Author Spotlight Review: Castles by Julie Garwood.

Rowena’s review of Castles by Julie Garwood.

Hero: Sir Colin Hallbrook
Heroine: Princess Alesandra

Orpahned and besieged, Princess Alesandra knew that only hasty marriage to an Englishman could protect her from the turmoil in her own land. To the amusement of her makeshift guardian, Colin, younger brother of the Marquess of Cainewood, the bold raven-haired beauty instantly captivated London society. But when Alesandra was nearly abducted by her unscrupulous countrymen, the fighting instincts that won Colin a knighthood for valor were kindled.

Deceiving himself that he wanted only to protect her, Colin swept her into a union meant to be a marriage in name alone…yet Alesandra’s tender first kiss and hesitant caress ignited a wildfire in his soul. As the lovely princess dashed headlong into unforseen dangers, Colin would follow, knowing he must claim her as his own forever. Now he would risk life itself before he would lose this sweet, tempestuous angel…

Wow. Re-reading this book brought back so many memories of when I used to post over at the JGBB back when it was on the S&S website. I can’t seem to find it now but whatever, the memories stayed with me. Reading this book took me back when I studied this book so that I could compete to win him as my man over at the JGBB. I WON! I remember doing my online happy dance with Isabel and Grace. Goodness, those were the days.

I had forgotten how much I loved this book. To be honest, I had forgotten how much I loved Julie Garwood books. It was these books that I broke my romance novel reading teeth on and I spent a good part of my day at work, trying not to laugh out loud at what was going on in the book that I was reading. There was so much good in this book that I shot an email to Holly and Casee, asking them why on earth I waited so long to re-read this book.

I loved it!

If you haven’t read this book then you seriously have to fix that because this book was such a good romantic story. Colin was a fantastic hero and Alesandra was the perfect heroine for him. They complimented each other so well and Garwood did a fantastic job of making the chemistry between Colin and Alesandra leap off the pages. Every scene that these two were in had me either laughing my tail off or grinning like a fool or misty eyed because the amount of love that they had for the each other was just too adorable.

There wasn’t much to find fault with this book but there were some things that could have been better that would have made this book a solid A read for me like the whole thing with the General seemed to be resolved much to quickly for me. I mean, he spends most of the beginning part of the book trying to kidnap her and Raymond got hurt while trying to protect her from him and yet as soon as Colin and Alesandra were married, he like fell off the face of the earth. But to be honest, even though that storyline fell of the radar, I still rather enjoyed this book. A lot.

Colin was a fantastic hero and the arguments that him and Alesandra kept me laughing throughout the entire book. They went back and forth in most every single scene that they were in together and their interactions were just too entertaining, I loved it! I adored Colin’s arrogance, the protective way he protected Alesandra and goodness, the way he loved her? Steamy! I loved it!

Alesandra was a great heroine as well. The way she wasn’t snobby considering she was a frickin princess endeared her to me. She was smart, capable and very caring. The loyalty she showed to her friend Victoria was admirable and I just really loved getting to know both Colin and Alesandra. They were wonderful characters.

It was great to see more of Caine and Nathan. I want to reread their stories now that I’ve read this one. I loved Caine’s book back in the day but I only liked Nathan’s story. Rereading this book has made me want to see if I’d feel differently about Nathan’s book. I loved seeing Caine and Colin’s family as well from their Mom and Dad to their sisters. They’re such a great family that it was great to see the little glimpses that we got in this story.

One of my favorite scenes was a scene where Alessandra and Colin go over to Colin’s parents house, Colin’s parents are Alesandra’s guardians and they go over there to find out what to do about Alesandra since she has to find a husband to marry to get the General from marrying her and getting his hands on her inheritance and her country. Alesandra needs to get married and has a list (of which she’s famous for, haha) of potential husbands and Colin was at the top of the list until he took himself off but when it came time to pick a husband for Alesandra, Colin wasn’t happy with any of the choices so he made the sacrifice and married her, himself.

In this scene, Colin and Alesandra have been married for a little bit now and they’re at the point in their relationship where they know one another pretty well now. When we first meet Colin, in the previous books in this series, we meet and know him as Dolphin, Nathan’s partner who got a chunk of his leg bitten off by a shark. It’s been a sore subject for Colin but when this scene came up, I couldn’t stop laughing.

She looked surprised by his question. “You have a limp… at night, when you’re tired, you do tend to limp a little. Colin, you are aware you favor your right leg, aren’t you?”

He almost laughed. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“Do you agree you’re a fairly intelligent man?”

She was turning his words back on him. He held his frown. “Yes.”

“Then why didn’t you try to reason why you were limping?”

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “A shark took a bite out of my leg. Call me daft, Alesandra, but I assumed that was the reason I limped.”

There are plenty more quotes like the one posted that pepper themselves throughout this book and it’s one of the books that I absolutely love by Garwood. She wrote a really great love story with this one and I can’t recommend this book enough. If you’re in the mood for a witty historical novel then this is the book for you.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

This book is available from Pocket. You can buy it here or here.

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