I received a text from Mia the other day wanting a historical recommend. She was getting a little tired of paranormals and wanted to try something new. Since I'm old enough to be Mia's older sister, I have a few reading years on her. I immediately texted a few titles and then I said, whoa, back that truck up, if I'm going to give you a historical recommend (knowing she's already read Karen Marie Moning) I'm going to go with a classic, Julie Garwood.
Currently 90% of what I read is paranormal. Even though it's almost all of what I read, I would say my heart belongs to historicals. I grew up reading and loving them and am always excited to turn someone new onto the books that I love.
The internet is relatively new when compared to my reading life. When I discovered RBL Romantica, a romance book message board I was in heaven. Somewhere to talk about the books I love as well as get recommendations, prior to that, no one I knew read my books except Nancy and she couldn't remember characters from one book to the next. I've always been a picky reader so I would go months between books until my favorite authors had a book come out, it was always feast or famine. 3 books by my faves and then no new books for months at a time. Julie Garwood was one of those authors. I used to buy anything with her name on it (I say used to because I don't read her contemporaries which is what she currently writes). I'd count down the days until a Garwood came out and my favorites of hers were the ones set in Scotland, Saving Grace, The Secret and The Bride.
Back when I read more (before I worked for an author, LOL) I would re-read Garwood's historicals once a year. It's been a few years tho since I've read them so I thought, since I recommended this to Mia, I should see how it holds up. This book was originally release in 1993, I can't believe it's been that long!
At first I was a little worried, the pacing was different and the story seemed so much simpler then the ones I've been reading lately but soon enough I was caught up in the romance, which is why I read romances to begin with.
It catches you with the end of the first chapter when we all find out Lady Johanna's husband has died and once she finds out he's for sure dead, she goes in to pray. It's pretty heartbreaking when she prays, "Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God."
This being medieval Scotland/England, Lady Johanna is not allowed to be a widow for long and she is married off to a highlander she meets one day and is married to the next. Gabriel McBain is a rough around the edges Highlander trying to unite two clans and repair the damage done by the English. He marries Johanna to officially get the land, she marries him because she pretty much has no choice but she did ask for a sign before she said I do. Her sign was when she found out his name was Gabriel, the Patron Saint of Women and Children. I have loved that name ever since I've read this book.
Compared to the books that are released today, this book is positively chaste. If you're looking for hot sex, this is not the book for you. But if you want a sweet love story between two characters that you'll love, I say give this a shot. I felt like reading Saving Grace was like a cleanse to my soul. While I love the books that I currently read, sometimes we need to re-visit the books that we loved that we grew up on. There's a reason we loved them.
Have you read Saving Grace? What did you think? Are you a Garwood fan too? What's your favorite one?
