Fen Thane has been tossed aside by her husband, who didn't have the guts to tell her face to face, refusing to just be set aside, she carries her betrothal papers to court in an effort to force Oswald Vawdrey to champion her before the King.
Her meeting with Oswald does not go as planned and she finds her life/reality drastically altered,
Oswald uses the opportunity with Fen to untangle himself from an unwanted situation, intending to carry on his life as usual.
, but he soon finds that he wants Fen as close as possible, and is determined that no one can dispute his relationship with her.
Oswald's brother Roland irked me a little once or twice, I enjoyed seeing Mason and Linnet from book one in this,
The ending was sweet but could have been teased out a bit more,
An enjoyable reread that I'll pick up again, Deliiiiiiiciouuuss
This is Brainy Oswald book and sweet Fenella
Loved this book
And what I love best is that all this author heroine are different but with a steel forged backbone
Next one please Talk about steamy!!
This was a very good romance.
I loved the heroine so much, She never knew her own true worth, And I adored Oswald! He was a great hero and he really was good to the h, well at least most of the time.
There was a small part around theMark where he was mean to get And I just wanted to kick him in the seat of his pants but he turned himself around.
She had been married before to this jerk who divorced her for a younger woman, She found out he was going to do it and grabbed some old, broken betrothal bargain that she had with Oswald when she wasand she tore off to court to have him stop it.
It was too late and the hero ended up married to her through some wily plans of his and it was off and running.
The love scenes were very steamy I thought yet still romantic, I loved them and normally I skip over them but the urgency of his passion/lust captured my imagination and I fell in love with the hero.
I loved how he came to find her beautiful and he was very possessive and jealous, I loved the first book in this series and I loved this one, Can't wait for the next two, And this will definitely be on my reread list, Hope you enjoy it too, Fenella and Oswald were arranged to be married over a decade ago so when her husband wants a divorce to marry another, she turns to Oswald for help.
I really liked reading about Fenella and Oswald but surprisingly, I enjoyed the other parts of this book too.
I found it entertaining watching Fenella balance court life and the politics that surround it, While there were a lot of characters to remember, I found myself following each of their side stories fairly easily too.
Oswald was great, He was a little rude at times but I just couldnt help but like him, He never had any malice behind it and I loved watching him slowly adapt to behave better after Fenella came back into his life.
He always seems to be thinking about Fenella and it was the small things that made him so loveable like hanging up her portrait she gave him when she was a teen.
Also, we love a long time celibate man, Please I need more of these now!
Fenella was such a sweetheart, She was always just trying to do the right thing and make everyone happy, She was soft and kind but still very impressive with all the crap she had to put up with in the past.
Often times these types of characters can get a little annoying with their doormat behaviour but it worked with her.
She still had her own thoughts and opinions but just wanted to be a good wife and fit in and theres nothing wrong with that.
It was a little slow at times, but having listened to it rather than read it, I never really minded the slower parts.
Some slow parts I actually loved like the romance Slowburn romances are gtgt, It had low angst/drama but the parts we got were perfect, It wasnt too much but it fit well with the development of the story, I just really enjoyed reading this book and now I have to jump back to the first one! Ive heard its even better so Im very excited!
Oswald takes the prize for being a manipulative S.
O. B and getting exactly what he wants and then some, The king's spymaster is in a bit of a pickle, and in walks naive Fenella, Oswald takes advantage of her situation and her gullibility, and even her kindness, Luckily, Alice Coldbreath has a way with taking a heretofore unfeeling man and turning him into the most romantic of husbands after the nuptials are blessed.
Honestly, Coldbreath just might be the queen of "marriage of convenience" tropes,
This book is much longer than book one which I had to reread after seeing one of my favorite couples pop up in this novel, and the court intrigues are legion.
Secondary characters are heavily involved, with some extremely diverting stories themselves, Servants and courtiers alike get interesting subplots, I enjoyed every second of this long book, Character development is outstanding and the steam level is high, I especially enjoyed seeing brainy Oswald, who is usually manipulating the situation five moves ahead of everybody else, get blindsided by his own jealousy.
Love snuck up on him, and it was fun to watch, Fenella comes into her own, too, I loved how steady she is in the chaos of her life,
It should be noted this has the feel of a medieval setting, but takes place in a fictional land.
I immediately downloaded book three in the series,
Book source: purchased, I like historicals and the medieval era is a nice change from the traditional regency romances, Alice Coldbreath is becoming one of my favorite authors in this genre, Happily, this book was everything I was hoping for,
Fenella was a country girl who tried to please everyone, All that got her was a divorce from her weasel of a husband, Oswald was in dire need of a wife and Fenella just fell right into his lap,
I really liked both MCs in this book, Fenella was surprisingly fierce when it was called for, And Oswald lived the bachelor life married to his job, He has trouble adjusting to having a wife and is shocked at his reaction to her, I really enjoyed reading about Oswald's grudging fascination with his wife as she tries to find her way amidst castle politics and intrigue.
