A Rose in the Storm

Margaret and Alexander were sworn blood enemies, even more so when he attacked and seized control of her castle, but Alexander sought to protect her from the beginning, even from herself. Though I felt some of Alexander's methods of "protection" were in poor taste at times, I cannot deny that his intentions were noble and his steadfastness in looking after her and her interests was awesome! Margaret was brave, a bit naive, and frustratingly idealistic, but I had to admire her unwavering spirit, for she never gave up persevering. I thought the brief, more realistic love scenes were great! I wish there had been an update at the end on a few more characters. What happened to Sir Ranald or Margaret's maid, Eilidh? Nonetheless, a great story of romance in difficult circumstances!

Well, I had a difficult time liking the novel A Rose in the Storm by Brenda Joyce and it was mostly due to her heroine who I found fickle, immature and immensely stubborn.Lady Margaret is set to marry Sir Guy, an Englishman who her uncle hopes will bring a great alliance to his house. Lady Margaret has never met her betrothed but she is loyal to her uncle. She travels to her dowered castle and shortly finds her castle under attack. Scotland is in the midst of turmoil with Robert the Bruce trying to shore up support for his throne.Alexander MacDonald is loyal to Robert the Bruce and he knows that Lady Margaret's castle is a prize. He offers her the chance to surrender and she stubbornly says no even though she is overwhelmingly out numbered. Alexander defeats her easily and many of her people are killed. She is spitting angry at Alexander and she lets him know immediately. Alexander is in awe of her bravery (I found her decision to fight Alexander's army incredibly naïve and reactionary).Alexander keeps Lady Margaret as a hostage but in reality she will stay due to her injured brother. These leads have a royal battle of wills and even though she sees Alexander in a different light after spending time with him, she is still combative. For his part Alexander treats Margaret as an equal and she seems to take this in stride even though she must realize that his respectful and egalitarian attitude toward her is completely different than any other male she has ever encountered.Lady Margaret struggles for almost this entire book of whether she loves Alexander or not and through many, many pages with many, many different characters and settings she just cannot make up her mind about Alexander. He proves himself to her time and again and yet she is still fickle. Margaret has a tendency to be impatient and she takes many risks and it is no wonder she lands in some dire situations where she needs rescuing.I just could not see this couple as being the right people for each other. Margaret was not good at reading people's motives or judging their character and she never really seemed to be a woman who was steadfast. I was disappointed in this book as the romance was overshadowed by historical events. There was too much thrown into this novel with the Bruce's trek across Scotland, sieges, battles and court intrigue.

Brenda Joyce is one of my favorite historical romance writers, and I could not put this book down but where were the steamy love scenes that Joyce books always had in the past? Every love scene would fade to black. Kinda disappointed :-( her sagas have always gripped me from cover to cover and this was book was no different but I felt it was PG 13 and therefore missing something.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Brenda Joyce Historical Scottish novel and her Medieval (Montgomery) novels are in my bookshelf as "Keepers". I could not wait till this book came out expecting it to be like her other Scottish novels.This book is a "way too long" made up history book of the battle of Bruce as King of Scotland war and King Edward. There is maybe 5% of this book I enjoyed and that was only because I kept skipping through all the "not truly historian" descriptions and went to the books characters dialogue.I cannot tell you how bad this book is and she even admits that it is not the true history of the war between King Edward and Bruce. Why write a book that is all history when it is not even real.It is definitely not a historical romance book. I AM SOOO VERY SORRY I BOUGHT IT.

Brenda Joyce is one of my all time favorite romance author. However, she has changed her writing style over the years. I am not liking it. Her character are always well developed but I feel she should have more the male character's perspective.

I love most of Brenda Joyce's books - but this one left me a bit disappointed. I enjoy the balance between lots of background historical knowledge with the intense, passionate love relationship that she is very good at doing - however, this book was more historical background and lacking in passionate love relationship. I wish it could have been more like her earlier books.

Great!

I really like the way Brenda Joyce writes. This time period is one of my favorites. I would recommend this book to all my friends

good read

Really enjoyed this book.

I must say, even though I enjoyed this book, I found that the repeated use of the word, 'trembled', really tested my nerves. Margaret's wishy washy approach to things was rather annoying, as well. If you don't mind this style of writing, you will really enjoy this book. Otherwise, you will have to tolerate these things to enjoy the story.

My wife reads mostly and she gave it a tick of approval as well as myself. A well written period piece