A Fire in the Heart

Title: A Fire in the Heart (1990)
Author: Katherine Sutcliffe (Avon)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1861 England)
Grade: B

Another day, another positive English Victorian review. A Fire in the Heart isn't quite epic, but it is certainly grander in scope than most historical romance. Sutcliffe, who when I previously read I was not a fan, has crafted a dark novel that embodies the poverty and hardship of the period. It isn't a perfect novel. The hero is Alpha to the extreme, there are some weird age of consent issues, and some of the research/wording is lax but that will only bother a rabid history buff (i.e. me). In some respects it reminds me of Samantha James' Gabriel's Bride when a heroine from dire circumstances joins a noble family. It has many similar plot point but A Fire in the Heart has more texture of both character and setting.

Bonnie is an orphan fleeing horrid workhouse conditions. She finds refuge at Middleham Castle where she is sheltered and nursed back to health. Damien, the Earl of Warwick (also his last name, boo!), plans to return her to the workhouse once her health returns. The two bicker constantly as a front for their growing attraction. Bonnie loathes the upper class and isn't suitable grateful to the Earl. Her anger and distrust aren't artificial plot contrivances, but the result of her traumatic life experience. Damien, meanwhile, is conflict about embracing the family heritage or returning to America. He was burned in love before and refuses to acknowledge his feeling for Bonnie until it is too late. Also, he believes her to be younger than her age. After they make love he is stunned to learn she is eighteen because he had assumed she was fourteen. I know age of consent was different in the past, but gross!

She tells an enormous lie to preserve her safety that furthers his animosity. He is an Alphas-Alpha with much demanding and ordering and seducing abound. The novel then takes a Pygmalion twist when Damien becomes her guardian and attempts to marry her off. Misadventure turns tragic and the two are separated. There is also the mystery of Bonnie's past and her father's murder that neither predictable, nor an encumbrance to the plot.

Sutcliffe has done considerable research on the political entanglement of prosperous Englishmen and the American Confederacy. Damien isn't only a mill owner, but also a Mississippi plantation owner. Yet he isn’t a slave owner, Damien is morally opposed to the institution and only employs free blacks on his plantation. Southern history and African-American history are particular interests of mine so perhaps I'm the only one to notice how ridiculous this plot point. Mississippi has fewer free blacks than any Southern state, a mere 775 in the 1860 census. As the largest cotton plantations employed hundreds of slaves, that would mean almost every free black in the Magnolia State was in his employ! I know romance authors are terrified of making their characters slave owners because they fear it makes them unsympathetic, but abandoning historical accuracy to allow (the always white) hero and heroine to appear progressive just belittles the overall slave experience, IMO.

Tangents on slavery in romance novels aside, it was a good historical and I've now moved on to her sequel, My Only Love.