Review: A Secret Disgrace by Penny Jordan

Louise never wanted to see Caesar ever again, and why would she, he publicly humiliated her and caused her Sicilian family to be disgraced, especially her grandparents who loved Sicily more than anything.  Caesar’s actions set into motion more pain than he could have ever had known.  Louise stayed very bitter and did not want Caesar to be a part of their son’s life, but he wasn’t having that. 

In my opinion Louise wanted to blame all of her family’s issues on Caesar when in reality he didn’t cause every bad thing to happen to her.  Her life was already damaged before Caesar came into the picture.  She also didn’t seem to embrace her roots like some Sicilian people I know, they are proud of where they came from or from where their parents came from but she seemed to hate it.  The only reason that she went to the village Caesar was the duke of was so she did not disgrace her grandparents any further by not fulfilling their final wish.

Overall I liked Caesar.  He knew he screwed up all those years ago, but he also wasn’t going to let Louise call all of the shots, especially not where his son is involved.  He knew he had to make things right with Louise for the wrongs he committed in the past, and he wants their marriage to work.  I just couldn’t like Louise, I tried and tried but I just couldn’t.  She rubbed me the wrong way from the start, and could never redeem herself in my eyes.

A Secret Disgrace is Penny Jordan’s final novel, she passed away on December 31, 2011 from cancer.