This was a decent effort from Kingsley. Will visits the widow of his army buddy to return to her the letters she had written to her husband. He is a little in love with her from her letters but falls more in love with the reality when he sees the difficult straits her family is in and realizes her marriage was not as ideal as he had believed. He conceals his identity since it is plain she wants nothing to do with soldiers, and stays on to help on her farm.

There were definite weak points: Louisa's odd motivation in writing such glowing letters to a husband she despised is one, and I can think of several ways Will could have lied quite a bit less and still established himself at the farm to help Louisa. However, the building romance between them, and the way Will falls in love with her despite her protective shell, is charming (though he prods too hard to get her to open up; that dialogue could have been more polished). Louisa's daughter Pip is delightful. Too many things are wrapped up too quickly at the end, including an unlikely reversal of fortune for Louisa's family and the fortuitous death of Will's too-villainous brother. However, as I said, Will and Louisa's romance (not to mention Will's very real attachment to Pip) carries the day and this is a book I will likely read again.

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