Book Review: The Warrior

The Warrior by Kinley MacGregor

The Warrior by Kinley MacGregor (the pen name for Sherrilyn Kenyon) is a historical romance novel set in Scotland during the Christian Crusades.  This book is part of her Brotherhood of the Sword series and also her MacAllister series.  This book follows Taming the Scotsman in this series.

The Warrior follows Laird Lochlan MacAllister and Catarina.  Lochlan embarks on a quest to find the truth about his younger brother Kierian.  There are mysteries surrounding the disappearance of this younger brother.  Catarina wants to be free but as the illegitimate daughter of the king of France she's used as a pawn to strengthen to alliances.  On his quest, Lochlan runs into Catarina and vows to help her reunite with her uncle, but he can't help be feel attracted to the free spirit.

So I have to be honest.  I read this book way back in February of 2014 and I'm now finally getting to the review.  I know I'm a slacker.  But I have to be honest.  I don't remember a lot of details about this book.  Compared to the other Kinley MacGregor books that I have read, this one didn't hold the same level of magic that I felt the other ones from this series did.  While I did enjoy the book and the relationship development between Lochlan and Catarina this book just didn't stick with me.  But this was a good book to read in between heavier content books and a great summer romance read.  The one thing that I do love about this authors writing though is that she has a great ability to draw you in and feel for the characters.  Lochlan feels a massive amount of guilt over the death of his younger brother where as Catarina has been running from her father since she was old enough to marry.  MacGregor weaves a tale that intertwines Lochlan and Catarina's story together while also adding some loose ends with the mystery or his younger brother.  As I said, while the story was enjoyable I felt that it didn't have nearly as much of a punch as some of her other stories in the MacAllistar series.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5

On Deck:

I'm not doing an on deck until I catch up reviews.

Book Review: Return of the Warrior

Return of the Warrior by Kinley MacGregor

Return of the Warrior by Kinley MacGregor is a historical romance novel.  As I've mentioned before MacGregor is actually Sherrilyn Kenyon's pseudonym.  All of the books written under Kenyon's pseudonym is of a historical romance nature.  As you know I'm a sucker for historical romance so of course I had to read this book.  Return of the Warrior is a part of the Brotherhood of the Sword series where a lot of the characters reoccur in the books, either by written presents or by name.  Even though this book is a part of the series, you do not need to read them in order.  You wont get lost because MacGregor is really good about making the book about the two main characters.

So while there are a huge amount of different characters the two main characters are Queen Adara of Taagaria and Christian of Acre.  Both knew each other in their childhood and were married at a young age.  Through deceit and jealousy, Christian's family started to go after each other and leaving him the only soul survivor for his crown.  After the death of Adara's family she is the only one left to her thrown.  The shady protagonist Selwyn is after her crown and lands and was the advisor to Christian's grandfather wants the power.  He tries to claim that Christian is dead but in reality is that he is alive and well.  Adara not convinced that her husband is dead goes in search of him.  They finally meet up, but Selwyn is after Christian to kill him.  During the time it takes them to go back Christian is fighting his feelings for Adara afraid of falling in love.

This book had so many details and action through out the book that kept me interesting.  The whole journey back they are constantly getting attacked by Selwyn's men trying to kill Christian but there is also a huge conflict with the relationship with Adara.  Because of Christian's parents murder, he is afraid of letting Adara in his heart.  Kinley MacGregor did a wonderful job with balancing all of the conflicts that were happening in the story.

Almost all of MacGregor/Kenyon's books have the same theme where at least one (sometimes both) main characters has had a hard life and gets redemption.  In this story it's about Christian's redemption.  Even though the story was written in third person point of view it's written so well that you understand what is going on with the characters.

I really enjoyed this book and it was a really quick read and it was fun and exciting to read.  I would recommend this book for anyone who loves reading any kind of romance and historical romance.  There are descriptive love making scenes but they aren't vulgar in my opinion.  There is definitely plenty of action in this book if you aren't a huge fan of just straight romance.

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Rating:
4.5 out of 5

On Deck:
Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty
Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Secrets VOL. 3 - Anthology (various authors)
Bubble's A Broad by Sarah Strohmeyer
Grand Avenue by Joy Fielding