A Promise of Love

Rating:
Summary: These characters stay with you after you finish the book
Review: By the second page of A Promise to Love, I was hooked. Judith is such a well-drawn character that you feel as though you would like to know her. She is not a cardboard heroine with blond hair, blue eyes, and no brain who lets the hero solve all her problems. She is strong and independent and able to meet the hero on her own terms. She is so deserving of someone to love who will love her that you find yourself rooting for her. You actually like these characters and they stay with you after you finish the novel. I read it through in one sitting--it's that good. The author obviously did research on medieval Scotland before writing this novel; it is not a cookie-cutter plot that could be dropped into any novel that you have read a hundred times before. She also avoids one of my pet peeves when reading a historical novel; the characters do not speak 20th century American English! A Promise to Love is a beautiful love story and one you will not soon forget.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling, painful, glorious
Review: I felt oddly compelled to write A Promise of Love. Judith was both the strongest character I've ever known and the most vulnerable. So, too, Alisdair.

I believe that the human spirit will always survive. Despite loss and grief and pain it flourishes. And love exists even when it's unexpected.

A Promise of Love is an unusual love story. It's a tale of two people who have lost everything only to find something better, glorious and real.

Rating:
Summary: Wow, life wasn't, isn't always easy
Review: I loved this book. If you want to really care about the characters in a realistic conflict, this book is for you. There are cruel men who abuse women, as there are in life then and now. The violence is not gratuitious; it sets the scene of a heroine worthy of empathy. Many books have characters living in war torn societies but the characters have no depth and the setting isn't more than a backdrop. This book shows better than most how the people survive and go on.

Rating:
Summary: PROMISES KEPT
Review: In this story, the reader is taken into the mind of a young woman who endures the hardships, abuse, and inequities of women of that era. We suffer with her as she experiences flashbacks, self-loathing, social stigmas, family rejection, being used as barter, being married against her will, being hunted and terrorized by a sadistic brother-in-law until even the tenderness of a loving man is difficult for her to endure.

Karen Ranney gives us a rich portrayal of the times as she also gives us a real woman, a tender man, and a promise of hope even in the face of despair. If you can find this book, get it, read it, and love it.

Rating:
Summary: PROMISES KEPT
Review: In this story, the reader is taken into the mind of a young woman who endures the hardships, abuse, and inequities of women of that era. We suffer with her as she experiences flashbacks, self-loathing, social stigmas, family rejection, being used as barter, being married against her will, being hunted and terrorized by a sadistic brother-in-law until even the tenderness of a loving man is difficult for her to endure.

Karen Ranney gives us a rich portrayal of the times as she also gives us a real woman, a tender man, and a promise of hope even in the face of despair. If you can find this book, get it, read it, and love it.

Rating:
Summary: Wow, life wasn't, isn't always easy
Review: It is true there are some very graphic depictions of violence. If you can make it through these events you will find a book with a very strong heroine in a time when women were not valued for their strength. The story of Judith and Alisdair takes place in Scottland during a very violent and cruel time. Ms. Ranney knows her history and that man can be very cruel. Above all Ms. Ranney knows that if we fight hard enough and don't give up we can all have a second chance. That if we have the strength, courage and compassion anything is possible. Judith and Alisdair are thrown together. Both are battling demonds within themselves and demonds let loose among the rugged highlands. Both with courage and finally love build a new life and future together. Although disturbing at times the book is well worth reading. I, infact could not put it down. Not often do you come across a book that stands out from the hundreds of books written that all so predictable with the predictable heroes, heroines and plots. The characters are will developed, the plot holds your attention and although we know there will be a happy ending, the story is plausible and it is not like all of a sudden the heroine loves the hero just because there are only 100 pages left and the story needs to be wrapped up. I hope I conveyed that I really liked this book. It disturbed me at times, it made me laugh then cry a chapter later. At the end I gave out a sigh happy to know life a Tynan went on with a bright future full of love and happiness.

Rating:
Summary: worth more than 3 stars
Review: It is true there are some very graphic depictions of violence. If you can make it through these events you will find a book with a very strong heroine in a time when women were not valued for their strength. The story of Judith and Alisdair takes place in Scottland during a very violent and cruel time. Ms. Ranney knows her history and that man can be very cruel. Above all Ms. Ranney knows that if we fight hard enough and don't give up we can all have a second chance. That if we have the strength, courage and compassion anything is possible. Judith and Alisdair are thrown together. Both are battling demonds within themselves and demonds let loose among the rugged highlands. Both with courage and finally love build a new life and future together. Although disturbing at times the book is well worth reading. I, infact could not put it down. Not often do you come across a book that stands out from the hundreds of books written that all so predictable with the predictable heroes, heroines and plots. The characters are will developed, the plot holds your attention and although we know there will be a happy ending, the story is plausible and it is not like all of a sudden the heroine loves the hero just because there are only 100 pages left and the story needs to be wrapped up. I hope I conveyed that I really liked this book. It disturbed me at times, it made me laugh then cry a chapter later. At the end I gave out a sigh happy to know life a Tynan went on with a bright future full of love and happiness.

Rating:
Summary: Typical yet stereotypical romance
Review: Karen Ranney fans will be a tad disappointed by this novel since it seems it was written early in her career and has a stereotypical storyline.
Judith is a young English widow with two marriages under her belt. He first husband was not much to speak of and her second was so sadistic that he shared her brutally with his brother and did unmentionable acts to her body and soul. She has come home to her father yet again because her second husband has died and she has no where else to turn to. Her father is sickened by her and "sells" her to an old Scots so she will no longer be a burden to him and her family.
Judith has been so abused that she no longer cares where and what happens to her. She finds herself married by proxy to Alistair a Scottish lord who at first is disgusted be what has happened and by her. Soon things change though when Alistair finds out about the abuse she suffered and how strong she really is.
Judith learns to trust her new husband and the trust turns into full blown passion and love. Thinking she is finally safe in her new home, things turn yet again when Bennet, her brother in law arrives as part of the English army and still wants to play the sadistic games with Judith.
The love scenes between Judith and Alisdair are steamy but the overall story is a bit dull. The reader feels for the character of Judith but Ranney doesn't give much insight rather then just tell rather than showing.
This story isn't Ranney's best and doesn't show her present day ability as she writes now. Skip this one and stick with her present day titles.

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Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: This is my 3rd book by Karen Ranney and I am in awe of this woman's talent! Her characters are so real, not fantasy, happily ever after perfect human beings especially in this story. She doesn't pull any punches and if you are a bit squeamish, the graphic details of the horrific abuses of the heroine and others may be a bit too realistic for you. War is brutal enough, and the atrocities that follow are brutal. The time after the battle of Culloden was one of deprivation and hardship for the inhabitants of the Highlands.

The central character, Judith, is a twice widowed woman who has never seen much kindness or love in her life - not even from her own family. She harbors her emotions like a shield that if let down would probably render a weaker person insane - but great strength and fortitude are traits which have kept her alive up to this point. The beginning story finds her returning home for sancturary, only to have her father barter her away the very next day along with 100 head of sheep to be taken to Scotland.

Upon arriving at the burned out castle of the widower, Scottish laird Alisdair MacLeod, the wily Scotsman Malcom, Judith's escort, with a very quick pronouncement in front of a witness had her wed her almost immediately to his Laird. Interesting bit of Scottish lore how this was done!

Now you have two furious people, having never laid eyes on one another, all of a sudden married! Alisdair was none to happy and neither was Judith but as the characters are drawn out you will experience the magic of love as Alisdair and Judith find that their love and trust can help them to lay to rest their pasts and build on a new future.

This is a wonderful period piece, and if you are not offended by the historical atrocities of the period, you won't be sorry if you pick this up! Outstanding!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: This is my 3rd book by Karen Ranney and I am in awe of this woman's talent! Her characters are so real, not fantasy, happily ever after perfect human beings especially in this story. She doesn't pull any punches and if you are a bit squeamish, the graphic details of the horrific abuses of the heroine and others may be a bit too realistic for you. War is brutal enough, and the atrocities that follow are brutal. The time after the battle of Culloden was one of deprivation and hardship for the inhabitants of the Highlands.

The central character, Judith, is a twice widowed woman who has never seen much kindness or love in her life - not even from her own family. She harbors her emotions like a shield that if let down would probably render a weaker person insane - but great strength and fortitude are traits which have kept her alive up to this point. The beginning story finds her returning home for sancturary, only to have her father barter her away the very next day along with 100 head of sheep to be taken to Scotland.

Upon arriving at the burned out castle of the widower, Scottish laird Alisdair MacLeod, the wily Scotsman Malcom, Judith's escort, with a very quick pronouncement in front of a witness had her wed her almost immediately to his Laird. Interesting bit of Scottish lore how this was done!

Now you have two furious people, having never laid eyes on one another, all of a sudden married! Alisdair was none to happy and neither was Judith but as the characters are drawn out you will experience the magic of love as Alisdair and Judith find that their love and trust can help them to lay to rest their pasts and build on a new future.

This is a wonderful period piece, and if you are not offended by the historical atrocities of the period, you won't be sorry if you pick this up! Outstanding!