortunately, Stephen’s sub-plot isn’t the only offensively dated moment in this novel. The text refers to native Brazilians with one of the n-words, Gryf mentions supplying the Confederate states with free supplies after breaking the Northern blockade of the region during the Civil War, and two characters casually discuss the economic benefits and moral inconvenience of transporting cotton-picking slaves in the Caribbean. All of this is fairly nauseating, even for the ridiculously low bar of 80s romance, but my least favorite part was definitely the relentless objectification of underage Tahitian girls, which felt like an unwarranted, disgusting tour of Paul Gauguin’s creepy brain (Thanks, I hate it.). For the life of me, I fail to see how depicting indigenous teenagers as sex-crazed Lolitas served the plot or character development in this book so lets chock that up as a win for white supremacy.
But let me get back to that plot, which felt a little like watching a ping pong ball bounce back and forth. Gryf and Tess are all set to marry when Gryf’s substitute father, only friend, and first mate, Grady, dies unexpectedly. He’s in a state of shock, disbelief and grief when he visits Tess, who swiftly rejects him because of the evil villains (both of whom, I’ll point out, we’re supposed to see as irredeemably evil but who seem to be doing, like, normal social climbing/reputation preserving stuff for the Victorian era – justice for Louisa Grant-Hastings and her impulse for self-preservation). Tess instead decides to marry Pedophile Stephen, despite being vaguely yet repeatedly warned off by Gryf. And here’s my big complaint about this novel: no one’s motives are emotionally legible. Tess and Gryf act less like people and more like characters in a romance novel, which is particularly noticeable, I think, because Kinsale will eventually become an expert in writing romances that feature fictional heroes and heroines who feel wonderfully like flesh-and-blood, realistically flawed, complex human beings.
Tess is a typical tomboyish heroine, more confident skinning snakes than navigating a London ball. She’s competent and adventurous, but full of self-doubt and insecurity. She’s also thinly drawn and emotionally dependent on Gryf, which makes her feel much younger and more inexperienced than her given age at the beginning of the book (she’s supposed to be 21; she reads younger). Since the novel is largely framed through Gryf’s exhaustively tortured perspective, Tess is often left compensating for conflict that isn’t her fault or responsibility. After her late father’s friend rescues her from her abusive marriage to Pedophile Stephen, Tess insists on seeking Gryf out to get him to “forgive” her, which struck me as bizarre. Even if her rejection stemmed from manipulation by a third party, her reasons for backing out of her engagement to Gryf were perfectly valid: he lied about his identity and hid a contract he entered to secretly background check her suitors. He also failed to explicitly explain why he warned her off Pedophile Stephen in the first place. She’s the victim, yet the book wants me to believe that Gryf is the aggrieved party.
As I’ve mentioned, Gryf is exhaustively tortured. Like Tess, he’s adventurous and competent, if much more self-contained and confident. He’s also a bit of a martyr and Kinsale’s debut suffers from an over-fascination with his trauma and its repercussions. He watched his parents, siblings, and beloved uncle die in a pirate attack (siiiiiigh, 80s romance), his devious uncle tried to assassinate him when he returned home as a boy, he unexpectedly loses his surrogate father figure, Tess rejects him, and boom! He can’t let anyone get close, which is when the real ping-ponging begins. Whenever he gets close to Tess, he immediately follows up with extreme avoidance. He disappears after each sexual encounter, forces her to travel alone after they’re married, and when he sees her, after months of believing Pedophile Stephen killed her, refuses to greet her or visit their newborn son. It’s overcooked, tedious and frankly, a little painful to read.
Gryf’s avoidance also presents a challenge for the romance itself, since his ongoing rejection rarely results in them, you know, talking or getting to know one another or doing a thousand other things that lead a couple to greater intimacy and understanding. Gryf and Tess just aren’t around each other enough to fall in love. Early on, Tess mentions how easy it is to talk to Gryf on board his ship and during their secret morning rides in the park, but their conversations are cut short by chaperones and their friendly interactions end after the cycle of Big Misunderstandings begins. Finally, the last third of the novel consists of an extended shoot-out between Gryf and Pedophile Stephen and Gryf’s suicidal experiences of the criminal justice system in Victorian Britain. Tess is in Scotland, stranded and unaware, which speaks to her importance to the narrative. And since we don’t see the hero and heroine bond in a healthy way or overcome their obstacles as a couple, it’s impossible to invest in their Happily Ever After. I sped-read through a lot of this third act misery.
