Review – This is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland

Set near the Scottish border at a rugged castle on the edge of the sea, this is the story of a courageous lord who lost everything he held dear. Of a strong young woman willing to sacrifice everything for happiness. Two lost souls who find in each other a reason to live again, to laugh again, and to love for the first time…

I am not quite entirely sure how this book ended up on my TBR, particularly with none of the other books in the series read or an my TBR. But I suspect it somehow came to my attention after reading Candle in the Window and becoming interested in how blind protagonists are treated after reading The Arrangement.

It turns out that this is also somewhat a paranormal, and we have witches, I suspect from they way they are presented here they have been meddling along in the series and will continue to meddle. So yep, a historical paranormal with a blind hero.

Fortunately it is only a touch paranormal, the rest is just historical. We have the rough, tough cream puff hero, who protects himself due to prior emotional wounding. He also happens to be blind, and a little self-pitying. So while he will marry the heroine due to a long-standing promise and his honor, he is determined not to love her or care for her (beyond being a proper husband) or like it in any way. We have the kind, but living in fear heroine who initially fears the hero, but learns to first trust and then love, and then learns courage and her own self-worth. And then we have a cast of humorous and sympathetic characters, and of course the heroine’s father-the villain.

Man, oh, man, this book is almost painfully sweet. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just, it is so sweet, but you know the other shoe is about to drop sometime. It is also on occasion, whether intentionally or not, kind of humorous. Not like it is a comedy, but just enough to leaven the topics and make you feel happy reading it instead of entrenched in the doom and gloom of what are some pretty awful situations. And we also have a hero who is in touch with his own emotions on a level that I find delightful but that may leave readers who prefer a more traditional alpha hero feeling a little uncomfortable, YMMV.

And another thing I really enjoyed, we have no miracles here. Things are what they are, our characters have to live through and with the things that have happened to them, but separately and together they grow as individuals and find their way through and together. Which is a mishmash way of saying we have a delightful happily ever after with two characters who are more than happy to depend on one another but aren’t exactly dependent on one another, if you see what I mean. Looking at this objectively, I would probably have given this 3 stars, but , but for me this is one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and it is an emotional event that I will likely return to. However, the rest of the two series this book is entwined with seem to have a significant number of time travel books, so I doubt it will be a glommable series for me.

Review – Candle in the Window & Castles in the Air by Christina Dodd

Candle in the Window came to my attention after reading The Arrangement, which piqued my curiosity on how authors handle blind protagonists. I had a bit of trouble getting my hands on a digital copy of this book, but lo and behold, once I got logged in with my shiny new Houston Public library card, there it was!

The Arrangement

The Arrangement (The Survivors’ Club #2)
by Mary Balogh

This is the third of the seven stories of six men and one woman, all severely wounded in one way or another during the Napoleonic Wars before ending up convalescing together at the home of the Duke of Stanbrook.

It took a me a little bit to write this review because while I knew I liked it very much, I had trouble parsing precisely why I did.

The blind viscount Vincent Hunt has run away from home to escape his family’s matchmaking attempts only to land himself within the reach of a grasping family’s matrimonial schemes. So when Sophia Fry (the mouse) rescues him and thus loses her home, he decides to marry her.

I think what I liked about this book was that they were both so needy and so concerned about whether or not they could make a good spouse for the other. And there is something terribly touching about two sweet and dependent people working so very hard to shore the other up and make them less dependent. Most books you read are about how at least one of the main characters just can’t survive, thrive, or live without the other that it is nice to see ones who know very well they can, but chose love and stay together.