Helpful Score: 5
am fast becoming a true Shana Abe fan! This book was terrific, showing us a bit of everything one comes to expect in a historical romance and then some!
By the reviews, you have this awesomely beautiful Lady Avalon d'Farouce. As a child she was stolen away, for her protection, on the night that fierce Picts came down from the hills to slaughter her family. She was kept hidden away by the mad father of her betrothed. She had a terrible childhood, being groomed to become the warrior bride that would break a 100 year old curse on the clan Kincardine. But it was this grooming that made her vow never to become that bride!
Now, the notoriously fierce soldier, Marcus Kincardine, comes and in spite of her resolve not to marry she cannot ignore the attraction that is between them. He is so unlike his father, her tormentor, and she does not believe she is the legendary bride of the fable - she can't and won't believe it.
This story has wonderful magical elements to it, mysteries and latent sensuality. It all comes together beautifully - an absolutely divine read!
By the reviews, you have this awesomely beautiful Lady Avalon d'Farouce. As a child she was stolen away, for her protection, on the night that fierce Picts came down from the hills to slaughter her family. She was kept hidden away by the mad father of her betrothed. She had a terrible childhood, being groomed to become the warrior bride that would break a 100 year old curse on the clan Kincardine. But it was this grooming that made her vow never to become that bride!
Now, the notoriously fierce soldier, Marcus Kincardine, comes and in spite of her resolve not to marry she cannot ignore the attraction that is between them. He is so unlike his father, her tormentor, and she does not believe she is the legendary bride of the fable - she can't and won't believe it.
This story has wonderful magical elements to it, mysteries and latent sensuality. It all comes together beautifully - an absolutely divine read!
Helpful Score: 4
The Truelove Bride is the story of Avalon d'Farouche and Marcus Kincardine, two people whose fates are irrevocably intertwined into a fabulous lover's knot. This is a romance with magic and mystery, and the promise of a rich, satisfying adventure in love.
Lady Avalon was born with a secret, one she is desperate to hide from the rest of the world and even from herself: she has the gift of second sight, a strange power within her that can allow her to know the hearts and the minds of others.
She was also born with a burden: she represents the end of a hundred-year-old curse laid upon the Clan Kincardine, a proud but hungry people who will do anything to get her into their family. Avalon fulfills all the requirements of the warrior maiden foretold to end their curse: She has the unique beauty of her ancestress, the wife of the laird in the legend. She has the Sight. And she has the fighting skills necessary to be a true warrior.
She is the destined bride of their laird, Marcus Kincardine, who has been away on a crusade for most of Avalon's life. Betrothed since her birth, Avalon grew up with the story of the curse so deeply ingrained into her tumultuous childhood that she is desperate to escape it.
When a savage raid on her family castle killed her father, the child Avalon was rescued by the father of Marcus, Hanoch Kincardine, and then hidden away in a remote Highland village.
For seven long years she was presumed dead but secretly raised by him, yet Hanoch proved to be a brutal man. To fulfill the requirements of his family's legend he molded Avalon ruthlessly into a reflection of the warrior maiden said to end the curse.
Now grown and living in London, Avalon has no plans to marry anyone. And the last thing she intends is to hand over her life to the son of the monster who raised her. She wants nothing to do with the legend that has ruled her life up to now; despite her own gift, she despises superstition and the Kincardine curse that has manipulated her very identity.
In a sense she is a woman without a home, without any allegiances at all except to survival. When her English cousin and guardian summons her back to her childhood castle of Trayleigh, Avalon leaps at the opportunity.
But all is not what it seems at Trayleigh; Avalon finds herself in the midst of a dangerous plot to wed her to yet another man in an effort to gain her wealth. She plans her escape, but before she can act, she is kidnapped on the very night of her wedding by a new man, a stranger whose touch makes her feel strangely alive again.
This is Marcus Kincardine, back at last from his crusade in the Holy Land to claim his promised bride.
A dark knight with secrets and mysteries riddling his own past, Marcus has every intention of wedding Avalon and fulfilling his destiny with her. Yet he senses immediately that this lady is more than a prize to him, more than even a woman of vivid beauty and uncommon intelligence. She is his match.
Avalon and Marcus begin their battle of wits and willpower, each one determined to win the warbut it's going to take both of them to realize that their destiny is more than just marriage and the completion of a legend.
It is true love.
Lady Avalon was born with a secret, one she is desperate to hide from the rest of the world and even from herself: she has the gift of second sight, a strange power within her that can allow her to know the hearts and the minds of others.
She was also born with a burden: she represents the end of a hundred-year-old curse laid upon the Clan Kincardine, a proud but hungry people who will do anything to get her into their family. Avalon fulfills all the requirements of the warrior maiden foretold to end their curse: She has the unique beauty of her ancestress, the wife of the laird in the legend. She has the Sight. And she has the fighting skills necessary to be a true warrior.
She is the destined bride of their laird, Marcus Kincardine, who has been away on a crusade for most of Avalon's life. Betrothed since her birth, Avalon grew up with the story of the curse so deeply ingrained into her tumultuous childhood that she is desperate to escape it.
When a savage raid on her family castle killed her father, the child Avalon was rescued by the father of Marcus, Hanoch Kincardine, and then hidden away in a remote Highland village.
For seven long years she was presumed dead but secretly raised by him, yet Hanoch proved to be a brutal man. To fulfill the requirements of his family's legend he molded Avalon ruthlessly into a reflection of the warrior maiden said to end the curse.
Now grown and living in London, Avalon has no plans to marry anyone. And the last thing she intends is to hand over her life to the son of the monster who raised her. She wants nothing to do with the legend that has ruled her life up to now; despite her own gift, she despises superstition and the Kincardine curse that has manipulated her very identity.
In a sense she is a woman without a home, without any allegiances at all except to survival. When her English cousin and guardian summons her back to her childhood castle of Trayleigh, Avalon leaps at the opportunity.
But all is not what it seems at Trayleigh; Avalon finds herself in the midst of a dangerous plot to wed her to yet another man in an effort to gain her wealth. She plans her escape, but before she can act, she is kidnapped on the very night of her wedding by a new man, a stranger whose touch makes her feel strangely alive again.
This is Marcus Kincardine, back at last from his crusade in the Holy Land to claim his promised bride.
A dark knight with secrets and mysteries riddling his own past, Marcus has every intention of wedding Avalon and fulfilling his destiny with her. Yet he senses immediately that this lady is more than a prize to him, more than even a woman of vivid beauty and uncommon intelligence. She is his match.
Avalon and Marcus begin their battle of wits and willpower, each one determined to win the warbut it's going to take both of them to realize that their destiny is more than just marriage and the completion of a legend.
It is true love.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I think I am pretty tough at giving out 5's but this one deserves it. Shana Abe is a great writer, you don't want to miss this book and I look forward to her other books. This story has a bit of a paranormal element to it that the writer has wonderfully written into the story, I was emotionally connected to the characters and was flipping pages just as fast as I could to see what would happen next. Check it out!
Helpful Score: 1
A wonderful story of Marcus and Avalon. they must marry to break a curse of one hundred years.
Helpful Score: 1
Shana Abe is among the better romance writers. This is book is another version of the Romeo and Juliet story only with a happier ending.