Despite its many, many failures, The Hidden Heart is still a Laura Kinsale novel, which means it’s much more readable and a lot less painful an exercise than you’d think from my review above. As a huge fan of her work (Flowers from the Storm and For My Lady's Heart are two of my favorite romances ever), it was fun to spot her favorite themes: tortured heroes, sweeping international settings, quirky pets, and plucky yet sexually unaware heroines. And even here, where she regrettably reaches for oversimplified villain/hero dichotomies, she still shrugs towards empathetic understanding, hinting at Pedophile Stephan’s own experiences of childhood abuse. I was disappointed with Tess’s shallow presence, dismayed by the vitriolic homophobia, racism and colonial apologist message in the Tahiti scenes, and found myself uninterested in Tess and Gryf’s union towards the end, but I’m still impressed by Laura Kinsale’s talent and skill as a writer. If anything, reading her uneven debut novel was slightly refreshing – it proves she’s human after all.
In her 1986 debut, Kinsale tells the epic international love story of young heiress, Tess Collier, and swashbuckling sea captain and occasional pirate/lost English lord, Gryphon Meridon. They’re reintroduced under unfortunate circumstances, after her father’s sudden death in the remote jungle of Brazil, Gryf is charged with taking Tess home to England and overseeing her search for a suitable husband. Despite her grief (of which there’s suddenly no sign of), they fall into insta-love, which reveals the book’s first stumble: it doesn’t really focus on Tess enough and seems uninterested in seeing events from her perspective. And again, the hero-centric approach seems fairly par-for-the-course when it comes to this generation of historical romances. Once Tess is back on the London marriage mart (a setting Kinsale seems utterly bored by), these troubled love birds eventually declare that they love one another and decide to marry…before page 130!
When couples become emotionally bonded so quickly in these Old School romances, it inevitably creates a structural problem for rest of the novel, which Kinsale tries to resolve with a series of Big Misunderstandings and lots of avoidant behavior on Gryf’s part. As befitting a sprawling 80s romance, we are also treated to two completely over-the-top villains: Louisa Grants-Hasting, the scheming “Other Woman” who pursues Gryf as he yearns for Tess (possibly my least favorite trope ever), and Stephen Elliot, a homosexual-BDSM-pedophile-sadist who just happens to be Gryf’s cousin and the man who unjustly inherited Gryf’s rightful title. Yeah, it’s gross. The homophobic conflation of pedophilia and queerness has done real, lasting harm to the gay community and to find those toxic ideas reinforced here was extremely disappointing, to say the least.
[Regarding Stephen’s on-page pedophilic behavior – if The Hidden Heart were published today, it would have a content/trigger warning for child sexual abuse. The novel doesn’t have graphic depictions of child rape, but it comes very close and is highly suggestive. I found it tough to read.]
Unfortunately, Stephen’s sub-plot isn’t the only offensively dated moment in this novel. The text refers to native Brazilians with one of the n-words, Gryf mentions supplying the Confederate states with free supplies after breaking the Northern blockade of the region during the Civil War, and two characters casually discuss the economic benefits and moral inconvenience of transporting cotton-picking slaves in the Caribbean. All of this is fairly nauseating, even for the ridiculously low bar of 80s romance, but my least favorite part was definitely the relentless objectification of underage Tahitian girls, which felt like an unwarranted, disgusting tour of Paul Gauguin’s creepy brain (Thanks, I hate it.). For the life of me, I fail to see how depicting indigenous teenagers as sex-crazed Lolitas served the plot or character development in this book so lets chock that up as a win for white supremacy.
But let me get back to that plot, which felt a little like watching a ping pong ball bounce back and forth. Gryf and Tess are all set to marry when Gryf’s substitute father, only friend, and first mate, Grady, dies unexpectedly. He’s in a state of shock, disbelief and grief when he visits Tess, who swiftly rejects him because of the evil villains (both of whom, I’ll point out, we’re supposed to see as irredeemably evil but who seem to be doing, like, normal social climbing/reputation preserving stuff for the Victorian era – justice for Louisa Grant-Hastings and her impulse for self-preservation). Tess instead decides to marry Pedophile Stephen, despite being vaguely yet repeatedly warned off by Gryf. And here’s my big complaint about this novel: no one’s motives are emotionally legible. Tess and Gryf act less like people and more like characters in a romance novel, which is particularly noticeable, I think, because Kinsale will eventually become an expert in writing romances that feature fictional heroes and heroines who feel wonderfully like flesh-and-blood, realistically flawed, complex human beings.
