Heart Fate by Robin D. Owens

Lahsin Burdock Yew is an abused wife, and all of 17. Due to the marriage laws on the Planet Celta, a woman can marry when she is 14, but there is an obscure law that says if she is married that young, she can leave the marriage when she turns the legal age of adulthood- 17. Lahsin has recently turned that age, and is desperate to leave her husband, who has been beating her and forcing her ever since their wedding night.

Because she married so young, and has recieved a torrent of physical, emotional and mental abuse not only from her husband, but his first daughter and heir, she finds it hard to assert herself in any way, but when she is desperate to leave and the Residence, which shares her husband's opinion of her, she uses her will and her growing Flair to make an exit from the house- by literally destroying all the wards on the house and removing every door and window in one moment.

She hurries from the house and literally runs into a guardsman, who can tell she is very afraid. She repudiates her marriage to him three times, making him the first of three neutral witnesses who will support her intention to leave her marriage, and he tells her of an estate that might be a sanctuary for her, the former estate of the BalmHeal family, which used to also house the House of Healing, but which became so exclusive that when the BalmHeal family died out, the entire estate was forgotten about. However, it will let in those badly in need of Healing, and Lahsin certainly fits that label.

She makes her way to the estate, is attacked by animals on the way, shredding the sack in which she carries the food and other things she needs to survive, but eventually makes her way inside. There, she discovers a healing pool and takes shelter by it for a nap, but ends up falling into the pool when her first flare of second passage, by which she will develop her adult Flair and depth of power, arrives. After she lives through it, she manages to take shelter in an old greenhouse along with an intelligent dog after they agree not to hurt each other.

Tinne Holly, SecondSon to his house, is completely shocked when his wife, Genista, asks for a divorce. Tinne and Genista were married when his house was cursed by his father's having broken a Vow of Honor, and as a result, Genista lost the child she was carrying. Now, although the curse is finally gone, she cannot get over the feelings of losing her child, and she wishes to become free of the marriage, which will make their marriage the first ever divorce amongst the highly Flaired FirstFamilies.

To be Divorced, both partners must undergo a highly gruelling seven tests that will find out if they are still suited to be together, or not. Genista has already undergone the tests, and so Tinne, wishing her the best, undergoes them also, in an extremely foreshortened two days. And the results reveal that they are no longer in any kind of relationship, so GreatJudge Ailim D'Silverfir reluctantly dissolves their marriage for them.

Naturally, this being the first divorce amongst the FirstFamilies, it causes a great deal of comment and censure directed at the Holly Family, whose Head of House's broken vow allowed all this to happen. Tinne's spirit feels shredded by the ordeal of the testing and divorce, but one thing gives him a slight bit of hope. That he does have a HeartMate, although she is already married. Of course, it is Lahsin Burdock, and the news that she has run away from her husband and family makes him angry on her behalf.

Using his sense of her as his HeartMate, he tracks her down to the BalmHeal Residence, and his own heart pain from his broken marriage allows him entry to the estate, where he meets her and uses the healing pool in an attempt to find healing for himself. He doesn't attempt to press her as his HeartMate yet... both of them are too emotionally damaged to attempt something like that, but he does try to be her friend, and his own hurts and emotionally beaten appearance ensure that Lark, while realizing he is a physically powerful man, also understands he is too hurt to try and hurt her as well. Some of her natural empathy comes to the fore, and she attempts to try and help him over his own emotional and physical wounds.

Tinne, in return, agrees to give her newssheets detailing the search for her by her husband's former family, and later, to give her lessons in self-defense to protect herself if she is ever attacked in the same way as her former husband used to attack her. He is angry on her behalf over how she has been treated, but intends to keep her secrets for her and be her friend... just her friend, until she recovers from her emotional wounds. Later, when she asks him for information on second passages, he tells her about the violent Holly Family passages that he went through, which involve uncontrollable red rages and brawling as a way of mastering his adult Flair. But since not every family goes through passage the same, he downloads several crystals worth of information (some kind of storage medium that seems like a cross between disks or CDs and a readable material like paper) on them for her.

