Category: Tracy’s Reviews

A Knight’s Temptation by Lana Williams

On By TracyIn Middle Ages / Medieval (476-1454), Scottish/Highlander, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

A Knight's Temptation (Falling For A Knight Book 2)A Knight’s Temptation by Lana Williams

Series: Falling for a Knight, #2

Release Date: November 7, 2017

Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I was thrilled to learn that Ms. Williams was finally writing the follow up to A Knight’s Quest and could wait to delve right back into her medieval world of knights and ladies!

This story begins about two weeks after the end of A Knight’s Quest, Ilisa Douglas is the sister of Sophia (the heroine from A Knight’s Quest) and sister of the former governor of Berwick is in hiding with her younger brother Alec and Braden. She has a serious aversion to English knights and wants nothing more than to see Braden healed and on his way, so she can take her vows and retire to St. Mary’s. She feels honor bound to stay with Braden until he heals and her sister returns to take Alec with her to England.

Braden is the cousin of Garrick (the hero of A Knight’s Quest) and son of William and Christiana (Believe In Me – a fact that I remembered while I was reading this book!). Braden was injured while saving Ilisa and Sophia from an assassination attempt. Now that he is recovering, he wants to learn why Lord Graham is trying to kill the Douglas’ and who else might be involved. Little by little he regains his strength and tries to fight his attraction to Ilisa. Braden possesses the same gift of healing as his mother, a secret he guards closely, but a secret that may already be out, as he had used his gift in front of Alec. Using his gift drains him and in his weaken state could kill him, but Braden cannot let anyone suffer if he is able to help them. He is truly a good and honorable man.
When Ilisa and Braden learn that Lord Graham is having a tournament to celebrate his daughter’s birthday, Braden decides to go and see what he can learn. Ilisa and Alec also want to go and after meeting with the Prioress of St. Mary’s, Braden grudgingly agrees to let them accompany him. The Prioress helps them by giving them an invitation and new identities, but in turn she demands that they marry before they leave, assuring them that it will be easy to annul later. Doubtful, but needing to gain entry to the keep, they agree.

They travel to Lord Graham’s estate and along the way, Ilisa begins to realize her assumptions about Braden where wrong and that even though his is an English knight, he is a good man. The more she is with him, the more she begins to rethink her plans to take vows. She wonders if there could be a future with the man she is coming to admire.

When they reach the estate, they learn that Lord Graham is part of the Sentinels (the group of Scots looking to place their own man on the throne), but they still don’t know why he wants the Douglas siblings dead. They each play their role, trying to glean more information and the identities of Graham’s conspirators. When Ilisa befriends Arabela (Lord Graham’s daughter) they get too close to the truth and someone tries to kill Ilisa, Braden is forced to use his gift to save her. But too many people saw her injured and suspicion begins to take root.

When Chanse (Braden’s brother) shows up uninvited, Braden is overjoyed. Chanse enters the competition and tries to help Braden and Ilisa find out who Lord Graham is working with and to divert attention from Braden.

Braden knows he loves Ilisa, but is not sure about her feelings and with the danger they are in, he decides to wait until they are back in Berwick before he talks to her. But Ilisa has figured out Braden’s secret and is humbled that he risked his life to save her. She now knows that she loves him and would like to have a real marriage – but first they have to finish their mission. When they attend the final feast, Ilisa learns who tried to kill her. She tells Braden and they decide to leave the next morning. But when they are confronted by the villain and he uses Alec to force Braden to use his gift to save him and things go from bad to worse. Braden and Ilisa go to the keep to meet with Lord Graham and discover that Alec escaped. They leave to search for him and finally decide to leave and look for him on the road. When they find him and Braden heals him, he is drained and they are forced to stop so he can rest. But Lord Graham is not done with them yet and Braden is forced to make a choice to which there is no happy ending.

I loved this book, it was well written, flowed nicely, had plenty of action and intrigue and while it was not as steamy as I like, the love scenes were well done and appropriate for the story. Braden is a wonderful hero and is truly the shining star of this book.

This book is part of a series, but it could easily be read as a standalone title with no confusion to the reader. I was also excited to learn that Chanse’s story will be next and is scheduled to publish next spring!!

