TITLE: Sweet Madness
SERIES #: Veiled Seduction Series #3
CHARACTERS: Penelope Bridgeman & Gabriel Devereaux
AUTHOR: Heather Snow
PUBLICATION DATE: 04/02/13
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS: Ever since her husband’s sudden and tragic death, Lady Penelope Bridgeman has committed herself to studying the maladies of the mind, particularly the trauma of soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars. It is this experience that brings the Marquess of Bromwich’s family to her door.
Gabriel Devereaux’s unexpected and unpredictable episodes are unlike any Penelope has studied. The once proud soldier has been left shaken and withdrawn, but Penelope manages to build a fragile trust between them. Strangely, Gabriel seems completely lucid when not in the grips of his mania, and during the calm bouts between, she is surprised by how much she is drawn to him.
Despite his own growing feelings, Gabriel knows that he is fit for no one and is determined to keep Penelope away from his descent into madness. But even though she knows firsthand the folly of loving a broken man, Penelope cannot stop herself from trying to save him, no matter the cost.
REVIEW: Heather Snow continues to impress me more with every book that she writes and I am amazed at how intricate her characters and storyline are with her new release, Sweet Madness. Lady Penelope Bridgeman is a young socialite that is determined to help others suffering with mental illness even though health professionals dismiss her techniques as being foolish. Penelope seemed to be very happy in the beginning with her life as a young wife, until tragedy strikes and she is drawn into assisting others with similar maladies. I liked her because even though she would have been happy in a ballroom she felt that she needed to help others and I saw this as her way for atoning for what she considered as her past mistakes. I thought she was very courageous to walk into the situations that she did with her head held high and the determination that she would make a difference in these people’s lives. There was nothing that she could have to done to help the people in her past because I believe she was meant to have a purpose and those events would eventually put her on her journey into the psychiatric field.
Gabriel Devereaux was also a very interesting character for me because he had fallen so far from his station in society. He was being currently housed in a mental institution after being a decorated war hero and his family was determined to deem him mentally incompetent to be head of his own estate. Penelope was his last hope in helping to cure him and she was also the shining light in his current sea of mental darkness. The two of them together were magical because they just fit so well together and her very presence calmed him during the worst of his episodes. Even though the subject matter for this novel was very serious, Ms. Snow handles the material with the upmost of care and it hit very close to home for this reader.
This is the third and final book in the Veiled Seduction series and I have loved each of these wonderful, intelligent and resourceful heroines immensely. I can’t wait to see what Ms. Snow has planned for the future but I’m sure that her next endeavour will be just as well-written and thought-provoking as Sweet Madness.
Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks for the review