Michelle Willingham

Despite the title and the weirdly photoshopped cover, Her Warrior Slave is actually a very heartfelt romance between a man and a woman who are both believably grieving for their own reasons. While there isn't really a villain in this book, the conflict tearing the two apart was believable, and the two separately need to overcome their separate griefs to find true love.

Iseult is depressed because her baby son has been missing for over a year. All of her spare time is devoted to riding around to neighboring tribes trying to find him. Her betrothed Duncan half-heartedly joins her because the kid isn't his, and he wants her to start over. Other than this, he's pretty affectionate, but Iseult cannot warm to him. Even to Kieran, the hero of the story, she takes a while to soften up, which I appreciated it. I find it frustrating when the heroine is presented with a decent rival but then magically becomes entranced by the hero for no explicable reason. Here, Kieran's listening skills are what disarm Iseult and his utter devotion to her cause to find her son endear him to her.

For his part, Kieran is punishing himself for his baby brother's death. He sells himself into slavery and tells himself he must endure 13 weeks of bondage. Haunted by memories of Egan's death, Kieran distances himself from both his family and Iseult, but he's eventually pulled in by her. He genuinely wants to help her, and his helping to bring her out of her shell also eventually brings him out of his.

Overall, this is a very poignant love story that's a little slower paced and very emotional. If you're looking for a romance like that, then I highly recommend this book.… (more)

This was a cute story driven by higher stakes events and an interesting leading couple that kept me turning the pages on my cross-country flight. The ending is stronger than the beginning, in my opinion, and the ending is fulfilling, which is what makes this a successful romance in my book.

The novel starts out with Taryn and Killian both creating elaborate plans to get what they want. Inevitably, these plans fall apart. Thank goodness. I didn't think they'd work anyway. While this was annoying, it kept me guessing as to what would happen next. Once all of their plans stopped failing, and the couple had a single-minded goal, I got into the book more.

In this book, fans of Willingham will see some old favorites from the MacEgan series, but the author also spends some time on a few, new minor characters that makes the book stand out. Taryn's backstory hooked me from the beginning, which is good because Taryn's a dunderhead. How a woman raised to be queen doesn't understand diplomacy and balancing egos is beyond me. She doesn't think anything through, but it's okay because being a queen just means helping people. (That's sarcasm, if you can't tell.)

The story is light on description, but I find myself filling in the blanks on my own without any trouble. I'm also just used to Willingham's style by this point, so I kind of like it. This is a quick read with a sweet story, and it was perfectly relaxing for me. I recommend this book if you want something that'll keep you reading without being too much work while still being steamy fun.… (more)

If it wasn't for the sweet ending, this would've been 2 stars for me. That payoff was great, and I can tell it really meant a lot to the characters. What almost ruined it for me were the questionable ethics , and the pacing was all over the place. I swore the book finished at the 55% mark. Alas, there was a lot more to go, and it just dragged.

One of my least favorite romance novel plots is when the hero and heroine aren't honest with each other. There was so much "she did this because she thought he wanted that" and "he did that because he misheard her" that I almost threw my kindle across the room. Instead of being cryptic all the time, if they just said what was bothering them, the entire book would've ended a lot sooner.

I was also disappointed in Willingham's heroine. Lianna started out as an interesting character with a strong case of OCD. Her emotions, fears, and anger were all justified, and I was curious to know how Rhys was going to overcome them. The answer is to get kidnapped. Seriously, Lianna was pretty TSTL, and it was enraging. This also meant Rhys had very little character development because he realized he loved her when she went missing for the gazillionth time.

I don't know what's going on with this series, but there's a lot of violence against the heroines and kidnappings because the women couldn't have a guard for five minutes. Usually, Willingham is more creative than this, and while I like a good hero saving the heroine situation, this is starting to get ridiculous and redundant. Hopefully the third is better.… (more)

If I hadn't read Willingham's MacEgan series before this, I would've avoided her like the plague. This book was so disappointing and completely unlike her usual fare. Willingham has a special place in my heart for writing stories about flawed and complex heroes and heroines. The heroines aren't your typical innocent virgins, and the heroes aren't your typical jaded warriors. In this book, they were more flawed than complex.

First of all, this book definitely crosses the line into adultery, no matter what Willingham states in her author's note. Historically, marriage was rarely for love. It was an alliance between families for resources, so it was common that the couple involved didn't actually care for each other. Infidelity was common, especially among husbands. Sometimes it makes sense in a historical novel, but I was disappointed in this romance. After all, these aren't completely historical. There's a fantasy element to them too in that the hero and heroine's love for each other is pure, and nothing taints that more than adultery.

Second, the characters weren't that great. Caragh is the stupidest woman I have ever read about, and I was astounded she wasn't dead by the end. She's a Disney Princess in a Game of Thrones world. Yeah, doesn't work. Obviously, stupidity runs in the family because her brothers were worthless pieces of trash. Her older brothers are the least effective "over protective" brothers ever. Every time they look away, she's in trouble, but by golly they will protect her to the very end. Good luck with that. She'd be dead a thousand times if it weren't for the hero because her older brothers are useless.

Even worse was her younger brother. The whole conflict of the book starts because of his stupidity. He attacks the Vikings that approach their settlement (when they'd intended peace), threatens the hero's wife, and gets all of Styr's men enslaved. Yet, Caragh begs Styr to save him time and time again. Stop. Not only did he endanger his sister, he endangered the entire tribe as well as the Vikings. This man deserved to be sold into slavery. He deserved to die. As the brother of the chief, he should've been punished severely for his reckless actions, but because he just came of age, we're supposed to believe this was the result of youthful folly. Nope. What he did was unforgivable. If Caragh won't forgive her former lover, she shouldn't forgive her brother either. Sorry not sorry.

I'm reading the sequel because I'm curious about Elena-Styr's wife's take on things. If he falls for a dunderhead like Caragh, Elena must have too much sense for him, and I like a woman with sense. In general, I would spare yourself this du0logy, unless you're diehard Willingham fan. Then, we can commiserate over this book together.… (more)