I just finished Bone Deep by this author and loved it. This was also very good, though I think Bone Deep is still better. Same sort of story, with a marginalized hero and a woman who loves him despite all of the social stigma of their time. The heroine took a while to finally get over it and love the hero openly, but it was very believable and made the moment when they "come out of the livery", so to speak, very satisfying. I am reminded, for some reason, of Willa Cather, with the historical Midwest setting, and the exploration of class and forbidden love, etc. or maybe Little House On The Prairie, with the one room school house setting. But with sex. Not as much sex as Bone Deep, but just enough, and very well done! I liked how the author let the sexual tension build for quite a while before the consummation. This author is good at constructing a plot line as well. My criticism of this book is the same as with Bone Deep. The ending needs work. In this book, it just kind of drifts off. It could have ended a lot earlier. It took me forever and a day to finally read this book, but I am FINALLY finished. It wasn't bad, but at one point it just wasn't a book I was interested in reading; preferring m/m instead of m/f books. I swung back around to it, and now I am through (whoop). It was a sweet enough story; Catherine was the school teacher from the East who moved away to mend her broken heart over her lost love. Jim was the town's invisible man because he was deaf so everyone thought he was simple-minded and paid him no attention. They met under chaotic circumstances, and the attraction was instantaneous, unfortunately Catherine was a well-bred woman to Jim's underclassmen status, so a romance seemed impossible to bloom. Catherine began tutoring Jim in sign language, and of course, as these romance novels tend to go, love grows, but the couple finds themselves fighting convention and what others would think. Not a bad Bonnie Dee story, sweet enough, and with some of her standard love scenes.
What do You think about A Hearing Heart (2009)?
This book was terrible. I'm not even sure why I finished reading it. Catherine is a horrible person.
—schanread
Another winner from Bonnie Dee! Just love her characters and sweet (but still with steam) stories.
—faye
