I usually do my best to avoid spoilers in my reviews, but this time the need to purge my thoughts is overruling my usual goals. So consider yourself warned.

First off, you need to know I love second chance love stories. Throw in the secret child trope and I’m hooked. And this one had some great moments. But mostly, it had not great moments.

For starters, there was a very clunky revealing of the past. The author didn’t just come out and say what happened but sort of mentioned things off-hand, which makes for a confusing read. I’m sure she was trying to build suspense about what sent the hero running and what went wrong with the heroine. I appreciate that she didn’t constantly hint about the past. But bits and pieces here and there thrown out as random asides to the characters’ thoughts didn’t work well for me.

And there were a couple other big things. Does the author not have children? Or maybe laws are more strict in Australia? Because 12 is a perfectly acceptable age to leave children home alone. They don’t need a babysitter for just a couple hours - unless they’re complete hooligans. But the twins in this book were not, so the heroine’s constant need to find someone to watch her children made zero sense to me.

Next up, I know doctors are notoriously bad patients themselves. But you’d think the hero would have at least a little bit of sense when it comes to his physical...issue. He hurt the heroine multiple times because the medicine he took for depression - a couple years ago - caused erectile dysfunction, so he’ll never be able to sexually satisfy a woman, therefore he’s doomed to spend the rest of his life alone. Dude, they make a pill for that.

The author did a great job of pulling on my heartstrings when it came to feeling bad for what the heroine went through the past 12 years, her feelings of self-worth, how she kept working hard to provide for her children. And there was a unique twist in regards to the hero’s revelation to being a father (see...I CAN keep some surprises!). But the hero wasn’t particularly likeable, their lack of communication made me cranky, and too many things made me roll my eyes.

I wanted to like this one. Sadly, I mostly didn’t. But I DID get through it and it didn't take me a really long time, so I guess that's something...

* thank you to NetGalley and Escape Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

A Matter of Trust by Fiona Marsden
Subgenre: rural romance
Release date: 1 Jul 2021
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Format: ebook
Length: 192 pages
RRP: $2.99 (ebook)

Even small towns have secrets.

Morgan Cavanaugh is the new local doctor. He is replacing the newly retired local doctor. Morgan also needs his family to recover from a very trying few years including as illness he developed working in Africa. What Morgan discovers is that his former girlfriend is still in town, and she has two children. That hurts. It turns out, Rebecca Walters, his ex-girlfriend, is the practice manager. She is concerned for her job as a new owner means she may have to leave town to find other work. Her secret is that her twins are Morgan’s.

As the story unfolds, Morgan discovers that his parents are caring for Rebecca’s children. But Morgan thinks only one of them is his and the other is from another man, Dan, who is currently living in the house with Rebecca and her children. And that was a nicely played twist by the author, having each child born either side of midnight to muddy the waters!

I would like to tell more of the story threads, but it could also lead to some spoilers. It is enough to say there are many secrets that will be revealed in this small town and among the Cavanaugh family. Past mistakes that impact on the future and not just the future of Morgan, Rebecca and the children.

I really liked the sense of the small town in this story. The town and people themselves are always characters that add just that little bit more to the story and the people who live there. The characters are relatable for those of us in everyday life but the round to the HEA is worth the ride.

reviewed by Heather

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher.

The fictitious Queensland town of Maidens Landing is the setting for a Matter of Trust and author Fiona Marsden has done a fabulous job of creating the setting. The conflict between the Rebecca Walters, struggling with inherited debt and working hard to give her eleven year-old twins a good home, and Grace Cavanaugh,the children’s grandmother, is a strong theme throughout this story. Grace has never regarded Rebecca as a suitable match for her son and has taken steps over the years to keep the pair apart. Dr Morgan Cavanaugh has been away from Maiden’s Landing for nearly thirteen years. He’s surprised to discover he has children and angry to have missed so many years of their lives. There’s plenty of tension between Becca and Morgan and with his mother to move the story along. I thought there were a few too many issues going on in the background. It was a bit confusing at times, but despite this the story is a page turner and I enjoyed it.

