RATING:
3 Out Of 5 Stars
REVIEW:
The story opens up at the Rusty Nail Tavern with Morgan our heroine taking part in the harvest celebrations with her friends Christian and Oliver by drinking and having a good time. When in walks 3 soldiers, Sean, Roger, and Peter, of the King’s guard, which Morgan finds out through her friends are here for a funeral. When she goes get a refill of there drinks she hears one of the soldiers, Sean, saying something negative about the ale, and Morgan knowing that the bartender works hard making it challenges him to a drinking contest. She plays it off well about being hesitant by drinking it, like she is not good at holding her liquor. After a few hours Sean figures out her game, but its too late to do anything and she becomes the victor.
The next time she meets Sean is at Lady Donna’s keep where, Morgan is her bodyguard, and you find out that Sean is Lady Donna’s nephew, and that he will be staying there for awhile as they take care of their friend who past away, remaining business. During this time Morgan gets closer Sean in ways she never thought. The relationship starts of with sparring with swords, when Sean, Roger, and Peter join Morgan, Christian, and Oliver during there daily practices. After this Morgan and Sean learn a lot about each other during the days they spend together and they develop feelings for each other. When they decide to take their feelings to the next level they are interrupted and had to come down to the main hall. After they come down, there is a beautiful woman, Cassandra, with her son, Daniel, and she turns out to be Sean’s old flame. And she tells him the reason she had to get married all those years ago real quick was because she was pregnant with his child… and later tells Sean that they were married all those years ago.
After this Morgan gets heartbroken, but soon discovers that Cassandra is not the innocent she appears to be. After this discovery Morgan, Sean, Cristian, Oliver, Roger, and Peter embark on this journey to get evidence of Cassandra’s wrongdoing’s before Sean becomes another fatality in Cassandra’s scheme’s…
I really liked Morgan’s character. She is the daughter of a blacksmith and her father taught her how to fight with swords, knifes, etc. She is very clever and uses her “assets” when it will help her out of a pinch. You learn that her childhood was filled with her parents arguing a lot and that’s way Morgan never wanted to marry a man that will control her and also her reason to drink excessively. But as the story goes on Sean makes her think differently and helps her not result to drinking to make her feel better and helps her change into someone she likes better.
Morgan’s parents are great and really care about Morgan. They may have had arguments, but you learn that they really love each other and they become a big support to her when she is looking for the pieces to puzzle on Cassandra’s deceit.
Sean is a honorable gentlemen that you learn didn’t have a very good childhood either. You learn his parents always fought and that’s way he leaves at a young age to join the ranks. But he is protective of those he cares about and takes care of those who he is responsible for. He really cares for Morgan and his feelings didn’t change even with the entrance of Cassandra, though he honors the vows he thinks he made.
I really like the side characters Christian, Oliver, Roger, and Peter. They are really good friends to Morgan and Sean. And help protect her when they get into a sticky situation and they turn out to be a great support.
The reason I gave it a 3 out of 5, is because it was kind-of repetitive during the 1st couple of chapters and was really slow in the beginning. It didn’t really seem to take off until about chapter 8. And also when you discover Cassandra’s past there was something she did that I don’t like to reading about. It almost made me not want to finish the book, because I didn’t want know how much worse things she could be capable of. But luckily that was the worst. I will just say that you find out Cassandra’s character is REAL piece of work. But other then that it was a really interesting book to read. Lisa Shea did a real great job in giving all the characters there own personality and character.
Realm of Romantic Mystical Manuscripts 