Review: Eulogy's Secret

Author submission in exchange for an honest review.

Title: 

Eulogy's Secret

Author: 

Grace Elliot

Release Date:

October 18, 2011

Word Count:

approx. 68,000

Purchase Links:  

Amazon

Amazon UK

Smashwords

Author's Website:

http://graceelliot-author.blogspot.com

Description:  

In the four weeks since her guardian’s death, Eulogy Foster has lost everything. She travels to London seeking the help of Lord Lucien Devlin, the estranged brother who doesn’t know she exists. But Lord Devlin turns her away and alone on the streets, Eulogy is attacked, robbed and thrown onto the mercy of a passing stranger.

Jack Huntley - bitter, cynical and betrayed in love -believes women are devious, scheming creatures and not to be trusted. So when one night he saves a naive young woman from rape, little does he suspect how life is about to change. Despite his growing attraction to Miss Foster, Jack has a problem: Eulogy Foster has a secret involving his bitterest enemy, Lord Devlin, and he can’t trust her.

As Eulogy learns the haunting story of her mother’s past, she knows she will only marry for true love. Deeply drawn to Jack Huntley, she needs him to confess his love before she shares the secret of her birth. Caught in a deadlock, with neither able to confess their true feelings, events take a sinister turn as it becomes clear someone wants Eulogy Foster dead.

Laura’s Review:

 

I’m having a really hard time deciding how I feel about Eulogy’s Secret.  I love the premise of the book – country girl travels alone to London to find a long-lost brother, brother snubs her, she meets a handsome man, drama ensues.  What I don’t love is how Eulogy is alternately intelligent and rational or stubborn and naïve.  She’s so hot and cold, especially when it comes to Jack.  Of course Jack is equally hot and cold and conflicted.  Maybe they really are perfect for each other.

The entire story centers on Eulogy discovering who she really is, and I don’t mean that metaphorically.  Everything she knows about her life has basically been a lie.  She heads to London to try to reconcile with her long-lost brother, only to find out that her brother is the worst sort of human specimen on the planet.  Of course, in her annoyingly naïve way, Eulogy refuses to believe that Devlin is as awful as he seems which causes some serious tension later in the book.

Jack, on the other hand, knows exactly what Devlin is about and despises him accordingly.  Except that he doesn’t know Eulogy and Devlin are siblings.  That would be Eulogy’s Secret (see what I did there?).  Jack is a bit of a snob, so he denies his feelings for Eulogy.  Once he finally reconciles himself to the idea that he will marry below him (little does he know that Eulogy totally ranks above him), he decides to court Eulogy.  But he bungles the whole thing.  Eulogy, to her credit, refuses to commit to anything more than a friendship with Jack until he comes to love (and acknowledge that love) her for herself, and not because she’s actually noble by birth.

On the whole, Eulogy’s Secret is a fun and quick read.  I finished it in about a day because I didn’t want to put it down.  If you can get past Eulogy’s mood swings and Jack’s snobbishness, it really is a great story.  It is also, apparently, the first in a series, all centered on the men in Jack’s family.  I’m pretty excited to check out the rest of the trilogy.

Laura's Rating: