Nadine Crenshaw’s SPELLBOUND – A Great Medieval from a Great Author… a Keeper!

Crenshaw weaves a story that will keep you reading late into the night. She is a master storyteller and takes care with historical detail and descriptions of places. This story is set in 12th century England during Henry II’s reign. He was married to the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine and both are featured characters in the story at the time when Henry was still a young king.

 

Norah of Ramsay, a girl of 15, has been betrothed to the neighboring lord, Jervais Le Strand, Earl of Conniebrook, since she was a young child though she has never met him. Jervais has become a knight and a friend of King Henry. Somewhere in his battles in the Holy Land, he fell in love with Eleanor when she was married to the King of France. Though their relationship could never be consummated, Jervais harbors love for Eleanor in his heart. All other women are just bedmates to him.

 

When she is 15, Norah's dying father decides to give her to the church as penance. So Norah ends up in a cloister that is more like a prison. Her only dream had been to marry Jervais and she hates the cloistered life. Norah is special, one of those people uniquely gifted with extra sensory powers. She sees visions of things to come, shadows of the future. On the day she is to take her vows, her 16th birthday, she plans to escape over the wall having seen it in a vision. Meanwhile, Jervais wants her lands and is angry that her father would thwart his plans to use the Ramsey wealth to fortify his castle. So, he breaks into the convent to steal his bride and captures her as she is running away. When she realizes who it is, she gladly marries him and soon falls in love with the handsome knight. But he sees her only as a mission accomplished; he doesn't even remember her eye color.

 

When his squire tells Norah that Jervais is in love with another, very beautiful woman, Norah (who sees herself as plain) flees. Then the story gets even more interesting. With the help of a witch, Norah takes on another life, a disguise--one of amazing beauty.

I highly recommend this one. I think Nadine Crenshaw was one of the early great romance authors and deserves to be on your keeper shelf.

 

Nadine Crenshaw’s FIELDS OF THE SUN: Simply Superb Storytelling!

I love the way Nadine Crenshaw breaks rules as she tells a great story. For example, in this one, set in 17^th century England, Morocco, the Atlantic Ocean and Brazil, the hero and heroine don’t meet until page 184! And I was perfectly OK with that, as I could not stop reading this fascinating tale.

 

Both Lady Katherine Heartfield and Sheffield Denton seek adventure and each makes unusual, rebellious decisions that eventually lead them to be captured by pirates and brought to Morocco to serve a harsh master. Katherine arrives 5 years after Shef. First, she was escaping an arranged marriage in Cornwall and then, in London, Cromwell’s men where she cut her hair and disguised herself as a young highborn lad. It is as a boy she is taken from the pirate ship when it arrives in Morocco. Little does Kate know that the Arab master likes pretty boys. But Shef has a plan to escape.

 

Kate has a wonderfully clever habit of writing letters in her mind to her best friend in Cornwall, Henrietta. These “letters” add a delightful touch to the story as Kate tells Henrietta all she is feeling.

 

This novel published in 1997 was the last of Crenshaw’s historicals (see list below). Like all of them, they deliver interesting, well-written romances that don’t disappoint. I recommend all of them.

 

Her other historicals:

 

Mountain Mistress

Captive Melody

Edin’s Embrace

Spellbound

Destiny And Desire

The Highwayman

Viking Gold

 

 

Review: Nadine Crenshaw’s MOUNTAIN MISTRESS – A Keeper! Western Romance that Captivates

If you have not discovered Nadine Crenshaw, allow me to introduce you to a consistently 5-Star author of great historical romance. Alas, you may have to buy her books used in paper (as I did) or get them from the library, but you will not regret it. Every one she wrote is in my keeper bookcase. I so wish they would bring her books out in digital format.

Mountain Mistress was her first book and it won the Golden Heart Award in 1987. I can see why. You WILL NOT regret buying this one, I promise! The hero, Cougar, and the heroine, Flame, are on my Favorite Heroes & Heroines list I will publish the end of the month.

This romance is one all consuming, passionate story of the relationship between a Scottish born mountain man the Indians call "Waiting Cougar" who takes an unwilling "winter squaw"—bought with beaver pelts from the Blackfeet Indians who captured her in a raid. Innocent young Victorine Wellesley was raised in Philadelphia in the parlor rooms of elegant homes only to be forced to leave when her father died and her foolish brother took her west. Almost raped by the Blackfeet Indians who killed her brother and his wife, she is "rescued" by Cougar and forced to travel with him high into the Bitterroot Mountains to warm his bed of furs for the winter. She does not know one of Cougar’s Indian friends, a Medicine Man, predicted this was to be his woman. Cougar calls her Flame and tells her she is his “wife” but she knows better. She is not a real wife; she is only a "mountain mistress."

Victorine, who Cougar names "Flame," feels her identity slipping away as she begins to dress like a squaw, her beautiful fair skin turns brown from the sun and she falls victim to the passion he draws from her at his will. You will be inspired as her courage rises to every challenge and there are many in the wild mountains: bears, hostile Indians and evil trappers.

And there is a surprise at the end!

As she has with all her subsequent romances, Crenshaw draws you into her story and into Victorine's mind. You can literally feel the anger and frustration rise in you as your sympathy for Victorine grows with each day of the long journey into the mountains. She wants her freedom but she cannot resist the man who has led her into this life. Since she knows nothing of surviving in a wilderness, she is well and truly trapped.

It is hard to believe this was Crenshaw's first novel as it competes well with anything out there today. Her writing is superb. Her story captivates—it’s a real page-turner. She presents accurately the essence of the era (19th century American frontier), even the nuances in speech. She has the place names, history and Indian culture (Blackfeet and Salish) just right. In fact, she has it ALL just right.

It is such a good book!! I highly recommend it.

On Thrift Books
On Amazon

Her other books:

 

CAPTIVE MELODY (1988) – 19^th century American West

EDIN’S EMBRACE (1989) - Viking

SPELLBOUND (1990) – 12^th century England

DESTINY AND DESIRE (1992) – San Francisco 1915

THE HIGHWAYMAN (1993) – 18^th century England

VIKING GOLD (1995) - Viking

FIELDS OF THE SUN (1997) – 17^th century England, Morocco and Brazil