Deirdre’s True Desire by Heather McCorkle

On By TracyIn American Historical, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

Deirdre's True Desire (Emerald Belles, #3)Deirdre’s True Desire by Heather McCorkle

Series: Emerald Belles, #3

Release Date: November 7, 2017

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Deirdre and Sadie arrive in California eager to reunite with fellow widow Cat (Courting the Corporal) and begin building the winery they envisioned.

However the news is not good, Ainsworth, a local landowner wants the widows lands and has already tried to stop Cat from arriving in time to claim their land. Upon failing to kill Cat, Ainsworth employs other means to steal their land. If they do not have houses on all three lots by Spring, they will have to forfeit their claims. Ainsworth convinces everyone to refuse to sell the widows lumber and will not let them cross his land to bring any in. Desperate the widows must come up with another plan to get lumber and keep their land.

Deirdre comes up with a plan, under the guise of planning a wedding for Cat and Rick, she means to lull Ainsworth into a sense of ease, all while they sneak lumber right under his nose and begin to build their houses.

To make things more interesting, Deirdre meets two men, both to whom she is attracted, but she is not sure either is what she is looking for in a husband. After the fiasco of her first marriage, she is firm in what she is looking for in a man, she wants nothing to do with a man with ties to high society, she would prefer a working man, someone who would accept her as a partner and not treat her like a child that needs protecting. She is also looking for a man who is not afraid of passion, she was stifled in her first marriage and has no desire to relive that nightmare. Two men seem to have potential, Dylan the ranch hand working for Rick and Kinan the owner of the inn she is staying at. But while she finds both men attractive, only Kinan shares her interests, too bad he is so proper!

Kinan has a secret and he is sure that Deirdre will be disgusted when she learns of it, but what he doesn’t know is Deirdre has secrets of her own.

As Deirdre and Kinan work together to build her home, she becomes more attracted to him and wonders if he is really as proper as she first thought, maybe he would accept her once he knew the truth, but too much is at stake for her and her friends to risk letting him know.

When Dylan makes his interest known, Deirdre has to admit that she has feelings for Kinan and tries to discourage Dylan’s attentions. During Cat’s engagement ball, after dancing with Kinan and getting a surprise proposal from Ainsworth, Deirdre escapes the ball to get some air and in doing so learns Kinan’s secret. Instead of being disgusted, Deirdre is relieved, because she knows now that Kinan can be trusted with her secret. When he finds her, she shares the truth with him and it seems that these two are well on their way to a HEA.

But before they can act on their feelings, Dylan arrives with the terrible news – the widow’s houses are all afire. By the time they arrive, Deirdre’s house is almost gone and to make matters worse, Dylan is injured fighting the fire. Deirdre is heartbroken, with winter setting in, there is no way to get more lumber and it seems that her dreams will be shattered.

But help comes from a surprising source and again Kinan shows Deirdre that he will do anything to support her dreams and things between them progress. But their budding relationship will be tested again when Dylan heals and confronts Deirdre. That confrontation leads to a final confrontation with Ainsworth and Dylan’s secrets will be revealed.

I thought the story was well written, but I would not recommend reading this book without having read Courting the Corporal first, I also had mixed feelings about Deirdre, I have nothing against a strong, independent woman, but for most of the book Deirdre came across as indecisive and wanton – she is practically drooling over the men and seems more like a cat in heat than the modern no-nonsense woman she claims to be. I would also agree with another reviewer who said that the graphic love scene came out of nowhere – because while I have no problem with a graphic love scene, there was no real build up to it – they don’t even kiss until well past the 3/4 point of the book and then BAM! they are having sex. The scene was well done, but the timing didn’t seem right. I also found the final confrontation with Ainsworth completely anti-climatic. But many of the lingering questions I had at the end of Courting the Corporal were answered in this book and I loved the relationship between Deirdre, Sadie and Cat.

I really enjoyed the book and having read the previous book I was thrilled to see Cat, Rick and Sadie again and very happy to see Ainsworth get his comeuppance – I would happily recommend this book but would highly recommend reading at least Courting the Corporal before starting this book.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an ARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher*