A Heart Divided

by Megan Chance

Sarilyn Travers trembled when she spotted the lone rider crossing the high Colorado plains. Conor Roarke was back. It had been only a year since he'd loved her and used her to betray her husband and brother. Now, as a woman alone, she could take no chances with a man who could make her forget family ties, consequences, and the truth that lay just behind his sweet words and tender smile. Conor would not give up his search for Sari's brother. Michael Doyle had killed the one person Conor had ever depended on -- his father. Now the trail led him back to Sari's ranch, to the woman he had loved and left a year before. He planned to charm her with false kisses and easy lies, avenge his father's murder, then walk away again. But he never counted on her fury - or his passion. Conor Roarke had one emotion burning in him as real as his hatred for Sari's his desire for her.

Genres: Romance, Westerns, Historical, Historical Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 2, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Megan Chance is the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of several novels. Booklist calls her writing “Provocative and haunting.” Her books have been chosen by Amazon's Book of the Month, Borders Original Voices and IndieNext. A former television news photographer with a BA from Western Washington University, Megan Chance lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. Visit her at www.meganchance.com

Reviews

[Lyuda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can an overwhelming need for revenge be stopped by forgiveness? Conor Roarke, a fine Pinkerton agent, used his acting skills to infiltrate the Molly Maguires, a secret group of Irish immigrant miners, who fought against the mining company with sabotage and murder. Along the way, he also seduced Sarilyn Travers (Sari), wife of one the group members. His fine work let authorities to capture nineteen group members and his testimony let to their conviction and subsequent hanging. The escaped members, including Sari's brother Michael, avenged the death of their comrades by blowing up Conor's house. He survived the assault but his adopted father, the only person who he truly loved, did not. And now, Conor wants a revenge. He wants to find Michael and kill him. And what is the better place, he think, for Michael to run if not his sister's? Sari ashamed by the role she unwittingly played, scorned by the town, was forced to leave her Pennsylvania mining town with her uncle for open prairies of Colorado. And that where Conor goes to seek revenge. This was a very difficult story for me to rate. On one hand, it's beautifully written, has a writer's trademark of imperfect, far from black and white characters, it's nuanced, it raises interesting questions about loyalty, duty, revenge, and forgiveness. On the other hand, I could not pass the fact that heroine had repeatedly cheated on her husband with the hero. Yes, her marriage was difficult, although what exactly was wrong with it had not been truly explained, but it diminished her in my eyes. Also, the ending was too abrupt.

[Sanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so sad, full of quiet despair, but beautifully written. There are no good or bad characters, they are all so human, greyish... the heroine - unloved wife cheating on a husband, the hero - an agent lying to everyone, her brother whom she loves - a muderer... And you can't help but ask yourselves - how can these two have a happily ever after? Yet, they do.
I give it a very high 4 stars, but only because I gave "The Portrait" 5. And nothing comes near that book :)

[Olnega · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️
Connor is a Pinkerton agent, who infiltrates the Molly Maguires a secret miners group formed to fight for mines rights, by becoming one of them. Sari is the wife of one of the group’s leaders; she is unhappy and feels neglected in her marriage. Believing he can extract information from her, Connor seduces her into an affair that lasts two years; the entire time he is gathering evidence to ensure a successful prosecution of the group. After most of its members are executed, he leaves Sari behind and returns to his work at Pinkerton’s, while Sari continues to wait for him, even after she becomes fully aware of his true identity.

All of this takes place off the page and is revealed through fragments of conversations and Connor’s and Sari’s reminiscences.

The book opens with the violent death of Connor’s father at the hands of the remaining Molly members, in particular Sari’s brother, Michael. Connor vows revenge and sets out to find Sari, thinking she will eventually lead him to her brother. The rest of the story is the long and painful journey from revenge, anger and distrust towards forgiveness and love.

I enjoy Megan Chance’s writing, and her characters are never simple or straightforward; there are always shades of grey, sometimes to the point of being distinctly unlikeable. Her particular skill lies in persuading the reader that these deeply flawed people, burdened by their pasts and sometimes behaving more like villains than heroes, still possess an underlying goodness that will ultimately prevail, allowing us, to believe in the possibility of a happy ending.

In this case, however, although I still loved the author’s style, I could not forgive Connor for his deception. He betrayed her and walked away without a backward glance, and now he is doing the same thing again, lying to her and using her as a means to pursue his revenge.
Ultimately, for me, Connor was too quick to fall back in love with the woman he had so easily abandoned, and Sari was far too quick to forgive him.

Once again, I love Megan Chance’s writing and I enjoyed the story but unfortunately, it didn’t resonate with me as much as her other books…

[Danyelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book was a little slow, but it really picked up in the second half! I wish there would have been more details for Conor and Sari before she moved to Colorado. I loved the slow burn romance in this novel!

[Alan Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of her best....couldn't finish it unfortunately 😔....