Jane Lark

‘Fans of War and Peace will relish this poignant novel of love and loss’ International Bestseller, Nicola Cornick

The Lost Love of a Soldier (The Marlow Family Secrets, Book 4)

Angela Guilherme

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

“The Lost Love of a Soldier” is the prequel of “The Illicit Love of a Courtesan” so I decided to read it first and I don’t regret it. Because just by reading the sinopsis of “The Illicit Love of a Courtesan” one can realise that its prequel does not have a happy ending....

Ellen Pembroke is only sixteen when she falls madly in love with Captain Paul Harding. The feeling is mutual, but Paul is “only” the sixth son of a count so he is not good enough for Ellen’s father, the Duke of Pembroke. He is determined to marry his daughter with a duke much older than her and, after refusing Paul’s proposal, he locks Ellen in her room until she agrees to obey him. But Ellen cannot conceive a future without Paul and runs away with him to Scotland where they get married.

Paul is a soldier, so Ellen must now be the wife of an army official, with all the sacrifices that that brings. Paul’s regiment is scheduled to leave for America soon when word comes that Napoleon escaped and is regrouping his army, which means they will now leave for Belgium instead, where they will end up fighting Napoleon in Waterloo.

I had already read “The Passionate Love of a Rake”, so I already knew what Ellen would become, but it was nice to be able to accompany her journey. And to realize how, do to circumstances, the cruelty of the one who should have helped her the most and her own naivete, she sees herself in a situation where she has no alternative but to do what she must in order to survive...

Ellen and Paul’s love story, although short, is very sweet, but it is also very naive. It’s a teenage love and, especially for Ellen, it seems to be all they need, and enough to surpass everything. Sadly, that is not how life works...

This prequel is, basically, the beginning of the end of Ellen’s age of the innocence. Ellen is so naive at the beginning of the story that she has difficulty accepting that Paul killed a thief, in self defence, knowing perfectly well that he is an army officer recently returned from war. That was something that became annoying, I mean, I can understand her initial shock, but the constant ramblings about her husband being a killer were getting old...

Life, however, makes sure to take Ellen’s innocence away and harden her. And the Ellen at the end of the book is a lot different from the one at the beginning...

A series I am enjoying reading very much and that I’ll keep reading.

The Lost Love of a Soldier (The Marlow Family Secrets, Book 4)

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