Her Warrior Slave
by Michelle Willingham
An emotional Medieval Irish romance: nice twist on the classic
Tristan-Iseult tale
Publisher:
Harlequin Historical
(November 2008)
Iseult MacFergus can't help but notice the bruised but ever so handsome
body of the new slave. Engaged to the Irish chieftain Davin O Falvey,
her heart feels dead, unable to love. Davin is kind and generous but
something is missing in her heart. Has her past made her incapable of
feeling love? When Davin assigns Keiran a work task that forces Iseult
and Keiran in close proximity, Iseult is determined to have nothing to
do with this man and yet his sense of honor and inner nobility
challenges her. His ability to work wood shows that he has the heart of
an artist as well as the spirit of a warrior. Will he see within her
and capture her spirit? Can Keiran bring her the one thing no one else
can? Can Iseult heal this warrior's hurt, an inner wound that enslaves
him more than his captivity?
Michelle Willingham's Irish medieval romance HER WARRIOR SLAVE grabs and does
not let go. The initial conflict between Keiran and Iseult is
punctuated with vivid emotion and dialog as the simplest words and
gestures both set up an opposition and also pull the hero and heroine
together. As Davin reacts to Keiran and Iseult, the reader feels the
growing tension and suspense, wondering how Keiran and Iseult can ever
manage to break through their stations, duties and the past to get
together. The portrait of Keiran sculpting is superb --- suspenseful
and emotional while also showing the depth of the hero and heroine. The
relationship between Davin and Iseult is one of the highlights of this
romance. The reader feels both his adoration of Iseult and his
inability to connect to her deepest desires. Too often authors, romance
has a a tendency to make a character like Davin a truly bad guy through
and through just to make the relationship between Iseult and Keiran
"right". What I truly loved about this romance is how Michelle
Willingham did not succumb to that black and white character portrayal
but instead shows Davin's strengths and weaknesses, his goodness and
his weaknesses. Michelle Willingham avoids the tendency to go for the
flashy, dramatic resolution and in doing so, she creates a more gentle
romance, a romance of emotional depth that endears the reader to her
characters from start to finish. For this reader, Davin's character was
one of the highlights of HER WARRIOR
SLAVE that made it shine beyond the interactions between the
main characters.
In emotional tone, HER WARRIOR SLAVE
comes closest to the author's previous book, HER WARRIOR KING. The past wounds
of the hero and heroine motivate them, drawing them together on a
deeper level as they understand one another's deepest longings. HER WARRIOR SLAVE is a prelude to
her previous three books that tells the legendary beginning of the Mac
Egan brothers and what a fascinating, emotional link it is! Michelle
Willingham has a gift for showing readers the wounded soul that lies
beneath her characters and especially in her tough warrior heroes. She
also has a knack for creating secondary characters whose stories I want
to hear! Here most definitely, Orin needs a tale of his own but there
were several other characters too whom I would enjoy seeing again. Of
all her books, the plot of this one had me really anxious to see the
outcome of the romance and what would happen and how and to discover
the surprises awaiting.
This reader has read about hostages, slaves and fostering quite often
in medieval texts written during the period. It just goes without
saying that these things exist in medieval texts so much so that often
a reader glosses over them. Michelle Willingham made several of these
concepts more than just words, more real in a personal way with her
insights into the characters. Medieval lovers will relish the author's
twist on the classic medieval tragic Tristan-Iseult tales as Michelle
Willingham brings motherhood into the dynamics of love as a vital core
to the dynamic between the characters and turns tragedy into romance.
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