Passion's Sweet Revenge

Marshall Brothers #2

by Jo Goodman

From a review. In 1863, Mary Catherine McCleary (Katy) is a southern belle with firm roots to the Confederacy. In 1863, Katy is only thirteen, but the ugliness of war and a loathsome stepfather have stripped away her childhood innocence. Logan Marshall is the son of a wealthy, powerful family from New York City. He is very handsome, very young, and to Katy McCleary he is her champion! But Logan Marshall is from the north and the Civil War rages. As a solid, southern daughter, Katy unwillingly sells Logan out and her trickery delivers him to Andersonville and to hell! In 1872, Mary Catherine McCleary is the famous stage actress -- Katy Dakota. Logan Marshall is the publisher of a powerful newspaper - the New York Chronicle. Katy and Logan meet again. The years have passed, but nothing is forgotten, and revenge can be so sweet.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, American, Adventure, Civil War

479 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

To find characters to illustrate my first family saga, I cut out models from the Sears catalogue. I was in fourth grade, but it was a start. In seventh grade I wrote a melodrama about two orphan sisters, one of whom was pregnant. There was also a story about a runaway girl with the unlikely name of Strawberry and one about mistaken identities and an evil blind date. My supportive, but vaguely concerned parents, sighed with relief when I announced I was going to write children's books. They bought me an electric typewriter and crossed their fingers, but somehow PASSION'S BRIDE came out. No one was really surprised.
I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry and some notion that I would do marine research. Years of competitive swimming didn't help me anticipate seasickness. A career change seemed in order. I began working with adolescents and families, first as a childcare worker and later, after graduating from West Virginia University with a master's degree in counseling, as a therapist. I am currently the executive director of a child caring/mental health agency and find my work and my writing often compliment each other. One grounds me in reality and the other offers a break from it.

Reviews

[Mermarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultra cutesy. The heroine's love confession was quite overdue, and I felt the hero promptly let her trample over his pride quite a few times, and even during his act of 'revenge', I still felt she was in control. The pseudo villain had dragged his dead horse about the story for far too long, and I never quite understood the story surrounding the pictures she allowed him to take, since she had obviously loathed his mere existence. See facebook girls? Hundreds of years ago, women STILL had trouble with creepers and the photos they took always come back to haunt them. XD


Secondly character surprises:
If Michael heard his wife cry out one more time, he would go in and really give her something to scream about. Monologue during the birth of their child, I shit you not. This is after many failed attempts to bring a live one into the world.

The story was pleasant and a good, fulfilling read. A definite read for coming off hard bodicerippers. :D

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jo Goodman has a knack of showing a character's motivations and how horribly they can treat others while simultaneously feeling justified. Multiple characters repeat this refrain. Then add a few seemingly innocent choices having profound results and you have an irresistible novel. For the first two chapters, the Civil War is ongoing, and everyone has chosen a side. The interpersonal conflicts, so common during that time, of individual against country loyalties drive the story.

Katy starts as her 13-year-old self who doesn't really understand the world around her. She has suffered and continues to suffer the great consequences of living in the South during the war and then trying to make her way as an actress. She is at a pinnacle of acting sucess when history catches up to her. Furthermore, she also must learn to see that same history through adult eyes.

Logan starts as a happy-go-lucky young man that gets pulverized by time spent in Southern POW camps. When he sees Katy again, he is a hard, bitter man that can't resist the lure of revenge. As the story progresses, we slowly see more of the caring, considerate man restored.
I received this book for free from eBook Discovery and this is my voluntary, honest review.

[Margaret Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nation at war with itself, causing untold damage to its people and families, resulting in betrayal and revenge. All of these and more are portrayed in this tragic novel. The story is well written but I cannot say that I enjoyed it. Over a ten-year period, justice has a way of being served but at a terrible cost. Based on the author's writing skills, the depth and complexity of the plot, I expect that many people will say that this book deserves five stars. Based on my enjoyment of the novel or lack thereof, I would give it one star. Putting the two together I have come up with my rating. I am just very relieved that the main characters eventually found their way forward, putting the past behind them. I received this book for free from eBook Discovery. I voluntarily post this review. This is my honest review.

[Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has so many issues. I was prepared to love it because I like it when there is a revenge plot and the hero is almost obsessed with the heroine, but this story is so convoluted. I want to shake some sense into the heroine. There are times when she seems bright enough, but she keeps making these really stupid mistakes I can't just fathom.

I was a little disturbed about the child abuse towards the beginning of the novel. It made me so uncomfortable when Katy's stepfather, Col Allen, made advances towards her. Thank goodness Logan caught them or she could have been ruined early on. It made my skin crawl to read about that and I am sure a lot of readers felt the same way.

I was not displeased about Katy's coldness towards Logan when he suddenly appeared in their barn. I would have found it more annoying if she was all hugs and kisses for him. I like it when the heroine is aloof and a bit standoffish with the hero so she doesn't appear like she was throwing herself at him. Please ladies, be a little hard to get.

Then that scene when Katy's aunt found them in the barn and Logan was unceremoniously thrown into another prison, I kind of liked that. Yes, it was heartbreaking on Logan's part but I understood that it will be the catalyst towards his hatred towards her and why he would want to seek vengeance.

After that, this is where the story started to go downhill.

I didn't like how Logan was so passive-aggressive about his revenge. If you want to take revenge, do it all out or not at all. I don't understand him just imposing himself in her hotel suite and then he let her slip away after having sex with her. I want an anti-hero. Apparently, he wanted to ruin her reputation by branding her as a mistress and taking away her chances of becoming a famous actress. Why couldn't he have blackmailed her into becoming his mistress, made sure once and for all that her acting career was over, and then she doesn't have a choice but to dance to his whims?

Or he could have abducted her and then forced her to his desires, showing her that from then on, she is his master and there is nothing she can do about it? Logan was a bit namby-pamby and I was expecting more fire and passion from him. He does seem like a broken man and I guess I do sort of understand after experiencing such traumatic abuse from prison.

As for Katy, she was making one stupid blunder after another. I think her fault is that she is just too nice. It truly serves one's purpose to have just a shade of evil in them. Why I said that is the case of Michael Donovan, her husband's son. Michael desires Katy and was almost on the verge of raping her. She had several chances of getting rid of him, but she didn't do it.

If I were in her shoes, I would have told his father about his actions against her. I would have influenced him to disown Michael, throw him out of the house, or at least remove some of his powers to hurt her. Or if I was feeling particularly vindictive, I will have Michael "taken cared of" and he will disappear in an "untimely accident." Heck, I will do anything to get rid of those who are giving me grief. I will just consider it public service that I removed from the face of the earth such a loathsome creature.

I was so upset when Katy did not put up much of a fight and let Michael bully her. First, she allowed him to take all of her inheritance by fleeing from New York. If I were her, I would fight him in court. Who cares if her child is not biologically his? She was his legal wife and she has a legitimate claim over the money. Second, after she married Logan, she allowed herself to be manipulated by Michael AGAIN. She is so stupid at that point. I would have told Logan immediately and have him take care of Michael. I don't care of the repercussions, Michael must be dealt with! Why haven't she thought of AT LEAST having thugs beat up Michael and then use that opportunity to find the damning pictures that he was using a leverage over her?! Use your head, Katy!

Which brings me to the subject of having naked photos. Nowadays people are willingly having picture and videos of them taken with only a smile on their faces. I just hope that they will not regret that in the future, especially now in the age of internet where everything you put out remains in the internet FOREVER.

In my opinion, this story suffered because the author lengthened it too much. The story should have ended when Logan and Katy married. It was their happily ever after. Michael could have just died and now Ria is also free to do pretty much whatever she wished. On that note, I will end my review.

[JenReviews4U · Rating 3 out of 5]

As many reviews have mentioned this is quite a lengthy and involved story with many moving parts. You're either going to love it or hate it. For me, I was stuck in between. I somewhat enjoyed reading it to the 50% point, but it just went on too very long.
Logan Marshall wants revenge on the girl who sent him to hell. This starts off well enough and I felt for Logan. Katy was a little bitch to him. But his emotions ran hot and cold for her and after a while it got old.
I didn't like the character of Katy at all. Nevermind her actions, she just didn't seem to have much sustenance to her. For a book this long, some character development would be nice.
And the secondary plotlines just keep going on and on...

Jo Goodman can obviously write and is quite good at it but I think she needs to cut out the fluff and not go off on so many different plotlines in one novel before I will read her work again. It is quite an interesting read however and a story line I have never seen before.
I received an advanced copy in exchange for my review.

[Keri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one better than the first one.

[Bronte Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jo Goodman is, without question, an exceptionally talented writer. Her strength has always been her ability to create characters who feel deeply human—layered, flawed, contradictory, and painfully real. She has a clear understanding of trauma and how unprocessed pain shapes people’s choices, often in destructive or morally gray ways. Her characters are rarely purely good or evil; instead, they exist in the complicated middle ground of humanity, which is where her work shines.

Her sentence structure, dialogue, and emotional pacing are all beautifully executed. There’s a richness to her prose that makes even difficult moments compelling to read. This level of craftsmanship is something I’ve come to expect from Goodman, and His Heart’s Revenge is no exception in terms of technical skill and emotional insight.

The Story Itself

That said—my God, this story is melodramatic! I genuinely didn’t know where it was going most of the time. The central revenge plot is buried under a staggering number of side plots, emotional upheavals, and escalating trauma. The novel is steeped in grief and sorrow, rooted in the devastation both Logan and Katy carry from their Civil War–era childhoods. Everything falls apart for them far too young, and that damage defines nearly every choice they make.

There is something beautiful in the way Logan and Katy are drawn to one another. They feel like people who were meant for each other but tragically torn apart by circumstance, timing, and their own wounds. Katy, in particular, is a heroine you feel immense grief for. She endures repeated trauma—emotional, physical, and sexual—often at the hands of men who claim to love and admire her but instead dominate and destroy her sense of self. She internalizes this pain, believing she has no value and that choices made during wartime as a child have made her irredeemably “ugly” inside.

While Katy does grow over the course of the novel, it wasn’t quite enough for me to fully connect with her. She often feels like a pushover—quiet, “good” —but her depth gets lost amid the constant chaos of the plot. The same can be said for Logan. He is a hard, bitter man whose fixation on revenge drives him to morally questionable—and at times outright cruel—actions. When he finally finds a sense of safety, his softness emerges, and you see who he could be without revenge clouding his judgment.

I did appreciate that Logan and Katy ultimately find their way back to each other—not by ignoring the harm they’ve done, but by choosing belief, support, and connection despite it. Still, the sheer extremity of the drama left me conflicted. The plot pushes human suffering and revenge to such heightened levels that it became emotionally exhausting rather than cathartic.

Final Thoughts

If you love wild, high-drama plots with extreme choices, relentless angst, and an unflinching look at what happens when grief and revenge consume people, this book may work for you. If you’re looking for something gentler, more romantic, or emotionally restorative—this is not the one.

Overall, I’m giving His Heart’s Revenge 3 out of 5 stars. It’s beautifully written, populated by complex characters, and undeniably powerful—but the drama is so extreme that it ultimately overwhelmed my enjoyment. I might revisit it someday, but for now, I’m content to have finished it and let it rest.

[Dora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the character of Logan Marshall interesting. A young man whose future was affected, a survivor of a horrible war and yet with a strong determination. This is the first book I've read by this author, and I don't have much evidence to comment on her other books, but the theme of revenge, the strong emotions of the protagonists and the violence that surrounded them caught my attention. It felt real. Don't know much about the period, but the narrations and descriptions of Katie's situation and how she was adjusting to what life offered her intrigued me and kept me interested and on the lookout for new plot twists. I like complicated situations, with strong issues, action, suspense, strong emotions, interesting twists, violence, romance and passion, and this story had them all. Voluntarily reviewed this copy that I received for free from eBooks Discovery and I liked it.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spies, betrayal, and more.
What a twisted and complication relationship the hero and heroine has this made the book so interesting. I have not read a great many historical that deal with the Civil War and after. This is a twisted tale and very well written. I like the build up at end of the book I was on the edge of my chair. I am so glad I read this story and I am happy to recommend it. I received this book for free from eBook Discovery and voluntarily chose to review it.

[Toyenlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story. Logan was all out to take his revenge on Katy who he thought betrayed him some years ago thereby sending him to prison. But along the line he found out that his feelings for her was genuine and beyond revenge but Katy had run to another man for help. Will they be able to overcome the bad blood between them and find their happily ever after? "I received this book from eBook discovery. I voluntarily review this book. This is my honest review".

[Lynnette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as regrettable as the first one

As the second of the books in the Marshall Brothers Duo, it is nice to revisit the first couple in some scenes. This book is mostly flawed by the 2 main characters betraying one another and then bringing sex into their revenge plans. They eventually grow up, but it’s hard to imagine them actually forgiving each other as they seem to do.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the story, characters, and historical component. There were a few typos and incorrect names in a few places.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a reason this story takes 479 pages to complete; the plot is involved and compelling. This tale beings in 1863 and covers a bit more than 10 years. In the opening chapters, the heroine and hero meet, separate and then see each other again after several years.

Mary Catherine ("Katy") McCleary, her mother and older sister are living in Washington DC, with the mother’s second husband, Richard Allen. The three females are serious Southern sympathizers who just happen to be living with a colonel of the Union Army (Richard Allen).

Mrs. McCleary plotted her revenge when Union forces burned their home (early in the war); she met and married an important man in the Union army (Col. Richard Allen) and stole secrets to aid the Confederate cause.

Mom may have been watching for secrets but she was not watching the Colonel and her younger daughter. However, Logan Marshall, a young Union officer transporting secrets, catches the Colonel with Katy and tells her mother. The three females leave the Colonel’s home and move in with an aunt on her farm.

The Colonel gets his revenge by sending Logan to an area where he knows there are Confederate soldiers. Logan is caught and sent to a Confederate prison for 19 months. He escapes and is on-the-run when he happens upon Katy again – still living with the great-aunt.

Conflicted by her Confederate support and her admiration and awe of Logan, she feeds and clothes him, right under the nose of Confederates. In an intimate encounter, Logan does not hear Aunt Peggy arrive with Confederate soldiers. Katy begs for his life; he’s sent to Andersonville instead of the wrong end of a hangman’s rope.

Andersonville was even more harrowing than Libby Prison; conditions were so bad that Logan became confused … and then his memory for three years. Through a quirk of fate, Logan read a New York newspaper and began to remember.

It is now seven years after the close of the war when Logan again sees Katy. She’s a much-heralded actress with lots of potential suitors. Logan decides to get revenge on the woman who had betrayed him twice.

The next chapters outline Logan’s pursuit of his goal – to bring down Katy (from her pinnacle of success). This book is an absolute page-turner. However, these characters take leave of their senses when they (re) meet in New York City. These two intensely-interesting characters suddenly start making stupid choices.

I couldn’t give the book less than 4 stars because the plot and its telling were wonderful. However, the life of the book dropped a notch once the 2 main characters met again.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the war was going on Katy did some things that she regretted, especially to Logan Marshall. Now ten years later Katy Dakota has made her name on stage and Logan is out for revenge.

The story was slow in parts, I felt like some of the information could have been edited out but overall the story kept me entertained. Logan was forceful to a point but I can understand his wanting revenge for what Katy put him through but he was also able to check himself. Overall, I liked Katy, she did what she had to do to keep going. She was a very strong heroine but also had her own faults.

[Seema · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a hate story rather than a love story. The heroine is abused as a child, then rescued by a Yankee who thinks she betrays him. As an adult, she faces sexual abuse from the hero, the villain and is generally mentally traumatized. The plot is convoluted and the actions moves between 4 or 5 characters. I thought it was gruesome

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it as "His Heart's Revenge," the re-title of this older story. It's full of revenge and angry love-making and secrets and stuff. Again, it's more Civil War and just after than actual Victorian era. Nice read.

[Jultri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as the later Goodman books, but still a four star rating based on the emotional content, even though some of the actions of the characters were of questionqble sense. However I still love a good revenge, hate to love story and Ms Goodman can wring tears off a piece of granite.

[Laylah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gone with the wind, this is not. One of the worst I've read from this author.

[Marilynn Layden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too long

This story was good and the characters well thought out but I found myself plodding along just to finish. But, all in all it is a good book once you get into it.