Roderica Delamore is a nineteen-year woman with the ability to read the thoughts of other creatures, human and animal. She doesn't share her gift with those outside her immediate family, but others can tell there's something different about her. Because of the unease the ability causes and the toll it takes on her Roderica has already resigned herself to a life of isolation. She longs for a normal life, with a husband and children of her own, but knows that she's destined to be a spinster, cared for only by her parents and siblings. The only satisfaction she has in her life is using her ability to help her father with his horses. She has no reason to believe that will ever change until she meets Faelan Savigar.
Faelan is known as the Devil Earl. He's rumored to have murdered his father when he was a child and to have grown into a man who leaves ruined maidens and defeated dueling opponents in his wake. The rumors might normally have given Roderica pause if it hadn't been for a trait that mattered far more to her---she can't read Faelan at all. She sees this as her one chance for happiness and strikes a deal with him for a mutaully beneficial marriage. Roderica will get the family she wants and Farlan's remote estate will allow her to limit her exposure to the outside world. In exchange Faelan will get the money he needs to restore the estate, which has fallen into disrepair.
What Roderica doesn't know is that Faelan has been experiencing blackouts and fears that he may be losing his mind. There are hours and sometimes days that he can't remember and violence always seems to happen around the missing hours. As Roderica, and Faelan grow to know and care about each other Faelan feels unworthy of her love and tries to protect her from the darkness in his life. Roderica refuses to believe that Faelan is evil and struggles to help him discover what forces are at work in his life. Her efforts are complicated by both her brother, who is determined to save her from her husband whether she wants him to or not, and by Faelan's best friend, whose involvement in politics may cost them all their lives.
This book is set in the early 18th century. It opens in England, but the action quickly moves to Faelan's estate in Ireland. Given the set-up this story could easily have been cliched, but Kinsale's writing saves it from that. Both Roderica & Faelan were fully realized characters and their growing relationship held my attention. I did find it frustrating that they spent so much time floundering rather than simply talking with each other openly. I could understand why they each felt the need to keep secrets, but there were still a couple of times when I found myself thinking, “Oh for Pete's sake would you two just have a conversation already?” Fortunately it never went far enough to be a Big Misunderstanding, so it didn't effect my enjoyment of the book.
There were two things about the book that I really didn't enjoy though. First was the fact that we did not get to see the villain punished at the end of the book. It was implied, but didn't happen on screen. Given everything the person did to Faelan I will admit that I very much wanted to see the guilty party get the appropriate comeuppance. There's also an odd twist near the end of the book where the story veers farther into the paranormal than I expected, even given Roddy's mind-reading ability. The problem wasn't that the scene was poorly written, it's just that it felt out of place in a book billed as an historical rather than a paranormal.
Grade: B
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