Her Warrior Slave

[ASIN:0373295227 Her Warrior Slave (Harlequin Historical Series)] by Michelle Willingham was a very enjoyable read.

I'm always wary when I get a romance book. Far too often they women are weak or the strength they have is beaten down until they are rescued. Iseult our main female character in this story does not need to be rescued by anyone but herself and her odd attraction to a warrior turned slave in her betrothed clan holdings stirs her to think about something beyond a marriage of convenience and her lost son. Thinking beyond doesn't mean she gives up on her son and even though betrayals abound in this story, this warrior slave is not a one of the betrayers. There is some sexual descriptions here and again they have the "woman as sub" quality to them but it isn't consistent. I'm still looking for solid romance that is either female dominant without needing to change or one of equality -- if you have one, send it my way. Something I didn't like about the story is that the point of view changed a bit too much with minor character's viewpoints tossed end from time to time. I would have preferred the focus remain on Iseult and Kieran.

Iseult MacFergus can't help but notice the bruised but ever so handsome body of the new slave. Engaged to the Irish chieftain Davin O Falvey, her heart feels dead, unable to love. Davin is kind and generous but something is missing in her heart. Has her past made her incapable of feeling love? When Davin assigns Keiran a work task that forces Iseult and Keiran in close proximity, Iseult is determined to have nothing to do with this man and yet his sense of honor and inner nobility challenges her. His ability to work wood shows that he has the heart of an artist as well as the spirit of a warrior. Will he see within her and capture her spirit? Can Keiran bring her the one thing no one else can? Can Iseult heal this warrior's hurt, an inner wound that enslaves him more than his captivity? Michelle Willingham's Irish medieval romance HER WARRIOR SLAVE grabs and does not let go. The initial conflict between Keiran and Iseult is punctuated with vivid emotion and dialog as the simplest words and gestures both set up an opposition and also pull the hero and heroine together. As Davin reacts to Keiran and Iseult, the reader feels the growing tension and suspense, wondering how Keiran and Iseult can ever manage to break through their stations, duties and the past to get together. The portrait of Keiran sculpting is superb --- suspenseful and emotional while also showing the depth of the hero and heroine. The relationship between Davin and Iseult is one of the highlights of this romance. The reader feels both his adoration of Iseult and his inability to connect to her deepest desires. Too often romance has a tendency to make a character like Davin a truly bad guy through and through just to make the relationship between Iseult and Keiran "right". What I truly loved about this romance is how Michelle Willingham did not succumb to that black and white character portrayal but instead shows Davin's strengths and weaknesses, his goodness and his weaknesses. Michelle Willingham avoids the tendency to go for the flashy, dramatic resolution and in doing so, she creates a more gentle romance, a romance of emotional depth that endears the reader to her characters from start to finish. For this reader, Davin's character was one of the highlights of HER WARRIOR SLAVE that made it shine beyond the interactions between the main characters. In emotional tone, HER WARRIOR SLAVE comes closest to the author's previous book, HER WARRIOR KING. The past wounds of the hero and heroine motivate them, drawing them together on a deeper level as they understand one another's deepest longings. HER WARRIOR SLAVE is a prelude to her previous three books that tells the legendary beginning of the Mac Egan brothers and what a fascinating, emotional link it is! Michelle Willingham has a gift for showing readers the wounded soul that lies beneath her characters and especially in her tough warrior heroes. She also has a knack for creating secondary characters whose stories I