The Heartbreaker

November 1, 2003
Becnel's follow-up to The Bridemaker (2002) is a mild but unusual story of a lord struggling to care for his illegitimate daughters and the country lass who teaches him the difference between duty and love. James Lindford, Viscount Farley, gave little thought to the children he'd fathered during the casual affairs of his youth, but when he discovers one of his daughters living the life of a street urchin, he's determined to bring them home. The ensuing scandal drives him from London to his country estate and destroys his engagement to his very proper fiancEe. James's children soon disrupt both his household and the sleepy Yorkshire village where Miss Phoebe Churchill is raising her niece, an illegitimate child herself. When Phoebe discovers that her new neighbor's daughter is stealing from her farm, James entreats her to become his children's governess. Although both Phoebe and James are appealing, there's little chemistry between them. The conflict revolves around Phoebe's lust for James and her struggle to maintain her moral purity; however, that battle grows old, and the novel soon starts to feel more like a child-rearing primer than a romance. Despite the book's unusually straightforward look at illegitimacy, the relationship between the protagonists covers familiar terrain.