The Beauty Bride (The Jewels of Kinfairlie Book 1)

This is a delightful book by Claire Delacroix. Her heroine is a perfect balance between independence and intelligence and the hero is a perfect gentleman with rough edges. If you like many of her other series, this one will not disappoint.

This tale of fairies,betrayal,love and trust has truly earned my praises, Rhys and Madeline, truly a love match. The honesty that Claire Delacroix brings forth is truly enchanting. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Love highland historical romances but this one was excellent. Lots of interesting characters with depth. Plenty of action and adventure. And of course there was wooing and more wooing and finally results of said wooing.

Enjoyable read. While the story follows the typical pattern, the characters are lovable and entertaining. Even the initial characters you might not start out too fond of end up being honorable characters in the end. The couple go through initial antagonism, skirt through several dangerous challenges, and end up opening their hearts.

If you love strong women and strong men, this book delivers without the annoyance. At times these strong women and men can be a bit too much but this book finds a fine balance. That combined with a good storyline and beautiful chemistry is a great read.

Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. Interesting plot, Intriguing characters,fast-paced. All finely knitted. Into the history of the times. Grounded in reality while being lightened with the whimsical. All around good reD.

If you love strong women and strong men, this book delivers without the annoyance. At times these strong women and men can be a bit too much but this book finds a fine balance. That combined with a good storyline and beautiful chemistry is a great read.

Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. Interesting plot, Intriguing characters,fast-paced. All finely knitted. Into the history of the times. Grounded in reality while being lightened with the whimsical. All around good reD.

Never had she foreseen in all honesty, for which would surely be one of the most important, adventurous and heartwarming moments that night she left.
Will leave your heart pounding in excitement and joy.

This was a slow-burn story...it was intriguing and it was good--it kept calling me back! It had thrills, suspense and love discovery! The kind that has you rooting for the couple despite family love to the contrary.

Rhys flees his Welsh country, as he is suspected of treason. He is wishing to find his cousin (Madelaine), who is the heiress to his fortress. He find her and bids for her hand in marriage (it is perrmissible in Wales to marry a cousin. He requires to have an heir to his estate and so the journey back to his home begins.

This is a long story, but very interesting and well done.

Boy this story has anything,everything,love murder,excitement and ancient tales from old Scotland. Yes it did not miss a thing. At first I wasn't sure I was going to finish this book then I couldn't put it down.

Madeline has already loved a man, but will she love another

Rhys is a man with a deadly past

when they meet, there is danger, love, and a bit of . . .

will they last the trip???

Enjoy!! ;)

Set on the east coast of Scotland, in 1421, Madeline is 23 and her betrothed James was killed on the English assault at Rougemont. Her brother Alexander is laird of Kinfairlie and as such, has the power to marry off herself and her 4 younger sisters (Annalise, Elizabeth, Viviane, Isabella). Madeline’s aunt Rosamund and uncle Tynman advise Alexander to hold an auction to sell off some of the estates art and jewels, including the matrimonial hand of Madeline. Needless to say, Madeline is not thrilled about this. Alexander insists because he has some serious debts. The auction happens swiftly yet Madeline is not satisfied being sold to the highest bidder (Rhys FitzHenry) so she runs away. This leads to all sorts of romantic silliness and adventure.

This was a sweet romance and an easy read. There’s a few bits of history tossed into the book, but for the most part, the setting is just background and doesn’t play into the plot or the characters. In fact, there are some historical inaccuracies or, to be more gentle, anomalies. For example, Madeline is 23 at the age of her first marriage and it would be much more likely that she and all her sisters, except perhaps for 12 year old Elizabeth, to be married off by now. Another example is Madeline’s thoughts on what determines a baby’s gender; Madeline is adamant that the mother has no control over the gender (which we now know to be correct) yet in the 15th century it was widely believed that women did indeed have some control over the gender of their baby. If you can ignore these types of historical anomalies, then you can probably enjoy this book.

It is a fun, simple adventure romance. Bride and groom are forced by circumstance into a marriage and eventually a bedchamber where they find out that they are compatible in at least one area of marriage. Of course there are subterfuges, secrets, and misunderstandings on both sides which each party has to decide whether or not to forgive. Then there’s the coming clean and revealing why they’ve been asses which is followed by the heroic rescue and/or sacrifice. Then comes the lovey-dovey reunion.

I really enjoyed several things about this book. First, there’s a sprite and Elizabeth can see her and interact with her. The sprite reminds me of an impertinent Tinkerbell. Then there are horses and they have names and their owners do fuss over them (always a good sign in a human). The love scenes are sweet and a little steamy (they were steamier than I expected which is a good thing). I also liked Rhys’s backstory, it being the darker, heavier side to the novel. Rhys is also a decent story teller in his own right and I quite enjoyed his little tales.

Once all the misunderstandings are out of the way, there’s a rescue needed. While I felt that it was a bit out of character for Madeline and her sisters, I still couldn’t but help enjoy these final scenes. These ladies are no shrinking violets after all. I would have enjoyed this book much more if the author had gone full on Fantasy genre and made the ladies bold to begin with. I can tell from how this book ends that the author has the skill to write a decent Fantasy novel.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Saskia Maarleveld was a good choice for this book. I really enjoyed her Scottish accent for most of the characters. Her males voices were believable and she had sexy voices for the marriage bed scenes.

This was an interesting and exciting book. The tales told by one of the main characters interwove the plot very cleverly and added appeal to the story.
The main characters were heroic and virtuous and made for a great story and ending.

Very much a delightful read! Claire writes with such vigour of the life back then! How true of training the young boys to become men. The women passionate not vulgar.
At least this author has written in such away that the young couple made Love not sex. I would allow teens to read this and have knowledge that the women not be degraded to whores.

I purchased the Kindle version of the book but have to believe that the hard copy was the same. There were way too many instances of the word "vigor". In most cases, another word would have suited the purpose much better and shows a lack of vocabulary. The word "suzerainty" was also very much over-used and may not have been the appropriate word in any of its instances.

However, the plot was fairly good and unusual but the hero's behaviour was inconsistent and I couldn't get a good feel for the heroine.

My favorite premise and genre, then a Driggan appears (Fey folk), so how excited was I?? A great read - action, romance, no graphic erotica, and strong characters. I already have 2 more in this "jewels" series, but I'm gonna check now for more. A really, really good read by a good, good writer.

What a wonderful story. I loved how Welsh tales and parables were woven through the story. This is well written and worth the read. Nice mix of fairies, families, fortune, fiestiness, romance, intrigue, suspense, fight scenes, and history. Well done Ms. DelaCroix. I am looking forward to the other books in the series.

The very essence of this book is beautiful. A tale full of humor, romance, betrayal and ultimately a happy ending. The stories told by Rhys throughout, add a wonderful double reading with Welsh intelligence. The Scottish quotes at the beginning of each chapter add some flare as well. Well done.

I loved the depth of the characters. The author was able to pull me into the story. I found myself laughing out loud, tearing up, outraged, and eagerly waiting for the next page. I'm so glad this didn't end in a cliff hanger, because I don't think I could have taken the suspense.