Rating: 
Summary: Redundant
Review: Readers of Candace Camp have been waiting for Rachel and Michael's story ever since they had
been introduced in So Wild a Heart. So it is understandable that I had high expectations for this
book. Unfortunately I was sadly disappointed. The Hidden Heart turned out to be a very boring
and redundant book. Rachel and Michael seem to be one dimensional characters who for seven
years of marriage hardly speak to one another and suddenly one day she sees him differently and
falls in love with him. Now how believable is that? Also the book keeps repeating over and over
the same thoughts of the main characters. I had to force myself to finish this book and I have to
say this is one book I will never read again.
Rating: 
Summary: An astonishingly bad book!
Review: A long time fan of Candace Camp, I looked forward to her newest selection only to find myself bitterly disappointed. I should not have been surprised since her last several books have been pretty mediocre, but I had been hoping for an improvement. Instead, Secrets was filled with boring prose and strange words that seemed to be made up (I at least have never seen them before and they had no place being in a romance novel!) I can't believe how repetative this book was. Camp kept telling us how the characters were feeling rather than SHOWING us. Furthermore, the mystery we were supposed to be interested in was stupid, and the twist ending was not so surprising if you just thought things through. This book was supposed to be adventuresome and exciting, but there were no moments when we feared for any of the characters. Additionally, cameos by characters from previous books were confusing since I have not read them recently, and anyone who has not read them at all will probably be wondering why these characters are there since they don't move the plot along at all. I wish I hadn't bought this book. It is not at all worth wasting your time or money on.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as bad as the reviews
Review: First the criticisms. Yes, this book is sometimes quite slow, with Camp doing a lot of telling. It is an unfortunate necessity since the protagonists have lived with a sham marriage for 7 years. The reader needs to know their history, and there is no easy way to convey all that. So the first half of the book is a bit slow while the author gives the reader all the necessary info. In addition, if you've read the other books (or either) recently, the redundancy is annoying. Read some other things in between to alleviate that problem. Michael and Rachel have indeed built their own individual prisons that keep them from recognizing the truth about their relationship, their feelings, and each other. Indeed, they do not know each other at all. Their oh-so-polite marriage is something both want changed, but they feel helpless to do anything about it after so many years. But then rumors crop up, misunderstandings are set up, and the pursuit of truth leads to an untenable situation in which Michael must pretend he's his illegitimate half-brother, and Rachel must find an inner reserve of strength and struggle with what she thinks are adulterous feelings. Her "revenge" when she finds out that Michael's been deceiving her is priceless! I found the mystery in this book to be interesting and slightly surprising. I like it when I don't have it totally figured out well before the villain is revealed. The book also features a decent cast of secondary characters. Rachel grows a lot in the book, discovering inner depths and suppressed dreams. Michael shows that he's more than a kind but distant gentleman; he's also a highly intelligent investigator and talented master of disguise who has loved her since the day he met her. Get through the first 1/3 or so of the book, and the pace really picks up. As for the far-fetched idea that Rachel doesn't recognize her husband: they live apart most of the year, they really don't know each other well, they've never consummated the marriage, Michael is a master of disguise, Rachel hardly expects him to be doing what he's doing, and people tend to believe what they want to believe. Put all that together, and it's not quite so far-fetched for the short time that she's hoodwinked. She is still rather naive at that point in the story, after all. It's a 3 & 1/2 star book, but I'm giving it 4 stars to help its overall rating. It's really not a bad book.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long, missed the mark
Review: I agreed with the other reviews that the book was somewhat boring. It had potential and parts were good. Rachel made a mistake before her marriage and ran off with another man she thought she loved and who was below her station. Michael loved her so much that him and her father returned her and be decided to marry her anyways. They lived a sham of a marriage without consumation for 7 years. She thinks he is boring and always the perfect gentleman. He investigates cases from Bow Street that have not been able to be solved. He lives a secret life. Her ex-love is being accused of murdering his wife and she tries to help. Basically, she begins to investigate the case and encounters her husband, who then claims to be his step-brother who was born of the other side of the blanket. She is confused she is attracted to her husbands step-brother and the story grows from there. It really is not a bad book, but it's long and dragged out. Also, far-fetched. I wouldn't pay full price for the book, catch it when it's in the library.
Rating:
Summary: Too long, missed the mark
Review: I agreed with the other reviews that the book was somewhat boring. It had potential and parts were good. Rachel made a mistake before her marriage and ran off with another man she thought she loved and who was below her station. Michael loved her so much that him and her father returned her and be decided to marry her anyways. They lived a sham of a marriage without consumation for 7 years. She thinks he is boring and always the perfect gentleman. He investigates cases from Bow Street that have not been able to be solved. He lives a secret life. Her ex-love is being accused of murdering his wife and she tries to help. Basically, she begins to investigate the case and encounters her husband, who then claims to be his step-brother who was born of the other side of the blanket. She is confused she is attracted to her husbands step-brother and the story grows from there. It really is not a bad book, but it's long and dragged out. Also, far-fetched. I wouldn't pay full price for the book, catch it when it's in the library.
