Unmasked Heart: A Regency Romance

A promising conceit peters off by the end of Riley’s (The Bargain) first novel in her new Regency-era Challenge of the Soul series. Gaia is the second daughter of an impoverished British family of minor nobility, living in the country with her father, stepmother, and siblings. Though she has proved her dedication to the family by educating her special-needs younger brother and caring for her two sisters, her father holds the secret of her illegitimate birth firmly against her. Enter William St. Landon, Duke of Cheshire, the widowed father of a traumatized young daughter, who sees Gaia as his only hope to hear his daughter speak again. Although he makes his appearance riding in on his glorious steed, taking Gaia’s mind off her affection for recently single Elliot, William possesses dark secrets himself. What follows is a confusing mishmash of Regency-like tropes that do not hold true to the time period. The repetitious plot is made more difficult by Gaia’s propensity to look outside of her own interests only when there is a religious point to be made. Secondary characters are, for the most part, one-dimensional foils for the leading pair. This happily-ever-after has an engrossing setup but fails to come together in the end. (BookLife)