Gentle Warrior by Julie Garwood

In feudal England, Elizabeth Montwright barely escaped the massacre that destroyed her family and exiled her from her ancestral castle. Bent on revenge, disguised as a peasant, she rode again through the fortress gates...to seek aid from Geoffrey Berkley, the powerful baron who had routed the murderers.

He heard her pleas, resisted her demands, and vowed to seduce his beautiful subject. Yet as Elizabeth fought the warrior's caresses, love flamed for this gallant man who must soon champion her cause...and capture her spirited heart!


I have read all of JG's historical romances, most of them I did ten years ago--including this one. But that doesn't mean I have all her titles. Most of her stuff I borrowed from friends or from book clubs that I used to be a member of. So when I came across this book, memories of romance-reading-filled high school all came rushing back. Hmm, those were good times.

I know I've read this book before but it never quite left its mark unlike some of JG's other earlier stuff. So rereading this actually felt like reading it anew and I liked it enough--not overly much but it did warrant an instant reread once I was through with it.

I have a divided opinion about the hero though. I think it was really kinda cool that he married the heroine of his own free will--because he really wanted to. (Not that our heroine knew that.) But so many of our medieval heroes always get told or commanded to marry the heroine that this book gave a different take. But then...I didn't like the fact that Geoffrey actually thought of it as training a wife--always telling Elizabeth what she could and couldn't do. It got pretty tiresome but I had to consider that he was from the Dark Ages. Huh! What did they know.

And I liked Elizabeth Montwright a great deal. I think she was a really, really strong character. To have one's family die is bad enough but she actually saw how her family was murdered and butchered like animals. Surviving the aftermath of such a nightmare even demanded for more strength and courage for one to want to continue living--and she delivered.

One thing that really disappointed me though was that one of the villains in the story, Elizabeth's uncle Belwain, never really got punished. And I just have a feeling that he could cause trouble for the family after this story was concluded.

But never let it be said that I did not enjoy this. Granted, it's nowhere near my most fave JG historical but it still smacked of the trademark JG style that keeps you turning the pages like the Energizer bunny. Not to mention that the chemistry between Geoffrey and Elizabeth was spectacular. Hmm, come to think of it--I wanna reread the book again after I'm done with blogging for today.

Final verdict: 7.5/10. Good read.