Title: Healing Hearts
Author: Sarah M. Eden
Series: Savage Wells #2
Full of heart and endearing characters but could use more passion
I would like to thank Sarah M. Eden, Shadow Mountain Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a great book! It was the right degree of dramatic, it had heaps of heart, and all of the characters were endearing. Well, except the villain, of course, but I even sympathized with Miriam’s father to a point, and he was a self-serving jerk. So kudos there, Eden. And when Rupert was so sick… I had tears in my eyes. If he’d died… I don’t want to think about it. I kept thinking, “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare kill that precious child, Eden, I swear to god.” I loved that kid.
Oh, be aware that this book is the second in a series. The first was The Sheriffs of Savage Wells. I didn’t realize that when I started Healing Hearts, but as soon as you meet Cade you’re hit with a blast of charisma that makes it clear he’s a leading man. Then you meet Paisley, and there’s another blast of charisma. I’m very interested in their story.
Gideon was awesome. I loved him. He wasn’t a macho man oozing testosterone and going around intimidating people. He was quiet, gentle, kind, considerate, and intellectual—but by no means perfect. He had his moments of jealousy and insecurity and inadequacy. And he was a martyr, though he was aware of that. But he was mature and selfless in general.
I liked Miriam, too. Considering what she’d been through, her actions made sense to me. Also considering what she’d been through, she was pretty well-adjusted. Wary and secretive, but still friendly, kind, and selfless. Almost too well-adjusted, but that’s arguable. I thought her actions/reactions were appropriate. Maybe she should have been smart enough to change her name the first time…but I understand that the west seemed so far removed from eastern society that she probably thought she’d be well lost out there.
My biggest problem with the book—pretty much my only real problem—was that I didn’t feel they’d earned their love at the end. They barely knew anything about each other; for most of the book they tiptoed around each other, and for the rest they were too busy dealing with everything to have a decent conversation. By the end they knew the important superficial information about one another, but most of it had been revealed and discussed by other people, not in earnest conversations between the two of them. This means that some of their intimate gestures also felt unearned, such as when Gideon cupped her face in his hands about halfway through the book. I would have bought it more if Miriam had reacted with startlement or resistance, because at that point she didn’t have any idea how much he’d come to care for her, but she acted like it was no big deal.
Speaking of—I was shocked when she had absolutely no reaction the first time Gideon said he loved her at about 77% progress. Just nothing. I remember thinking, “Maybe that was supposed to have been cut,” because that’s how Miriam reacted—as if it hadn’t been said. It was rather bizarre.
Furthermore, I understand that when he declares to her, “None of that matters without you”—referring to all of his friends and responsibilities, in light of Miriam running for her life—that it was supposed to be a very symbolic gesture on his part. Up to that point, nothing mattered more to him than the town/his patients—he’d already sacrificed the privacy of his music to her—and the moment he says the above, it’s supposed to signify that he loves her enough to give all that up. I bought when he gave up his cello secret for her, that was small-time, but as I was saying, I didn’t buy their love, so I didn’t buy this moment, and I made a doubtful “Seriously?” face when I read it. I wasn’t convinced that Miriam meant that much to him.
Why wasn’t I convinced? Well, this was a chaste romance, but of course that in itself is not why it didn’t work. It didn’t work for me because it was chaste to the point that they didn’t seem to express any attraction to one other beyond the general thought that he’s handsome, on her part, and that her curly red hair is becoming, on his. They never checked each other out that I recall, never wondered what it would be like to kiss passionately, never wondered anything that would suggest they wanted to be more than friends. They came to care about each other, sure, but it didn’t seem much different from how they cared about their friends or the children. The only thing that suggested Gideon was falling in love was when he got jealous of Hawk showing interest in Miriam. Yes, Gideon and Miriam were embracing tightly and kissing a little by the end, but that’s expected, and it…didn’t feel obligatory per se, but kind of like a going-through-the-motions-because-it’s-a-romance thing. I just didn’t feel any passion between them, so their getting together wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped it would be.
There was one other line that made me frown in confusion. When Miriam says, “I won’t make you my shield. Your life is not worth mine.” I know what was meant, but phrasing it that way makes it sound as if Miriam is saying Paisley’s life isn’t worth as much as Miriam’s. It would make more sense to invert it: “My life isn’t worth yours,” “I’m not worth your life,” or something like that.
Other than that, I enjoyed this book very much. I had a hard time putting it down and devoured it within two days. Eden is a very good writer and capable of not only humor but powerful analogies, such as: “To say Mother was, at times, a bit overbearing was like saying the ocean was, at times, a bit wet. And Gideon could feel himself drowning.” I liked that line so much I reread it three times before moving on.
If I have one suggestion for Eden, other than the passion thing, is to not be afraid to give her characters dark sides. We want them to be morally upstanding in general, but few readers can relate to saints.
I don’t know if Eden plans to continue writing about Savage Wells, but if she did, I’d certainly request those ARCs. I see prime protagonist candidates in Hawk, Tansy, Andrew, and even Mr. Larson. I did get the feeling like I was supposed to already be acquainted with Tansy, so I’m not sure if she played a part in the first book or what. Regardless, I’d like to know her better.
And…*gasp* My library has some of Eden’s other books! Yesssss *does happy dance*
