HEART'S DESIRE
By Michael Taylor
Hodder & Stoughton - September 2002
ISBN 0340818263 HB
Historical Saga
1880s Dudley, England and Italy

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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I am not normally a saga fan, but a romance written by a man is always an interesting read and the introduction of Italy into the mixture that finally convinced me to select this tubby tome for review. I wasn't disappointed.

Michael Taylor's heart-warming tale of a plucky Black Country lass and her rise from the servant classes and quest for true love isn't a page too long. It tells the story of Rhianna Drake, a girl from hardworking parents who goes into service and falls in love with the dashing Lawson Maddox. But marrying him will bring her no happiness, and ends in her eloping with painter John Mallory Gibson and heading for sunny Italy, leaving behind problems that are will come back to haunt her later on.

The only really inadequate feature of what is a very entertaining and gripping novel is that Victorian Dudley, with its industrial landscape and grimy working-class folk contrasts rather too sharply with Italy and its welcoming grape-treading peasants. One is shown as being rather too good, with no faults, and the other is all muck and hard labor.

Nonetheless, Rhianna faces life head-on and copes well with whatever it throws at her, making her a brave but believable heroine who wants a man to love her but can stand on her own feet. I look forward to reading more by Michael Taylor, and I can recommend this novel to anybody who likes a gritty but uplifting historical romance.