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its_tara's review
4.0
While her sisters are tall and beautiful, Celestia Montehue is the misfit in a royal family—petite, with one green and one blue eye. The only thing she has in common with her ancestors is her magical healing ability. Fearing no one will ever accept her, she vows never to marry. Meanwhile, Nicholas Le Blanc, a haunted man, was trained as a knight but his childhood has convinced him he is a bastard. He is captured while on crusade and eventually forced to kill for his freedom. An arranged marriage between the two does not bode happiness, nor does Celestia's new home—a broken-down keep haunted by the ghost of Nicholas' mother. Soon a curse is set upon them, and they must decide if their love will save them or, ultimately, doom them.
Review: I picked this one up as another freebie for my kindle, mainly due, I admit, to lack of funds. That said, it’s a fantasy book, with a good love story, which sort of makes it like chick-lit, and therefore it sounded right up my alley.
The main characters are Celestia and Nicholas, who are a somewhat stubborn pair, mismatched and married by someone else’s bidding. Celestia is a healer, whose magical powers are cursed to be gone if she ever enters a loveless marriage. Nicholas is the son of the Baron Peregrine, one of the villains of the story, and is a trained Knight who has been away crusading, and whose scars are not only skin deep.
At first, I have to admit, there were a few things about Celestia that annoyed me. One was the way that she is constantly described as an amazing person as if to make the reader like her. It just didn’t need repeating as much as it was, and neither did her tendency to point her chin in the air when making a point. That said, the same could be said about Nicholas’ self pitying and pain. This all said, I have to admit that by the end, I liked both of them, and wanted that happy ending for them, which was definitely delivered!
And yet, the story itself kept me reading. It moves along at quite a nice pace, and there are plenty of events to keep the reader busy, even if some of the events aren’t so well explained until later.
Plus, we all know I’m a sucker for a good love story. I enjoyed the courting between the two main characters, even though I know it would have annoyed some people – the soppy, sentimental part of me found it endearing and sweet, and I was so happy when they finally ‘got together’ at the end. Yes, whilst I haven’t flagged this up as inappropriate for younger readers, there’s a certain chunk at the end they probably shouldn’t read!
So yes, for a kindle freebie this was actually a good read, and I’ve noticed that Hall has released more books set around the Montehue family, which I will be picking up at a later date!
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