At the very beginning of Loved You Better than You Knew, our latest Project Gutenberg release produced through the Distributed Proofreaders project, protagonist Cinthia Dawn exclaims:

“I wish something would happen to break up the dreadful monotony of my life.”

These are dangerous words to utter at the beginning of a novel written by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller, and Cinthia’s life becomes considerably less than monotonous shortly thereafter.

First serialized in the New York Fireside Companion from April through June of 1897, and later reprinted by Arthur Westbrook in the Hart Series, this is not one of Mrs. Miller’s most outlandish or unusual melodramas, but it still demonstrates some of her usual signatures, including a plot revolving around a terrible secret, a resolution prompted by a very abrupt tragedy, and a considerable amount of poetry woven into the narrative.

You can find the entire novel available for free to read online or download in popular eBook formats courtesy of Project Gutenberg.