The Truelove Bride by Shana Abe

[meganbmoore]

A hundred years ago, a fae assaulted and murdered the wife of the lord of Kincardine, and in his grief, he made a deal with the devil for revenge.  The devil, however, didn't need any extra souls at the time, so instead of taking that, he cursed the clan with the typical poverty and loss of children and such for a hundred years, until the bride-a warrior woman with silver hair and violet eyes-returned to the clan.  Hanoch Kincardine, the last lord of the clan, recognized that Avalon(ignore the name, ok?) was the bride as a child, and when her father's keep was attacked by picts when she was seven, he rescued her and raised her among his holdings, training her to be the warrior bride of legend, having already betrothed her to his son, Marcus, before her father's death.

Avalon, however, despised his harsh upbringing and the legend that ruled her life, and was happy to escape when her cousin, Bryce, learned of her survival and summoned her back to England.  Five years later, Avalon believes she's found an escape from all the men who keep yanking her around, but just as she's about to do so, she learns that Bryce has arranged to wed her to his brother.  However Marcus, newly returned from the crusades, is warned, and is having none of that.

A lot of the plot follows the standard medieval romance tropes-childhood betrothal but never met, abduction after planned wedding to someone else, alpha male scarred(physically and emotionally) by the crusades, etc.-but works better for me than a lot of the others.  I think largely because, while most of these romances set up the heroine to have problems but in the end, just have them be "rescued" by the hero, and the make the entire story about his angst and issues, TTL remains primarily Avalon's struggles and her attempts to have some control over her life.  Marcus has his angst, and it's dealt with, but the story is mostly Avalon's story.  

I love heroines who are struggling their hardest in the only way they know how against a world that just wants them to lie down and take it and be trampled on and let the men be in charge.  It's part of my love for Ever After, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator(note that in all of these, everyone would have been better off if they'd all just shut up and let her be in charge) A Song of Ice and Fire(wait...how much bloodshed would have been avoided if the men had shut up and listened to Cat, again?) and, frankly, dozens of heroines most people dismiss out of hand that I don't feel like listing off one by one(though not all, of course, are ones where everyone should have shut up and let her be in charge.)  It's part of why I've loved every sageuk I've seen so very much.  And actually, I've been lucky enough to encounter a fair number of them lately.  But in the process, I've noticed something:  these women never really get to choose their own lives or get the freedom or control over their lives that they crave.  Usually, they end up having to accept the lesser of two evils, the better of two bad choices.  If they do get what they want, it's at enormous cost, typically a greater cost than what they've gained.  At best, they're like Danielle, who gains love and the freedom she wants, but is never really understood or completely appreciated.  Henry loves her enough to make her happy, but he'll never really GET her.

This is the case with TTL.  Marcus loves Avalon, and will do everything he can to make her happy, but I never felt like he understood-or, honestly, really tried to understand-her problems or her desires.  That said, as far as alpha males in romances go, he's not nearly as bad as most others, and there actually is some progress on that front throughout the book.  The decisions, at least, are Avalon's in the end, it's just that she was given a choice between two things she actively disliked, and then plot machinations made one a "good" choice for her in the end.  All in all, though, I liked the book.

Does anyone have any other Shana Abe recs?