Helpful Score: 2
If you've read the Amazon reviews, then you're probably wondering how in the world this could be a good book, when Gwen is forced to marry the wrong man. I was wondering the same thing... until I read it! I am a huge fan of Lynn Kurland's books, and none of them sound quite as hopeless as this one, to someone whose only read reviews and back covers. I am a huge fan of fairy-tale-like romances, and don't like any of the darker or more sinful relationships that many romance writers spin... Yet this one of my favorite of all of Lynn's books, because it is not any of that, and portrays a purer love than even most of Lynn's other books! (I'm excluding Morgan and Miach in her Nine Kingdoms trilogy.) Sure, I would have liked it if she had written it slightly different so that Gwen hadn't had to marry Alain, but this is written into the story more as a temporary "selling into slavery," than a marriage in the way that we think of marriage today. It doesn't even come close to ruining the story.
What Lynn has done is to take a very common situation in the 1200's... one where the daughter of a lord is forced to marry the son of another... and she's sent in a hero to straighten things out and make her happy. What makes this story different, however, is that the hero is bound by a conscience and rules and laws and is not willing to just kill her husband to set her free. It's just the perfect mix of reality and fairy-tale for me.
And Lynn was at her best when she created and portrayed these characters... Gwen is full of fire and boldness, yet not brazen or hard... Rhys is just about the perfect medieval knight and champion of his lady... most skilled swordsman in all of England or France, yet willing to drop everything to spend time with his and Gwen's little children... leader of a the fiercest band of mercenaries, yet willing to save himself for his lady... so devoted to Gwen that he'd fight the world for her, even if she lost the beauty that makes him breathless.
Believe me... those that say that this book is merely frustrating are only reading what "happens" in the book, and missing the deeper threads of emotion that wind through every happening in Gwen and Rhys's story.
What Lynn has done is to take a very common situation in the 1200's... one where the daughter of a lord is forced to marry the son of another... and she's sent in a hero to straighten things out and make her happy. What makes this story different, however, is that the hero is bound by a conscience and rules and laws and is not willing to just kill her husband to set her free. It's just the perfect mix of reality and fairy-tale for me.
And Lynn was at her best when she created and portrayed these characters... Gwen is full of fire and boldness, yet not brazen or hard... Rhys is just about the perfect medieval knight and champion of his lady... most skilled swordsman in all of England or France, yet willing to drop everything to spend time with his and Gwen's little children... leader of a the fiercest band of mercenaries, yet willing to save himself for his lady... so devoted to Gwen that he'd fight the world for her, even if she lost the beauty that makes him breathless.
Believe me... those that say that this book is merely frustrating are only reading what "happens" in the book, and missing the deeper threads of emotion that wind through every happening in Gwen and Rhys's story.
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