{"id":6247,"date":"2026-05-21T10:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=6247"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:43:08","slug":"review-the-unyielding-heart-by-clara-montford-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/review-the-unyielding-heart-by-clara-montford-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Unyielding Heart by Clara Montford (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"This seems to be the debut Regency by this author, and it\u2019s a striking piece of work, with an intensity that few books of this genre can match. There were some oddities, but on the whole it\u2019s a brilliant piece of work.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Juliana Lockwood has agreed to marry her cousin, Oliver Fairchild. It\u2019s not a love match on either side, merely a practical solution to her father\u2019s growing debts, and Oliver has his own reasons for his reluctance, but the settlements are agreed, and the engagement is on. At this point, a neighbour, Sebastian Blackwood, returns to the district after five years away, and he and Juliana are immediately drawn to each other, both physically and intellectually.<\/p>\n

This sets the scene for the fundamental premise of the book, whether Juliana follows her heart or does her duty by her family, and settles for the pragmatic marriage. This is a dilemma that must have arisen with great regularity in Regency times, and the safe marriage to the known quantity was a common solution to the problem of finding marriage partners for all the children when the family was buried in the countryside with only a limited number of families of equal rank to choose from. The wealthy and aristocratic went to London to find husbands, but country families had few options.<\/p><\/div>\n

\nTo be honest, I never quite understood why Juliana viewed the marriage in such a negative light. Oliver was a friend for whom she must have felt some affection, if only through the shared experiences of childhood. She knew his character and had nothing to fear from it. Oliver\u2019s secret (which isn\u2019t much of a secret, since it\u2019s revealed very early) didn\u2019t preclude having a happy, or at least contented, marriage, and for Juliana (and all Regency women) there were advantages in marriage that had nothing to do with the chosen husband. Independence, for one thing, and the ability to escape from the constant control of the family. But we see none of this – it\u2019s all about how the marriage would stifle her (or \u2018bury her alive\u2019, as the blurb has it).<\/p>\n

Sebastian Blackwood enters this situation with all the subtlety of a hand grenade. He starts by having a long, intense conversation with Juliana at their very first meeting, laden with subtext. He deduces her situation right away (and this is a constant refrain, that everybody understands everything; every meaningful look is interpreted in depth by observers, so there are absolutely no secrets). The intensity is another recurring theme, with every dialogue redolent with meaning. Anyone looking for the traditional Regency restraint had better move swiftly on, because there\u2019s none on display here.<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re on the subject of Regency expectations, there are a number of minor irritations. Some are the usual thing: dance cards, the modern waltz, passed instead of died, service a la russe, the big wedding (invitations, lace veils, table decorations and all), a dedicated ballroom in a private house (vanishingly rare; a medieval house would use either the great hall or the long gallery, and a modern building would have several smaller rooms that opened into one larger room).<\/p>\n

There were some strange breaches of etiquette, like general conversation around the table at a formal dinner, and the new neighbour who calls on the neighbours instead of waiting for them to call on him. Surely everyone who\u2019s read Pride & Prejudice knows that the protocol was for Mr Bennet to call on Mr Bingley, not the other way round? Then there was the howler of shooting pheasant in July, a huge no-no (autumn and winter only).<\/p>\n

One aspect that I found really unsettling (although I\u2019m sure it wouldn\u2019t bother most people) is characters being called by their Christian names. Not in dialogue, which was always strictly formal and very correct, but in the narrative. Juliana\u2019s father was called Augustus several times, and her Aunt Charlotte was regularly called just Charlotte. I\u2019m used to the point of view setting the names, so when we\u2019re in Juliana\u2019s point of view, I\u2019d expect it to be Mr Lockwood said\u2026 or Aunt Charlotte said\u2026 As it was, it was very odd.<\/p>\n

One other unsettling aspect was not knowing quite where the story was set. Juliana\u2019s house is described as being very close to open moorland, but there isn\u2019t that much proper moorland in England and most of it is in the northern counties (but we\u2019re told it\u2019s not in the north). I can only assume it\u2019s down in Devon or Cornwall, but there\u2019s no other indication, apart from the moors. Does it matter? No, not at all, but it does feel odd, much the same, I imagine, as an American reader not knowing whether a book is set in Louisiana or Idaho. Even if it\u2019s not plot-related, one likes to know where one is. Every Jane Austin book is set in a specific county.<\/p>\n

But these points are relatively trivial, because the strengths of the book far overshadow my minor grumbles. The author\u2019s glorious powers of description, for instance. She has an amazing ability to evoke a setting in wonderfully atmospheric terms, and the weather plays a big role, too, with storms and rain abounding. I suspect the author is a fan of the Kiera Knightly P&P, since the hero spends a number of important scenes dripping wet.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the intensity that I mentioned earlier. This gives the whole story a power that most Regencies entirely lack. Let\u2019s face it, the conflict between marrying for duty or love is as old as the genre itself, but here it\u2019s given an unusual resonance. There are some moments (OK, a lot of moments) where the intensity spills over into un-Regency-like openness, and on a number of occasions things are said openly that I would have expected to be expressed privately or at least more subtly. But every author creates her own version of the Regency, and this one has a lot less restraint than the norm.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one point where the lack of restraint is just too implausible and that\u2019s the climactic dinner party, where things were said and done in the presence of all the neighbourhood worthies and the servants! No, just no. And no, marriage settlements were not signed at the dinner table, or by the bride – that was men\u2019s work, and in private. But I confess, it makes for a very dramatic moment, which is presumably just as the author intended, so I won\u2019t knock off a point for it.<\/p>\n

A very unusual and powerfully compelling read, that I just couldn\u2019t put down. I\u2019ll be watching out for more of this author\u2019s work. Five stars.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This seems to be the debut Regency by this author, and it\u2019s a striking piece of work, with an intensity that few books of this genre can match. There were some oddities, but on the whole it\u2019s a brilliant piece of work. Here\u2019s the premise: Juliana Lockwood has agreed to marry her cousin, Oliver Fairchild. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[301],"class_list":["post-6247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-montford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6249,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6247\/revisions\/6249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}