Reviewed: “The Lion’s Lady” by Julie Garwood

I feel like Julie Garwood and I are old friends. We’re not, but I feel like we are.

I think I was in junior high school when I got my first Julie Garwood book. I think I have most of her “historical” romance books now. I’m going to make a list and see what I’m missing and get them. Why? Because no matter how many times I re-read Garwood’s books, I feel like it’s for the first time. I feel like I’m friends with the characters she created. I’ve always loved history and fictionalized accounts of history, but I think my love grew by a lot when I let myself get lost in the worlds she creates. She makes me want to write like her.

This is why I feel like we’re old friends. I hope Ms. Garwood doesn’t mind me saying it, but it’s true.

Before I ramble on too long, I’ll get to the review of THE LION’S LADY – a book I’ve read at least four times and one that I love.

The first thing that catches my eye about this particular book is that it bridges two cultures. Christina Bennett is a white girl raised by the Dakota tribe in America. The Marquis of Lyonwood, a man with a temperament that earns him the nickname Lyon – is the knighted head of a prominent family in the British aristocracy. Both Christina and Lyon have secrets they’d rather the other never find out and they both know it would be easier if they took very separate paths during her time in England.

This being a historical romance, that’s unlikely.

With her mother’s diary to guide her, Christina sets out on a course to both save herself and to avenge her mother’s death all while keeping in mind the final goal of returning to her Dakota family. Lyon has other plans as he finds himself falling head over heels in love with the most confusing, intriguing, and beautiful woman he’s ever met. The point of it all is that neither can exist without they other and they must come to some common ground to find what they need in life.

I’ve read it before and I’ll read it again. And again.

The romance is sweet, the sex is hot, and the plot will pull me in every time.

Thanks Julie Garwood, for writing books that become my old friends.