Rating:
Summary: It could have been done better.
Review: I didn't like this book, but not because it was slow. I didn't mind the slow part, and I did think it was necessary to explain how the circumstances of their marriage was the way it was.
But . . .
First, I had really come to like Michael from the first two books in the series. He comes across as a steady, reliable person, with a lot of depth. In short, I had really come to like him. I did not recognize Michael at all in this book. He acts totally out of character for how I had expected the other Michael to act. Also, I felt that Michael deserved better than second-hand love, a love that was given to him "because he was always there", that "she could come to like him also". I really think Michael deserved better than that, he deserved to have his wife love him for all his real qualities. Instead, Michael comes across as Rachel's second choice - we never actually see her totally renouncing her first love. (And she could easily have done so - who hasn't had a first, yet long ago love?)
Second, Rachel does not get developed at all this book. We get to see that she's beautiful - and that men desire her - but that's it. I know she's quiet - but even quiet people can have SOME personality.
Third, even though I usually like mysteries as a subplot, and the mystery was quite good, having read all Agatha Christie's books, it was all to obvious who the culprit was. (There, I gave you a really big hint).
Candace Camp, as always, writes beautifully, and it is always a pleasure to read a novel of hers, even if I didn't like the characters.
In her defense, I would have to say that she had set the book up to be a very hard one to do - a marriage that was a sham for ten years to suddenly turn into a real one is a very difficult concept to pull off well - but I guess I was expecting some kind of flash of brilliance, which this book definitely did not have.
Oh, and the name Lillith, by the way, is a very funny one to use for such a nice lady. I'm sure she didn't know that the original Lillith was the demon of sexual temptation in Jewish lore! The person who should have been named Lillith was actually Lady Vesey!
I wish Ms. Camp would re-write this book!
Rating:
Summary: Slow read
Review: I read the first 2 books, in this series, and LOVED them both. And even though I love the charactors in this book, the story was so slow, I found myself skipping pages just to finish the book. The story was a good idea, Michael and Rachel were great together as strangers, she should of kept playing with that story line, but it got to boring, with to much information and not enough story ...I completely lost interest half way, and couldnt get my interest back. I do love the first two books, if you bought this one before the other two..then go back and buy them, you wont be disappointed with them.
Rating: 
Summary: a funny and sexy dilemma
Review: I thought the book was sexy and funny. The dilemma these two have gotten themselves into is funny at times and sexy in the old fashioned way that forbidden attraction is sexy. This is missing today where so little is forbidden. I liked Rachel's role as an innocent, but married, lady socialite who watches at her more outspoken and confident freinds, then breaks free of her role as an unproductive woman without compromising her principles. I like her honesty when she says, " I do not think Michael would assume that I could do anything difficult, either,. I never have, so I cannot think why he would think I could." Michael introduces his wife to passion while he is disguised as his brother. This is a case of two people who should know each other intimately, but do not, and have finally become intimate after years of marriage. It is infidelity with your spouse. So It is morally all right. We get the the excitement of an affair without the fallout, the loss of respect for the characters involved and the comedy provided by a husband who assumes a certain right to boss his wife around and a wife who ignores the authority of the disguised husband she does not recognize. This is the first book I have read by Candace Camp so I have nothing to compare to, but I will be reading more books by the author. I do not hesitate to put a book down that does not draw me in. This book held my attention and imagination, and I enjoyed the story to the end.
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable
Review: I was surprised and pleased that the characters in this book are the ones who themselves have created their own separate prisons, and must free themselves of false assumptions of what one another is feeling. I find this true in real life; that my own false perceptions can be more of a barrier than anything created by other people. I also thought that Rachel was very typical of the women of her time, and I liked the way she slowly but surely matured and became a more perceptive woman, something that is a very real phenomenon in most women's lives. Other readers will enjoy this book, if they put aside modern concepts and think in terms of the period. The vocabulary is fine.
Mary JO
Rating:
Summary: electrifying historical romantic suspense
Review: Seven years ago, her father arranged for her to marry an Earl, Michael Trent, but she loved another. So Rachel Aincourt eloped with her beloved Anthony Birkshaw, but Michael and her father catch up the duo before she is compromised. Michael marries a heartbroken Rachel. Michael loves his spouse when he married her and still does, but he hides his feelings because he knows she still cherishes another. He also hides from her his work as a Bow St. runner behind the face of a quiet aristocratic gentleman. Starting with her carriage being stopped by a highwayman who acts like a friend of her husband to being led by Anthony into the London slums, Rachel enters her husband's other life. When they meet with him in disguise, Rachel finds herself attracted not knowing that the stranger is her spouse. While she works through her feelings, someone else has other plans for her and the men in her life. SECRETS OF THE HEART is an exciting Regency romance that hooks the audience from the moment Rachel's coach is stopped. The story line is fast-paced and readers will fully appreciate Michael, a sort of Scarlet Pimpernel though not a dandy, and wonder about Rachel's immaturity, mindful of Marguerite though no Citizen Chauvelin pressure. Fans of an electrifying historical romantic suspense will want to read Candace Camp's pleasant thriller. Harriet Klausner
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