She's been married before but her husband was rarely at home and was whiney and critical, She is also learning how to act around a husband, The one place they get along fantastically is in bed,
This book had the perfect mix of romance, castle politics, insecure H/h adjusting to their new circumstances.
I did think Oswald was too cold and unfeeling towards Fenella and she was too quick to accept blame, Luckily, Oswald had his brother nearby to help him see his errors and share some blunt honesty, He grovels well.
I'm excited to continue the series and read the other medieval books written by this author,
Safety I enjoyed this book but not as much as I enjoyed the first one of this series, Call it book chemistry or whatever, but I just like Alice Coldbreath's writing, It clicks with me and once I start something by her, I have a hard time putting it down, It's lighthearted enough without making everything seem like a joke, and I appreciated her light touch when it came to certain issues.
I didn't like this H as much as the H from the first book, but the story was engaging nonetheless.
Let's start with what worked for me,
The h. Oh, she was such a dear, I wish that the author didn't make her so clueless in court politics, but she was
wonderful in the things that counted.
She was loyal, firstly to her scoundrel of a husband, her friends and relation from her first marriage, and to her dog.
I liked how she wasn't easily persuaded to transfer her allegiance to someone else it made her a much worthier heroine.
She was also a kind person, even to people I thought she should've given a kick in the rear, Somehow she managed to win over nearly everyone in her sphere of influence without appearing like a Mary Sue, She had plenty of issues: self esteem, self worth, and body issues being some of the big ones, and I liked that too.
Who likes a perfect h who's beautiful, smart, cunning, and loved by everybody Certainly not this flawed reader, Finally, she wasn't superficial and was able to see beyond someone's appearance and manners to the heart of a person.
I really liked this h a whole lot,
The slow burn romance was quite nice, The circumstances surrounding the MCs reunion was believable enough and the transformation of the austere and slightly grumpy H into a besotted idiot was pretty satisfying.
Unfortunately, the deception was a little disappointing.
Honest being the best policy and all that,
Seeing Mason and Linette, the MCs from the previous book, was lovely, I enjoyed their story immensely and seeing its continuation was an unexpected pleasure.
Now there are some reasons why I'm only giving this,stars. First, the H left much to be desired, He wasn't a bad guy, Indeed, he had been celibate for over a decade, which means he deserves a reward in my book.
He treated women with respect and once he figured out he'd hurt the h, he tried his best to make amends.
However, he was a serious jerk, While his brother, Mason, was a jerk because he didn't know any better, Oswald was purposely a jerk in order to manipulate the situation into what he wanted.
He hurt the h on purpose under the guise that "it would be better for her this way" and he never apologized for manipulating her.
He was a complex character, but I never felt like the author fleshed him out enough, Indeed, if she had maybe I would have been able to empathize with him more,
I also didn't like Roland, Seriously. What is that dude's problem It was a little bit OTT how mean he was to the h and the ending only made a small inroads in our understanding of why he was such a jerk.
Which leads me to my last point: the ending was too abrupt, There was not nearly enough for me to feel satisfied with how things ended, I wanted to see inside the MCs marital bliss, after all the misunderstandings were swept away, I guess I will just have to wait for Roland's book, Hopefully the author won't include details of how much of a manho he is, : My favourite Alice Coldbreath novel so far!! Loved, loved, loved this one!!! Did not want it to end, Also one of my favourite Hh pairings, to come.
Some more thoughts:
I just loved everything about this, The setup was a little bit longer than I expected but once Oswald and Fenella are married, I was so hooked on everything.
I loved Oswald's obsession with Fenella and his machinations behind the scenes, I loved Fenella learning the ways of the court, I loved every miscommunication.
This was a longer novel but it absolutely flew by for me, and I did not want it to end.
I wanted more Oswald being possessive and secretive, More of courtly life. In fact, I wish that there was more about Oswald's trauma making him forget he wore Fenella's key on a necklace he wore.
I think it was just explained by his trauma blocking out a lot of his past,
This is my favourite AC novel that I've read! Thank you so much, Alice Coldbreath! Almost a,
The second in the series and with a completely different kind of H from the first,
“Oswald is a slithering snake at court”
He didn't seem at all H material in bookbut here he's been transformed from super betaness into a cold and callous spycourtier, the king's confidante/manipulator.
Now our sweet, ingenuous and plump h begins as a married woman on the verge of being divorced by her pompous ass husband ofyears.
She rushes to court with a vague idea of stopping the divorce by appealing to the H her once upon a time fiancé/secret love.
Now, instead of stopping the divorce, the H eggs on the divorce because!
.