While waiting for the end of her adult passage, Lahsin keeps busy tending a food and herb garden (food to eat and herbs for healing) but a trip outside the estate to get more food and seeds to plant, gives her an encounter with Straif T'Blackthorn, a hunter of people hired by her husband. Lahsin attempts to flee him, but when he realizes that she has been severely mistreated by her "loving" husband and family, he lets her go, and she flees back to the BalmHeal estate. Of course, Tinne finds out what Straif learned, since he's a cousin of Tinne Holly, and he becomes even more enraged on her behalf.

Meanwhile the Fencing Salon that Tinne is part owner of with G'Uncle Tab is affected by Tinne's Divorce, and is saved by Muin (Better known as Vinnie) T'Vine, who gathers together the young sons of the GreatFamilies to learn fencing at the Salon, which brings in other members as well, ensuring the survival of the business. It also brings Tinne in contact with Cratag Maytree, the guard who told Lahsin about the BalmHeal Estate.

Finally, Lahsin is strong enough in body and soul to learn to defend herself, and she and Tinne grow closer as she learns what he has to teach, eventually becoming lovers on Yule as they celebrate the holiday together. But she has no idea that her HeartMate, who has been helping her weather the storms of her developing Flair, is the same as Tinne Holly, her lover. And when she emerges from her hiding place when she finally becomes an adult and is tricked by her former husband, she will finally find out. But will the unwelcome revelation destroy their previously loving relationship? Or will she walk forward, unafraid, into the light of a loving marriage the way it was meant to be? And can the Holly family weather another scandal about itself and the hidden HeartMate relationship between Lahsin and Tinne?

I had read another review (albeit a short one) about this book by Shuzluva on Dionne Galace, her blog, and she said she'd found Lahsin's sudden ability to stand up for herself to be unrealistic. But me, I saw the seeds of that in her actions when it came time to leave Yew Residence, and her sudden outpouring of Flair that destroyed the House's wards, windows and doors were simply the beginnings of her reclaiming and rebuilding of her will from how it had been torn down by her husband and his family. It was regaining her confidence in herself that allowed her to grow all during the book and finally become a confident adult (although not completely confident. She does second-guess herself sometimes. But then, don't we all?). Working with Tinne to learn self-defense also helps build her confidence, which grows slowly all during the book.

Okay, it's no secret that I already love Robin D. Owens' work, but I paid rather more attention to this as I read the book because of the review, and in my own opinion, Shuzluva's opinion was unjustified. Lahsin's growing confidence in herself was not unbelievable, simply because we can see it growing in slow progress over the book. I enjoyed seeing it grow, and enjoyed the growth of Lahsin as a person and an adult.

I also found the book to be emotionally affecting, especially Tinne Holly's feelings of hurt and loss when his wife, Genista, leaves. Mainly because, I, too, sustained a recent loss: my mother. It wasn't completely unexpected- she'd been sick for a long time now, but I thought I'd still have more time with her than I did, and her death just ripped my heart out of my chest... I felt a great deal of empathy for Tinne because of it, and I knew how he was feeling. It was also nice to see that even the dissolution of marriages *not* based on a HeartMate bond cause pain and hurt, and that even Tinne, who knew he had a HeartMate, didn't just view his marriage to Genista as somewhat less because it wasn't a HM bond. It was nice to see that level of realism in the story.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and am eagerly waiting to read more, as this series is a wonderful melding of science fantasy and romance. This could be read as a stand-alone novel, but the story becomes immeasurably richer and deeper if you have read the other books before this, and understand why Holly Family was cursed and how the head of the Holly Family broke his vow of Honor. While it's not completely necessary, it is a good idea. I will be recommending this book, and the series it is a part of, to all my friends.