Tess is a typical tomboyish heroine, more confident skinning snakes than navigating a London ball. She’s competent and adventurous, but full of self-doubt and insecurity. She’s also thinly drawn and emotionally dependent on Gryf, which makes her feel much younger and more inexperienced than her given age at the beginning of the book (she’s supposed to be 21; she reads younger). Since the novel is largely framed through Gryf’s exhaustively tortured perspective, Tess is often left compensating for conflict that isn’t her fault or responsibility. After her late father’s friend rescues her from her abusive marriage to Pedophile Stephen, Tess insists on seeking Gryf out to get him to “forgive” her, which struck me as bizarre. Even if her rejection stemmed from manipulation by a third party, her reasons for backing out of her engagement to Gryf were perfectly valid: he lied about his identity and hid a contract he entered to secretly background check her suitors. He also failed to explicitly explain why he warned her off Pedophile Stephen in the first place. She’s the victim, yet the book wants me to believe that Gryf is the aggrieved party.
As I’ve mentioned, Gryf is exhaustively tortured. Like Tess, he’s adventurous and competent, if much more self-contained and confident. He’s also a bit of a martyr and Kinsale’s debut suffers from an over-fascination with his trauma and its repercussions. He watched his parents, siblings, and beloved uncle die in a pirate attack (siiiiiigh, 80s romance), his devious uncle tried to assassinate him when he returned home as a boy, he unexpectedly loses his surrogate father figure, Tess rejects him, and boom! He can’t let anyone get close, which is when the real ping-ponging begins. Whenever he gets close to Tess, he immediately follows up with extreme avoidance. He disappears after each sexual encounter, forces her to travel alone after they’re married, and when he sees her, after months of believing Pedophile Stephen killed her, refuses to greet her or visit their newborn son. It’s overcooked, tedious and frankly, a little painful to read.
Gryf’s avoidance also presents a challenge for the romance itself, since his ongoing rejection rarely results in them, you know, talking or getting to know one another or doing a thousand other things that lead a couple to greater intimacy and understanding. Gryf and Tess just aren’t around each other enough to fall in love. Early on, Tess mentions how easy it is to talk to Gryf on board his ship and during their secret morning rides in the park, but their conversations are cut short by chaperones and their friendly interactions end after the cycle of Big Misunderstandings begins. Finally, the last third of the novel consists of an extended shoot-out between Gryf and Pedophile Stephen and Gryf’s suicidal experiences of the criminal justice system in Victorian Britain. Tess is in Scotland, stranded and unaware, which speaks to her importance to the narrative. And since we don’t see the hero and heroine bond in a healthy way or overcome their obstacles as a couple, it’s impossible to invest in their Happily Ever After. I sped-read through a lot of this third act misery.
Despite its many, many failures, The Hidden Heart is still a Laura Kinsale novel, which means it’s much more readable and a lot less painful an exercise than you’d think from my review above. As a huge fan of her work (Flowers from the Storm and For My Lady's Heart are two of my favorite romances ever), it was fun to spot her favorite themes: tortured heroes, sweeping international settings, quirky pets, and plucky yet sexually unaware heroines. And even here, where she regrettably reaches for oversimplified villain/hero dichotomies, she still shrugs towards empathetic understanding, hinting at Pedophile Stephan’s own experiences of childhood abuse. I was disappointed with Tess’s shallow presence, dismayed by the vitriolic homophobia, racism and colonial apologist message in the Tahiti scenes, and found myself uninterested in Tess and Gryf’s union towards the end, but I’m still impressed by Laura Kinsale’s talent and skill as a writer. If anything, reading her uneven debut novel was slightly refreshing – it proves she’s human after all.
