Love Unseen - Review

Love Unseen

By: Rachel Kelley Stones

Expected Publication: July 5, 2023

248 pages

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--Hannah Hadley is a permanent fixture in London Society and well on her way to becoming a spinster. Despite her beauty and kind disposition, Hannah has accepted the harsh reality of her situation: she will never marry. Continually affected by an illness from her youth, Hannah acknowledges her chances of entertaining potential suitors, at least respectable ones, is slim.

To members of the ton, Jonathan Carter is undeniably unsuitable. Though he is in possession of a massive fortune and is handsome as well, there remains an insurmountable black mark against him: his is new money. Even so, he’s caught off guard when his enchanting neighbor, Miss Hadley, flatly rejects his offer to dance. Despite their rocky introduction, however, they find themselves inexplicably drawn to one another. But when circumstances force Hannah from her home, the couple’s warm association comes to an abrupt end. Now, Jonathan must find a way to rescue the woman he just might love or risk losing her forever.

Ok so I'll be honest. Love Unseen surprised me. It really shouldn't have, but it did. I didn't put much thought into what Hannah's illness might be, but I haven't read any other books from this period with the same situation. Since this was a unique context for a book set during this time, I really enjoyed the story because of this.

Hannah and Jonathon don't start off too well. Hannah unintentionally offends Jonathan. These two spend some time back and forth between being almost harsh with each other and then coming to understand the other. The back-and-forth was a little confusing at times, but overall it built some nice tension.

I always kick myself for doing this, but I finished Love Unseen 3 weeks before I'm finally sitting down to write my review. Doing this means I've forgotten some of the finer points of the story that I wanted to make.

The secondary characters--specifically Hannah's family members--were odious. Her mother is pure vitriol. Her sister is no better than a spoiled brat. And her brother, mostly spineless and passive. The reasoning behind Hannah's mother's feelings towards her never made sense to me. Even when Love Unseen actually touched on the specifics I was left feeling like it wasn't logical and didn't make sense. I suppose emotions usually don't follow logic. I felt like Hannah's sister was almost as bad as her mother and then a switch flipped there towards the end. I wasn't sure I could have been as forgiving as Hannah was. Jonathan's mother and sister were wonderful. Even Hannah's aunt was a breath of fresh air despite still being a little too passive for my taste.

There did come a point where the story began to feel a little too dramatized for me, but I didn't really dislike it even with that. As a matter of fact, overall the story was better than I expected.

Favorite quotes:

-If she didn't want me to draw attention to myself, why did she insist on pointing out every one of my mistakes?

-"There are always those in life who choose to dislike and discourage, but that's a reflection of their character, not yours. You must learn to ignore them."

-"Your father made it easy to love and be loved,"

-Nature has a way of creating little bits and pieces of artistry that man cannot replicate.

I couldn't leave that last quote without correcting it from "nature" to "God."

Love Unseen was refreshing in many ways. Hannah's condition wasn't one I'd read about in this unique historical setting. Her relationship with Jonathan was rocky and even borderline harsh in the beginning. Things took a very dramatic turn there towards the end. And I can't say that everything made logical sense to me, but in the end, I found that I like this book much more than I was expecting. Love Unseen gets 4 Stars. Have you read Love Unseen? What did you think? Let me know!