The Pledge

Rating:
Summary: Terrific story
Review: I read this book years ago -- I see customers now have to special order it. I love this story, one of my favorite historical romance novels (set primarily in Scotland). It is neither unique -- hard to have a unique plot in the romance fiction genre -- nor particularly complex. However, it has a wonderful hero and heroine, both strong and noble in character. The hero is not one of those who comes with lots of emotional baggage. The heroine has a warrior spirit -- there's a terrific scene where she attempts to right a wrong by challenging one of the bad guys in a fight. The story is well written, the romance and love between the two main characters believeable. It's a very enjoyable read. I wish the writer would publish more novels.

Rating:
Summary: Historically, not very good....
Review: The story itself probably was okay. However, I could not get over how historically inaccurrate it was. I tried to ignore it, but she keeps going on about King Edward Baliol. There was not a King Edward Baliol. John Baliol was put on the Scottish throne about 30 years earlier, but the Edwards of this era were Plantagnent. The king she had to have been referring to was Edward III--one of the Plantagnents. The king of Scotland was David II...and Scotland was free. England was not trying to 'unite' with it, which was part of her plot. It was its own country by then. (She had the heroine marrying a Highlander to help unite Scotland with England...) Whatever.

As for the heroine--she's a strong good character, but she pretends to have a bastard child--and I didn't see significant proof that she was being shunned. In 1330, I'm almost surprised she wasn't put into a convent or something worse. I just didn't feel like it was very logical.

Her writing style--it is good, but her research leaves something to be desired. Romance was okay.