Had heard this was Ms. Milan's weakest effort as an author, and now I see why. It was just sort of meh, mostly because it was never really clear why exactly it was sooooo important for Ned to maintain his control. I know they didn't have words back then for conditions like depression and bipolar, one or both of which Ned seems to have, but Ned is just so mysterious the whole time it's very frustrating. I liked Kate, though. She was pretty cool. In the afterword, Milan freely admits that this was her most difficult novel, and unfortunately, it shows. There are a couple different issues here. First is Ned's manic-depression, which she actually handles relatively gracefully. Second is the remarriage plot--when you're writing about Victorians, divorce really isn't much of an option. So writing troubled marriages when the parties can't easily walk away is tricky. She does ok at this. I think the real problem, though, is a bait-and-switch from her attempt to shoehorn this into a series. Ned and Kate are supporting cast in a previous novel. I was looking forward to reading about the inadvertent marriage between the naive screw up and the socialite who seems to be charmed by him. I wanted to see Ned grow up and figure out that Kate married him on purpose. Instead, immediately after their wedding, Milan sends Ned to China for several years. When we pick up again, it's like the characters have had radical personality transplants. Basically, they are not actually the same characters as we were promised. She had a story for entirely different characters, and awkwardly grafted it into an existing series. The attempts to reconcile the two are where the strain really shows.It's still a sweet story. But it never quite jells.
What do You think about Trial By Desire (2010)?
the complexities of human emotion she manages to portray so effortlessly always leaves me in awe.
—kittan
I give it two "mehs" since I don't want to finish reading it.
—viper28
