Welcome to a bonus review for you. Today is the day that Jenni Fletcher’s “The Warrior’s Bride Prize” is released and I gota say. I really enjoyed this one! I read this while holed up in bed exhausted and trying to recover so I’m really glad I got to do it with a good book.

Overall this book spans only a handful of days, but in quite a bit of detail which is different to most of the books I’ve read recently. We started off with Livia in a carriage to a fort near Hadrian’s Wall to meet her soon to be husband. Along the way when she’s fairly sure her, her daughter Julia and her main are getting close to their destination they are stopped. Eager to find out what the hold up was after hearing voices but no fighting Livia steps out and comes face to faces with the man she believes to be her future future.

I think we all wish we had that moment when we come face to face with a guy who looks so perfect you can’t help but fall in love straight away. Except I don’t believe that that really happens. I believe that attraction is possible at first sight. I know I had that with my partner when I first saw him. But surely they don’t have a full on attraction so quickly? Not enough to try and ruin their lives? Surely?

Then reading about how they struggled through fighting their attraction while she had to try not to kill her newest fiance was a struggle. For both of them. Which was actually quite amusing for me. This meant every time I laughed at their awkwardness I ended up in coughing fits that then hurt. But I’m hoping that tells you how funny I found those moments. There is obviously some emotional connections, but they had to fight their way through all their social awkwardness and mistakes they made with each other.

And of course right as they finally seemed to connect; Livia’s past comes in the way and makes it impossible for them to move forward. Only to have Livia ignore Marius’s wishes. But lucky she did, coz that made him realise how much he loved her. And in typical manly fashion he lies and pretends to hate her to get her to leave the dangerous frontier so that he can concentrate on fighting and surviving. I know if I was in her place I would be completely pissed and would struggle to accept him if he came grovelling back. So at this stage I was starting to wonder if this would be the first book in the series. Because surely it’d be one hell of a journey for Livia to forgive Marius?

Given the way the book ended I don’t think there’d be a second book. But I did finish it wishing there was more. Even if it didn’t follow Marius and Livia it could follow Scaevola. Or maybe Julia some time in the future? I dunno, but I really want to read more about these two. I loved the way Jenni wrote this story and it totally hooked me in throughout the whole time. The major thing that sucked was that I kept almost falling asleep while I wanted to read. Now that I’ve had a chance to read her writing style I look forward to reading more of her books in the future.

Now if you haven’t picked this up already, I think you should go and buy this book, take a couple of sick days (ok maybe don’t fake it…) and buy this one to read immediately! Worst comes to worst, put this on your Christmas wish list for someone to buy for you.

If you’re interested in buying this one, you can get it via the Amazon and Barnes and Noble links below as well as iBooks and WHSmith.

Author Bio

Jenni Fletcher was born on the north coast of Scotland and now lives in Yorkshire, where she writes Medieval, Roman and Victorian romance novels.

She studied English at Cambridge University before doing an MA on Women and Literature in English and a PhD on Victorian & Edwardian literature at Hull. After realising that she was better at writing than teaching, she worked in a number of administrative jobs whilst trying to finish her first book, which was rejected. Thinking there must have been some mistake, she then wrote another, which was fortunately accepted by Harlequin Mills & Boon.

Her favourite Jane Austen novel is Persuasion and her favourite Brontë is Anne. If she had to choose a romantic hero it would be John Thornton, but maybe that’s just because she’s Northern.