A Heart Revealed: A Novel

by Julie Lessman

Ten years ago, Emma Malloy fled Dublin for Boston as a battered woman, escaping the husband who scarred her beautiful face. The physical and emotional wounds have faded with time, and her life finally is full of purpose and free from the pain of her past. But when she falls for her friend Charity's handsome and charming brother Sean O'Connor, fear and shame threaten to destroy her. Could Sean and Emma ever have a future together? Or is Emma doomed to live out the rest of her life denying the only true love she's ever known? Filled with intense passion and longing, deception and revelation, A Heart Revealed will hold readers in its grip until the very last page.

• ISBN10: 0800734165
• ISBN13: 9780800734169
• Publish Date: 5 April 2012 (first published 1 September 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 10 July 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Imprint: Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[Molly J(Cover To Cover Cafe)]

*This review is from my blog and originally published in 2011*

Okay. Let me take just one moment to reflect on this book. *Reflecting* Okay. That’s better. WOW. I don’t even know where to begin. There is so much to say about this novel. Let me start off by saying if you’ve never read a Julie Lessman novel, stop what you are doing right now, and grab a copy. You won’t be sorry. The first novel I read by her was last September, entitled A Hope Undaunted, book 1 in this Winds Of Change series. I couldn’t believe how much I fell in love with her work! I was then lucky enough to win all three novels in her first series, The Daughters of Boston. Though they are still sitting on my shelf to be read, they are definitely calling my name and I can’t wait to go back and read them.

Now, on to the rest. In the first book in this series, I fell in love with Luke McGee. In this novel, I think I love Sean O’Connor even more. I really enjoy Snickers bars, so see, Julie? You could send SEAN my way, and I’d be forever blissfully happy. I LOVED his character. He was great in his role in A Hope Undaunted , but reading his story with the focus on him, was absolutely amazing. His past wasn’t perfect, and there were times when he went wild with anger, but he overcame that. There was one thing from his past that he holds inside though. No one, not even his nosy sisters, know. That is until, he finds himself drawn to his best friend Emma in a way that he couldn’t imagine. He opens up to her….with everything.

Emma Malloy. Bless her soul. She was a wonderful character, flawed and sweet, and wanting everyone close to her to be happy. Including Sean. When she finds her self falling in love with him, when she’s still married to the man who beat her 11 years ago, she’s determined to push him off on Rose Kelly…the woman who loves him. Trouble is, something happened to Sean and he won’t try with Rose.

Oh, I so want to go on and on….but I’m SO close to giving away the plot! I DO NOT want to do that! I want you to devour the book like I did and take the time to reflect on the wonderfulness of this novel. It’s stunning. It’s breath taking. It’s a roller coaster of emotions, from happiness, to sadness, to anger, to pride, to passion. It has a WHOPPER of a twist and an ending that will leave you smiling and tears running down your face. Not to mention I LOVED Casey Herringshaw and Michelle Tuller’s characters 😉 *grins*!

I highly suggest that you grab a copy of this novel NOW. It’s 5 Books worthy, two thumbs up, hats off, a home run, a winner, a best seller……what ever you want to call it’s that. Julie Lessman really has a way to make ME feel a part of the heart of the story. She speaks to me through the words of her characters, and really brings me closer to God each time. She is by far my absolute FAVORITE Christian novelist and I will NEVER part with her books. They are forever on myself for me to read and reread, and reflect on each time. I am looking forward to book three in this series, Steven O’Connor’s story. Sweet angels in Heaven, though, Julie, do you have to make us wait a whole YEAR!?!? *Sigh* Oh well. All the more for me to savor that one upon it’s release.

[cherryblossommj]

A Heart Revealed is the second book in the Winds of Change series, but really the fifth book in the Daughters of Boston series continuing the saga of the O'Connor children and this one is the first one about a son, Sean O'Connor and a character that is practically an adopted daughter in Emma Fray. I love Julie Lessman, both the author and the person that I know and this book had the one issue of being published right after my daughter was born. First there is the publishing date, and then my copy was lost in the mail and another one issued. So there was the timing off, and then my to do list got the better of me and I kept wanting to come back to this one but it kept being put on the back burner. Being from Julie, I knew that I would love it.

However, there was something about this one that did not grab me from the first page, and it was later in the novel when I really caught the pace and could not stand to put it down. Once I hit my groove in reading, the pages could not turn fast enough, as per typical with Julie's writing. I really enjoyed it overall, once I got through a bit of a hump, which was probably more related to my delay and then reading bits here and there, then the actual book.

As a whole it brought me more information into the brothers O'Connor and opens up Julie's books in my opinions for a much wider male readership and honestly reading her books gives me two desires. I want to go back and start at the beginning and have a marathon reading through all of them again (the almost 500 pages give or take that each one of them is!) and I just want to delve into my Bible and soak up everything I can. These books are fascinating to me. They have such a romantic element that you feel like you should read it in bed, waiting for your husband to come home and join you. I'm sure a blush tinged my face more than once. These stories have such strong elements of faith and scripture that I am sent running to my Bible more and more to delve in and get more of this reality in my own life. It is such a fabulous reminder of what Christ really wants for us to have. -- Yes these are to be read by a mature reader, or one in the midst of maturation with a guided hand that could provide answers... or to a married woman that really needs a boost in the romances on the page.

*Thanks to Revell Books for providing a copy for review.*