Hello everyone,
it's been a while since I last posted some short reviews of historical romances, so here are three for you. Enjoy!
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The Ground She Walks Upon by Meagan McKinney
Ireland, 19th century. According to a Celtic legend, Lord Niall Trevallyan is destined to marry the woman signaled by a magical cross or his people will suffer. The cross indicates Ravenna (whom is called Corvina in the Italian translation I've read, by the way), who is just a baby. An illegitimate baby whose beautiful mother has just died and is now taken care of by her grandmother. Travellyan doesn't believe in the geis and, to show it, he marries another woman, with disastrous consequences. Ravenna grows up into a beautiful and headstrong woman who dreams of writing fairytales for children and Trevallian falls for her, but obstacle after obstacle arise before the two can be together. And Trevallyan trying to fight the geis, still refusing to believe in it, only makes everything worse. The hero treats Ravenna really badly for most of the novel, making it really hard for the reader to understand why she puts up with it and finds herself attracted to him, but at least he redeems himself in the end. But my favourite part of the book must be the Irish lore. The book is filled with it, which I loved. I wish the story had been shorter cos, although enjoyable, it seems to go on forever. Overall, I believe it is a nice story that will appeal to those who love historical novels with a supernatural element, and Celtic lore.
Available at:Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4/5
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So Worthy My Love by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Young Elise is mistakenly kidnapped by her uncle's enemy, Maxim. When he realizes his error, she's already in a drafty and decayed German castle, and, due to the inclement and harsh winter weather, he can't take her back. The two are stuck together for a few months, during which they'll bicker all the time and, obviously, fall in love. While the plot sounds intriguing, there is unfortunately very little that's worthy in So Worthy My Love. First all, the book is, like most Woodiwiss' works, way too long. The first one hundred pages pretty much cover only Elise's abduction and her attempts to escape and while entertaining at first, after a while, it just gets boring. You just can't wait for the hero to appear and do something. The book flows really slowly and half of it could easily have been cut without spoiling the story. On the contrary, it would only have improved it. The same can be said for Maxim and Elise' rows. They make you chuckle at first, but then you soon tire of them too. The only thing I've enjoyed about the book was Maxim's accomplices. They are very funny and keep messing up all the time. Overall, the story is nice, but unfortunately the author simply doesn't know when to stop writing, thus making the book unnecessarily wordy and way too long.
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Rating: 2/5
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The Nightingale Legacy by Catherine Coulter
Caroline Derwent-Jones, about to turn 19, manages to escape from the clutches of his guardian Roland Ffalkes, who's trying to get his hands on her inheritance. She thus ends up in the company of Frederick North Nightingale, Lord Chilton. The two are drawn to each other and end up getting married, much to the horror of Lord Chilton's servants. No woman has set foot in the hero's house for years and the misogynist servants are determined to keep that way. They fear that, with a mistress, the house will now be filled with women servants and female friends. The horror! I didn't really know what to make of this. At times, it was funny, at others not so much. But overall, although the characters are all quite nice, there are just too many things going on in the book (some of which involve murders and the search for a treasure), and yet, none of the subplots are really strong enough. Although not Coulter's best work, this is very enjoyable nonetheless.
Available at:Amazon
Rating: 3/5
Have you read these books? If so, did you like them?
it's been a while since I last posted some short reviews of historical romances, so here are three for you. Enjoy!
Ireland, 19th century. According to a Celtic legend, Lord Niall Trevallyan is destined to marry the woman signaled by a magical cross or his people will suffer. The cross indicates Ravenna (whom is called Corvina in the Italian translation I've read, by the way), who is just a baby. An illegitimate baby whose beautiful mother has just died and is now taken care of by her grandmother. Travellyan doesn't believe in the geis and, to show it, he marries another woman, with disastrous consequences. Ravenna grows up into a beautiful and headstrong woman who dreams of writing fairytales for children and Trevallian falls for her, but obstacle after obstacle arise before the two can be together. And Trevallyan trying to fight the geis, still refusing to believe in it, only makes everything worse. The hero treats Ravenna really badly for most of the novel, making it really hard for the reader to understand why she puts up with it and finds herself attracted to him, but at least he redeems himself in the end. But my favourite part of the book must be the Irish lore. The book is filled with it, which I loved. I wish the story had been shorter cos, although enjoyable, it seems to go on forever. Overall, I believe it is a nice story that will appeal to those who love historical novels with a supernatural element, and Celtic lore.
Available at:Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4/5
Young Elise is mistakenly kidnapped by her uncle's enemy, Maxim. When he realizes his error, she's already in a drafty and decayed German castle, and, due to the inclement and harsh winter weather, he can't take her back. The two are stuck together for a few months, during which they'll bicker all the time and, obviously, fall in love. While the plot sounds intriguing, there is unfortunately very little that's worthy in So Worthy My Love. First all, the book is, like most Woodiwiss' works, way too long. The first one hundred pages pretty much cover only Elise's abduction and her attempts to escape and while entertaining at first, after a while, it just gets boring. You just can't wait for the hero to appear and do something. The book flows really slowly and half of it could easily have been cut without spoiling the story. On the contrary, it would only have improved it. The same can be said for Maxim and Elise' rows. They make you chuckle at first, but then you soon tire of them too. The only thing I've enjoyed about the book was Maxim's accomplices. They are very funny and keep messing up all the time. Overall, the story is nice, but unfortunately the author simply doesn't know when to stop writing, thus making the book unnecessarily wordy and way too long.
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Rating: 2/5
Caroline Derwent-Jones, about to turn 19, manages to escape from the clutches of his guardian Roland Ffalkes, who's trying to get his hands on her inheritance. She thus ends up in the company of Frederick North Nightingale, Lord Chilton. The two are drawn to each other and end up getting married, much to the horror of Lord Chilton's servants. No woman has set foot in the hero's house for years and the misogynist servants are determined to keep that way. They fear that, with a mistress, the house will now be filled with women servants and female friends. The horror! I didn't really know what to make of this. At times, it was funny, at others not so much. But overall, although the characters are all quite nice, there are just too many things going on in the book (some of which involve murders and the search for a treasure), and yet, none of the subplots are really strong enough. Although not Coulter's best work, this is very enjoyable nonetheless.
Available at:Amazon
Rating: 3/5
Have you read these books? If so, did you like them?