Unveiled

If I told any of my friends that I was reading a romance novel, their jaws would literally drop. Let's just say that I have a very eclectic taste when it came to books, but romance hardly ever makes my reading list.

But in truth, I do read romances. It's just that I am just very, very exacting on them. Very few of them entice me to read till the end, very, very, very few satisfy me so much that I'd exclaim, “What a lovely read!” More often, I go, “Meh.”

Well, the long story cut short is this: Courtney Milan impressed me with her ability to hold my attention. Ironically, it is not the relationship between the hero and the heroine that kept me captivated - it was Ash's relationship with his brothers Mark and Smite. I am far more invested in their relationship than I was with Margaret and Ash because M&A's relationship is the same-ol, same ol “hate at first sight but later love creeps in” kind of romance. I felt that there should be more tension between the two, but I supposed hats off the Milan for not going down the predictable route.

Looking forward to the other bros' stories ;)

I picked this book because I've enjoyed the author's previous efforts, because the book had gotten a lot of buzz, and because the author said something smart on her blog. Yes, I'm weird like that. Anyhow, I'm glad I did, because Unveiled was a very good book. At one point I did that little, happy “wasn't that a romantic line?” sigh.

The people in this book learned “stuff,” evolved, became better. Ash had to deal with his quest for success and accept that there are repercussions, people who get hurt and don't deserve it. Margaret had to grapple with the concept of loyalty and what it means when the people you sacrifice for will not do the same for you.

What I particularly likes was the hero's reaction to finding out the heroine's secret and the way he treats her the rest of the book. That's romantic and he's totally a hero! He'd spent a lot of time inadvertently hurting her and I love that he realized it almost instantly, since those scenes – where he was being hurtful – were so poignant. Another touching moment was when the hero, who'd done everything for his brothers, felt excluded from their love and friendship. The heroine's reaction was wonderful.

They each in turn told the other that what made them worthy was inherent and had nothing to do with title or rank. Ash told Margaret that early on – along with telling her she had the ability to chose her own path – and it changed her, informed her decisions. Later on, she had the chance to give that back to him. Was nice. :)

Ms. Milan tends to give her heroes undiagnosed illnesses or afflictions. Undiagnosed because that was then, this is now. I actually liked how Ash's affliction affected his perception of self, how revealing it to Margaret was an act of complete trust, and how he'd compensated for it by being a keen judge of character.

I've seen the author's writing called too cerebral and not emotional enough – paraphrasing – and I've understood that. This, for me, had the intelligence, but also had an emotional element. At least I was touched and felt the strong love and connection between the two.

The revelation of our heroine's identity and when Ash finally tells his brother his secret were terrific because it said that sometimes, even though we try to keep sides of ourselves hidden, the people we love and who love us really do know us and a new piece of the puzzle doesn't alter that as much as we think it will.