Title: A Warrior’s Promise
Series: The Warrior King #3
Author: Donna Fletcher
Genre: Highlander Historical
Charlotte is as brave as any Highland warrior, but she can’t rescue her father alone. Her sweet face could convince any man to come to her aid, but fate has a funny way of complicating things. For when she is lucky enough to land at the feet of the mighty Bryce MacAlpin, Charlotte is in disguise . . . as Charles.Bryce can afford no distractions on his vital quest to restore Scotland’s true king to the throne. It is madness to instead give his help to this desperate urchin— especially after Charlotte’s secret comes to light! Now, caught between a growing passion and his dedication to the king, will Bryce turn away from love in order to fulfill his quest? Or will he discover that promising your heart is the bravest mission of all?
This book had such a wonderful start! I actually started reading three books at the same time, and I quickly put the other two to the side just so I could focus on this one because I was enjoying it so much. Unfortunately, however, about halfway through things really started to slow down for me and what had begun with such promise ended on a flat note.
Charlotte’s father was kidnapped by the king’s men and taken to the king as a conjurer. Unfortunately, Charlotte feared that once the king discovered her father was not an actual conjurer, he would imprison him, torture him, and perhaps kills him. The book begins when Charlotte (as Charles) encounters Bryce in the market as she steals food and goes to hide with him to be protected. He saves her and they make an agreement that he will help Charles find his father since he is also going in the same direction (his mission is to recover a spy who is believed imprisoned by the king).
I love romances where the heroine pretends to be a boy/man and the hero is none the wiser at first, and truly, the heroine’s disguise and what happens after the hero discovers her true identity were my favorite part of A Warrior’s Promise. This takes up a great deal of the first half of the book, and I was thinking while reading that I perhaps had found a new favorite author.
Then, unfortunately, things went downhill for me. Points to Donna Fletcher for having the hero and heroine recognize and admit their love for one another quite early on. However, this meant that the remaining conflict driving them apart for the rest of the book was the argument that the heroine would continue to try to rescue her father while the hero wanted her to stay with his family and be safe. It was immensely frustrating for me as a reader. It just kept going back and forth, around and around, over and over. And ultimately, this argument as the source of conflict from the time the heroine is revealed until the climax of the book is the reason why I must give it such a low grade. Otherwise, it would have been a wonderful story with a great romance and interesting plot/relationship development. Because of this, however, what began as a truly promising story ended as a wall-banger for me.
Grade: C+
