Rebellious Heart

Rebellious Heart - By: Jody Hedlund

Rebellious Heart
Jody Hedlund
Bethany House

In 1763 Massachusetts, Susanna Smith has grown up with everything she's ever wanted, except one thing: an education. Because she's a female, higher learning has been closed to her, but her quick mind and quicker tongue never back down from a challenge. She's determined to put her status to good use,reaching out to the poor and deprived. And she knows when she marries well, she will be able to continue her work with the less fortunate.
Ben Ross grew up a farmer's son and has nothing to his name but his Harvard education. A poor country lawyer, he doesn't see how he'll be able to fulfill his promise to make his father proud of him. When family friends introduce him to the Smith family, he's drawn to quick-witted Susanna but knows herfamily expects her to marry well. When Susanna's decision to help an innocent woman no matter the cost crosses with Ben's growing disillusionment with their British rulers, the two find themselves bound together in what quickly becomes a very dangerous fight for justice.

 What first interested me about this book was that the story was inspired by John and Abigail Adam’s early courtship. Because the Adamses have long been some of my favorite historical figures, I was more than eager to get my hands on this book.

Even though Rebellious Heart is labeled as historical fiction, it really felt more like a historical romance. There was certainly a lot more to the plot, but the whole feel of it was very romanc-y to me, even though aside from a few kisses, it wasn’t really inappropriate. Over the years, I’m afraid I’ve lost my taste for romances. Part of this is because I’ve gotten more conservative in my ideas of godly purity, but also because I read so many Christian romances during my earlier teen years that I’ve gotten rather sick of them. I’m sorry; I just don’t enjoy reading about people mooning over each other. It’s not that I doubt that people really do that- I just don’t like reading about it. For that reason, I’ve stuck mostly with historicals that have a touch of romance.

I will say, that for a romance, I liked it. It was quite well-written, and fast-paced, with danger and smuggling and the turmoil of a country on the edge of a revolution. It’s not my favorite genre ever, so that’s probably why I didn’t enjoy Rebellious Heart so much, but I am sure that if you like romances, you’ll love this one.

Objectionable content: There are some kisses, and a couple murders. A woman is pregnant as the result of rape.

Rating: 7 1/2 


I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Comments

  1. Emma JaneSeptember 5, 2013 at 7:01 AM

    This is actually a book that I've been interested in reading. I am a great admirer of John and Abigail Adams too! My sister and I are watching an old TV miniseries called The Adams Chronicles, which is all about John Adams and his family and his descendants, and John and Abigail are one of my favorite historical couples. Their letters to each other are so sweet! : )
    Yeah, I'm not really a fan of books that are strictly romance either. (I just finished readin Stealing the Preacher and though it was enjoyable and a rather sweet little story, I thought it got pretty sappy at the end and there were wayyy too many kisses for it to be really romantic.) That's one of the reasons why I like Lynn Austin so much, because she doesn't draw out romance and usually it's pretty subtle.
    Thanks for this review! And thank you for the advice, Hayden! : )

    ~Emma

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