A Matter of Trust is a very well written book. I enjoyed the plot and character dynamics. I recommend this book.

A Matter of Trust by author Fiona Marsden is a story with twists and turns and confounding moments. The characters were interesting and derived multiple emotive responses from this reader. I did not always understand why some elements remained a mystery to characters, but the overall story wasn’t bad. The secondary characters often stole the limelight and the second chances storylines that applied to different aspects of the story held much promise as a draw card to the overall narrative for this reader.
Review copy received from the Publisher via Netgalley

This is a beautiful second chance romance, lots of emotions flowing off the pages and through the characters in this one and Fiona Marsden has written it beautifully pulled me in from page one as we journey to a beautiful well deserved HEA after many secrets are unearthed.

Becca Walter’s life hasn’t been the best growing up in the small town in Queensland she had it tough but there was her friend and the guy she had a crush on her neighbour Morgan Cavanaugh, that crush turned into love and she always thought it was returned until he left town and she was left with the consequences she made a deal with Morgan’s mother and for the next twelve years managed but he was always in her mind and now he is coming back to town.

Dr. Morgan Cavanaugh is coming back to his town to take over the medical Centre, the town he ran from twelve years ago, a lot has happened in those years and he is not quite the man he was when he left, but he has never forgotten Becca and is shocked when he returns to find out that he will be working with her in the practice and an even bigger shock is to come when he meets Becca’s children.

There have been many secrets and misunderstandings in the last twelve years and for Morgan and Becca to move forward into the future with love and happiness these must all come out and be resolved, some are going to hurt, but both Morgan and Becca are strong and caring and the love flows for them to get there in a lovely way and find that happiness for their family. MS Marsden has covered a topic that I have not seen in a romance before and done it so well, I loved this one so much I loved the characters, Becca is so strong and lovable and Morgan Vulnerable and a fabulous hero, it is a wonderful romance. This is one that I do highly recommend.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Escape Publishing for my copy to read and review

Rebecca has a daughter Morgan. She is trying to find herself career wise. I liked Rebecca but was trying to get wrapped up in hervworld

An emotional story encompassing a myriad of complex feelings and emotions in an extended time period, “A Matter of Trust”, by Fiona Marsden (Escape Publishing), features a different kind of wounded hero, whose secrets are gradually revealed.
Morgan is a great hero. I loved how the revealing of his issues was ever so slow, even if we are aware of his feelings of inadequacy, of being defective (“half a man”). Both his insecurities and inner strength make him a complex character.
The romance is tender, a reunion of old lovers. Becca is a strong woman with vulnerabilities of her own. Hiding the secret from Morgan for so many years felt wrong but somehow believable, due to the barriers the author described (including the nasty and cold hero’s mother).
There’s a lot of family drama that plays well within the story. I loved the setting, too, a lovely detour from American small-towns.

I received A Matter of Trust as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

Recovering from a serious illness, Morgan Cavanaugh returns to run the medical clinic in his small Australian hometown. There he runs into Becca Walters, his childhood sweetheart with whom he'd had a heartbreaking relationship 13 years earlier. But betrayals and secrets run deep, and both Becca and Morgan have truths that they must reveal if their happy ending is in the cards.

This had the potential to be a good book, but really needed an editor. Some story beats go on for way too long--in particular Morgan not realizing that the twins were twins. Why didn't Becca at least internally wonder why he kept preferring Gabby? Why did no one mention the phrase "the twins" for weeks? Why did Becca not say "What the hell do you mean?" when Morgan asked how she'd managed to have two children on the same day years apart? It beggars belief. Additionally, there were a lot of grammatical mistakes, most notably the rampant incorrect use of apostrophes. There were some good points--the frank discussions of sex were interesting, and I always appreciate a book where the leads' sex isn't always and constantly mind-blowing--but a lot of the storylines