7.9.2011 | Saturday

My Cousin Jeremy

category: Book Reviews
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My Cousin Jeremytitle: My Cousin Jeremy
author: Susan Speers
published: 1 April 2011
publisher: self-published
genre(s): historical, romance
pages: 246
source: author
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | Goodreads

rating: four-stars

the blurb

Clarissa and Jeremy grew up on the grand estate of Hethering and ran wild in its gardens, its meadows and woodlands. They fell madly in love, but on the midsummer night of Jeremy's inheritance, they learn a family secret that tears them apart. Through separations and misbegotten marriages, Jeremy and Clarissa's love never dies.

When Clarissa learns her mother's secret, and realizes she and Jeremy are free to love each other, Jeremy's wife will not let him go. The Great War begins and Clarissa and Jeremy's passionate farewell sparks a love affair that ends in sorrow when Jeremy is lost behind the lines. Clarissa risks her reputation to heal his terrible wounds but his estranged wife schemes to keep them apart, banished from Hethering forever.

"Clarissa, can you ever forgive me?" He braced his body for my rejection, but I'd forgiven him as he spoke, forgiven him without the interference of my conscious mind. I didn't dare tell him that. I had to send him away. I gathered the strength to see him off, but something deep within me rebelled.

"Damn you, Jeremy." There was anger and grief and undying love in my gritted words. I loved him before, I loved him now. I would always, always love him.


my review

My Cousin Jeremy is one of those books that grabs you right at the beginning and keeps you there right to the end.  Jeremy and Clarissa are cousins who fall in love at a very young age but are torn apart by Clarissa’s cold and domineering father.  In an effort to deny their feelings and to do the right thing, the two fall into other relationships, often disastrous ones.  But no matter what paths they take away from each other, they always seem to circle back.

The characters were very easy to relate to, regardless of whether you liked them or not.  Clarissa was very easy to love, as the doting woman to Jeremy.  I often had to remind myself that I was reading a story set in a very different time in society because I kept wanting to tell her to stop being a doormat!  Jeremy as a sympathetic character, but one I was often very frustrated with because of his behavior.  One of my favorite characters was Dickon, although he wasn’t a main character.  He was such a sweet and gentle man in the story and I really liked him,  Caroline was also a very sympathetic character, although not always the most likeable.  All of the characters, regardless of their role in the story, were very well developed and made very real. If you like a good historical romance, I definately recommend this book.  It was very enjoyable!

About Susan Speers

I’m the middle child of three sisters. That’s where I learned to fly under the radar, the best place to learn about human nature. I loved to read. At age seven I began to write my own stories and their beginnings piled up. Years later I learned how to finish them, and life hasn’t been the same since.

Difficult love stories are my favorite reading and they’re a joy to write. My characters struggle against increasing odds in the human condition, their happiness is all the sweeter for it. I hope you love reading their stories as much as I love writing them.

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