Love Unseen

Jonathan Carter asks Hannah Hadley to dance. She kindly turns him down. Jonathan is incensed, and Hannah wonders if she should have revealed to him her unseen handicap. Later, Mrs. Hadley tries to steer the very handsome and newly wealthy Jonathan towards her younger daughter, Julia. Hannah rubs him the wrong way every time they meet, but for some reason, she’s the one he’s attracted to. The Carter family, especially his sister, Bella, love Hannah and wish to include her in their family plans. Her family finds her to be an embarrassment and a burden and wish to send her far away to live with her father’s sister. Her mother in particular is resentful towards her and is willing to marry her off to any older, off-putting man she can find. She wants Jonathan for Julia, but he has other plans that include Hannah.

“Love Unseen” is marvelously crafted with astounding characters thoughtfully treating a handicap as merely a condition with which Hannah must live and not as a burden on anyone. Mrs. Hadley is the villain in this tale, and she stirs up many emotions in the reader. The world building is incredible, and one feels as though they are lost with Hannah as she tries to find her way back to the house. There are many characters in this novel, and they all have some degree of depth, from the little children to whom Hannah tells stories to the lowlyest of servants. Ms. Stones has a gift for making each character quite memorable. A masterpiece of the highest standards, “Love Unseen” is an incredible saga readers will remember for all time.
 

Belinda Wilson