Disclaimer. This book was given to me by the publicist as part of the blog tour. This review is my stop of the tour. In no way did I feel pressured to give it a good review because of it, as the option was there to only do a spotlight post.

This one took me quite by surprise. As we all know, I have a love/hate relationship with historical romance and this one fell firmly in the love column. Sex and power seem to be the causes of the issues in this fast tale of a hero and heroine who are truly lucky to find themselves in an arranged marriage that seems to be made in heaven.

At first, I didn’t like Rhys. He was a man who was used to women being there to service his needs but wasn’t willing to gift them anything other than a quick bout of pleasure in return. When he uttered the “why buy the cow when you get the milk for free” adage, I could have quite cheerfully thrown my reading device through a wall. Of course, he seems to change his ways once he meets Eliane in the woods. She is the opposite of everything that he has been chasing but seems to be everything that he needs. He falls quick and hard but, of course, the course of true love never does run smooth. Their relationship starts with violence he never quite forgives himself for it so he begins, as only protective/idiotic men can, to treat her with kid gloves, trying to keep her safe by keeping her at a distance. It only endeared me to him. Once he saw how she could take care of herself, he got so very proud and possessive I actually swooned; I really did enjoy his character.

Eliane is a very strong heroine. She is fierce without ever being harder for it. She is as happy with a knife in her hand as she is with split-end rescuer on her hair and I enjoyed that the author managed to make a character that was a perfect blend of both. Her reaction to both her “flaw” and her attraction to Rhys were purely feminine and I completely related on both counts. He confused her yet aroused her and she simply had no frame of reference on how to act with him. She was a complete breath of fresh air. I loved the chemistry that flowed between her and her husband and how quickly they both adapted to their new situation.

I get slightly angry with historical books when I see the ridiculous things that women had to go through. In this tale, the scene with the “trophy” bloodstain from her loss of virginity made me seethe. I know this is historically accurate, and applaud the author for including it in a way that didn’t make me hate the characters involved, but I cannot help my reactions to it.

Overall, this is a book that I really enjoyed. The writing is engaging and the characters literally sucked me into their love story. It also fit slightly with my Game of Thrones obsession... without the copious amounts of violence and evil teenagers. ....