Bride by Command
Linda Winstead JonesParanormal romance
Available from Berkley Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-425-22804-3
March 2009
| Jahn is emperor of Columbyana and has been pressured to find a bride. Jahn issues a challenge and declares his cabinet to present to him six candidates during the Summer Festival and he would choose his Empress from their offerings. To escape his formal duties for awhile, Jahn disguises himself as a sentinel and goes on one of the trips to bring a prospective bride home. He is indignant when Lady Morganna refuses to be considered as a bride for the emperor so when the opportunity presents itself for Morganna to marry the next man she sees, Jahn the sentinel declares she will be his bride. Because of what Morganna believes to be a curse living inside her, she doesn't want to marry anybody. However, the choice is not hers to make and Morganna and Jahn begin their lives together living over the local tavern and it isn't long before Morganna and Jahn begin to fall in love. However, both are keeping huge secrets and when those secrets are revealed, their lives together are threatened by lack of trust. It doesn't help that there are others who would kill to put in place their own agenda.
This was my first book by this author. I found it to be interesting even though it didn't move along as quickly as I would have liked. I wasn't sure how Jahn came to be the emperor and I was confused about his relationship to his twin brother. I can only assume this was explained in one of the previous books in this series. There were a lot of characters to make up the plot of this story. Some of these characters were involved in their own romances which was an added bonus. The author does a great job of character building and it was easy to keep the characters organized in my mind. These characters were necessary to further the plot since the magic of the people was really what moved the plot forward. Morganna was a good wife to Jahn and quite resourceful. Once Morganna learns of Jahn's deception, that magic is even more important. Morganna doesn't understand what her magic is until she realizes that Jahn is actually the Emperor. With the help of the Deputy Minister of Magic, Morganna slowly realizes that with control, her magic is not the curse she had previously thought. The author slowly builds the suspense about how Jahn will handle choosing a bride when he already has claimed Morganna. The reader knows who he will choose but the process is a large part of the ending. I really wish I had read the previous books in the series because I believe I would have had a better understanding of the world and the characters involved. That being said, Bride by Command was well written with an interesting plot and setting.
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Lisa Freeman |