October 29, 2021
Kinsale se distingue por sus sufridos protagonistas masculinos y Gryphon Meridon no es una excepción. Cuando Lady Tess queda sola en el mundo, debe volver a Inglaterra, le toca casarse pronto y bien. La acompañará y protegerá el capitán Frost que, en realidad, es Gryphon Meridon. Tess y Gryph se gustan, se aman, pero hay cosas que los separan. Parece que remontan.. luego se tuercen… una y otra vez. Con esta amena historia viajas de acá para allá, siguiendo el rastro de Gryph y Tess. La parte amorosa y sensual late en cada página, pero escenas explícitas, en sí, son poquitas. No os engaño: es una historia alargada. Los obstáculos que los separan en buena parte del libro surgen de la propia incapacidad mental de Gryph de arriesgarse a amar a nadie. Con Tess está únicamente cuando ya no puede resistirse más. Luego vuelve a su fachada impasible y su corazón helado. Aunque es de las más antiguas de Kinsale, ya dije que, a mi modo de ver, todavía se deja leer muy bien.
July 18, 2021
As you’ll discover, should you read some other reviews here, this book has a pretty appalling flaw: persistent sexual abuse of a child is used as a plot device and then abandoned without further reference (although it is picked up in the sequel The Shadow and the Star). It’s extremely 1980s in the way it handles this, both in terms of the child and the perpetrator. I don’t think there’s any doubt an author would write this differently now - and the fact that LK went back and wrote the sequel 5 years later is telling.
If you find it possible to put that aside, I found this a deeply engaging and emotional read. It’s got Kinsale PLOT on an epic scale, a repressed hero who needs to get in touch with his feelings, and a heroine who is (mostly) less silly than her early LK counterparts. I found the angst and the HEA very satisfying indeed, and the writing is as wonderful as ever. It’s a very assured debut, better I think than some of the books that followed.
If you find it possible to put that aside, I found this a deeply engaging and emotional read. It’s got Kinsale PLOT on an epic scale, a repressed hero who needs to get in touch with his feelings, and a heroine who is (mostly) less silly than her early LK counterparts. I found the angst and the HEA very satisfying indeed, and the writing is as wonderful as ever. It’s a very assured debut, better I think than some of the books that followed.
August 23, 2015
Laura Kinsale nos hace sufrir. Nos lo cuenta Kim en el blog http://alacamaconunlibro.blogspot.com...
April 2, 2021
Lo primero de todo me ha gustado más de lo que pensaba. De aquí en adelante, va a haber bien de spoilers. Advertidos estáis
Me costó una barbaridad centrarme pero por hechos ajenos al libro y aún así consiguió engancharme, lo que hacía muy bien de la historia.
En general el ritmo es bueno, aunque con unos saltos inesperados (por ejemplo, como llegan a Inglaterra, el matrimonio, cómo acaba en Escocia... ) y sabe introducir sorpresas... ¿Hola cuarto oscuro de Elliott?
Asimismo, el contexto lo perfila muy bien, por algo es Laura Kinsale, aunque sea en sus comienzos
Al principio, me pareció que me hacía falta más diálogo y presencia de los protagonistas, pero luego mejora. Por ejemplo, la escena postbeso, en la que ella le dice directamente lo del compromiso de él, que él lo desmienta, que ella le trate como si de un animal o una presa se tratara. Esa escena se me antojó perfecta. Sin malentendidos. Luego ya lo vuelven a complicar y, bueno.
No me ha gustado que él se fuera después del juicio y alargará en ese punto el final feliz. Aunque me ha gustado como explica Taylor que está sufriendo un colapso nervioso y aún más el final lacrimoso en el que confiesa que tiene miedo.
En resumen, una buena novela romántica histórica.
Me costó una barbaridad centrarme pero por hechos ajenos al libro y aún así consiguió engancharme, lo que hacía muy bien de la historia.
En general el ritmo es bueno, aunque con unos saltos inesperados (por ejemplo, como llegan a Inglaterra, el matrimonio, cómo acaba en Escocia... ) y sabe introducir sorpresas... ¿Hola cuarto oscuro de Elliott?
Asimismo, el contexto lo perfila muy bien, por algo es Laura Kinsale, aunque sea en sus comienzos
Al principio, me pareció que me hacía falta más diálogo y presencia de los protagonistas, pero luego mejora. Por ejemplo, la escena postbeso, en la que ella le dice directamente lo del compromiso de él, que él lo desmienta, que ella le trate como si de un animal o una presa se tratara. Esa escena se me antojó perfecta. Sin malentendidos. Luego ya lo vuelven a complicar y, bueno.
No me ha gustado que él se fuera después del juicio y alargará en ese punto el final feliz. Aunque me ha gustado como explica Taylor que está sufriendo un colapso nervioso y aún más el final lacrimoso en el que confiesa que tiene miedo.
En resumen, una buena novela romántica histórica.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews