Review - The Scholar's Heart by Antonia Aquilante

Warning: This review contains spoilers regarding events in the first two books of the series. If you haven’t read them yet, you may want to skip this article.

Amory’s childhood friend Tristan and Phillip’s cousin Etan once seemed on their way to having a relationship. Then Tristan acquiesced to his dying father’s wish to marry and start a family. That hurt Etan more than he would admit to anyone, leaving him no choice but to cut himself off from the friend he once thought could be more. A year later, Tristan becomes a father, but his wife dies giving birth. In his grief, he hopes to rekindle his friendship with Etan, but the man has trouble allowing Tristan to get close. He doesn’t want to get hurt again.

This third volume of the Journals of Tournai picks up the story of another member of the royal family. Although each book in the series centers on a different couple, there are many recurring characters who play significant roles in each story, as well as an over-arching plot that connects the books. So, you really need to read all the stories before this one, in their published order, to know what’s going on.

We met Tristan in the very first book of the series, where he was Amory’s best friend and first sexual encounter. It seems that it took Tristan longer than it did Amory to realize their deep friendship wasn’t love. Then he found Etan and formed another close friendship. Tristan thought there might be more, but Etan ever said anything. Like Cathal in the previous book, Tristan feels compelled to make his father happy by marrying a woman he hardly knows. He has no idea how devastating that action is for Etan.

Etan has played a significant secondary role in both of the previous books. We get to know him a little better in this story, which highlights his academic interests as well as his work in the palace. Etan is a very reserved man who doesn’t let people near him easily. He becomes a very empathetic character as he struggles with whether or not to let Tristan back into his life.

As in the last volume of the series, meddling parents provide much of the drama in this story. Tristan's widowed mother has some very old fashioned ideas that spark off a series of events that threaten both Tristan and Etan.

“The Scholar's Heart” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).