Review: Healing Her Heart (Healing Trilogy #1) by Lisa Reisner

  

Print Length: 199 pages

Publisher: (April 26, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  Raven-haired beauty Lady Abigail Bainbridge uses her expertise of herbal medicine to fake her own death to escape her violent and sadistic husband. She finds solace working as a governess for the rich and powerful Lord Marcus Everton, the Earl of Selden.

Marcus carries the burden of a guilty conscience and plans to clean up his rakish reputation for the sake of his troubled niece. He knows the gentle, quick-witted Abigail should be off limits, but he just can't seem to help himself.

Against better judgement, they both find themselves caught up in a passionate storm. But will evil forces of the past destroy a love that is meant to last forever?

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I don't feel as though this book lived up to the potential it could have had. The premise itself was good - abused wife defies her sadistic husband by faking her own death and ends up in the arms of another man - but there were just too many little things going on to really make this book stand out to me. 

To begin with, why, after going through the effort of faking her own death and seeking employment, did Abigail not use an alias? She already had a forged letter of reference, and a character reference from her friend - why not make it even harder for someone to find out the truth? Instead she goes through all of that simply to revert back to using her maiden name? It made no sense. 

On top of that, I'm expected to believe that a highly respected private investigator doesn't leave his confidential files locked up when he's not in the office (or even in general)? Anyone worth their salt would have known better, thus it would have taken more effort for the antagonists to learn the truth. And speaking of the antagonists, we find out what happened to mother, but what of the daughter? What became of her? It was just a loose end that I felt should have been tied up especially in light of the way she behaved throughout the book. 

The romance between Abigail and Marcus is the typical insta-lust that is common in this genre. They begin a passionate affair with no thought to the consequences of their actions (I'm looking at you Marcus who definitely should have known better). And while I enjoyed watching them open up to one another about certain hurts from the past, I felt she forgave him all too easily for the insults and accusations he hurled at her. I was also expecting more from the story-line involving her husband, but that too felt rushed with a conclusion that instead of feeling satisfying felt like it was done simply to pave the way for Marcus and Abigail to be together. 

While this novel wasn't my favorite, I would read more from this author as I do see where she can weave together some interesting ideas with a solid writing style.

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                                  Healing Her Heart  is available from Amazon.com
                                      (for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)