Book Review: By Grace Possessed by Jennifer Blake

Title: By Grace Possessed

Author: Jennifer Blake

Series: The Three Graces #2

Release Date: August 30th, 2011

Publisher: Mira

Age: Adult

The Tudor king issues Lady Catherine Milton a most unusual command: seduce Scottish loyalist Ross Dunbar. The son of an ornery borderland laird, Dunbar would make an advantageous match, but King Henry cannot force him to wed. So Cate must ensnare him… A rush of courtly parties and passionate nights in Dunbar's embrace leaves Cate breathless…and confused. She desires a proposal for the sake of propriety and politics, but she longs to be truly loved. Tortured loyalties are not hers alone—though Dunbar is enchanted by Cate, he cannot bind himself to England and abandon his people. But when a pretender to the throne ignites a rebellion, the choice is made for them: to solidify northern alliances, Dunbar and Cate must wed. Suddenly Dunbar's death appears certain—either by his bride's curse or by a war he did not choose…

I loved By His Majesty's Grace, the first book of the series. So I couldn't wait to read By Grace Possessed when I found it at NetGalley.

Lady Catherine Milton is still haunted by the curse. If she doesn't marry by love, her fiance would die. It has worked for her the last few years, but King Henry doesn't believe in curses, and he commands her to marry Ross Dunbar, a Scottish son of an ornery borderland laird.

Catherine doesn't want to marry, and she's nervous about her fiance's fate. And Dunbar doesn't want to marry either, specially with an England lady. But he decided to save her at the forest when she got lost, spent the night with her, and now they have to marry.

Of course, neither of them can hide their attraction to each other. It was easy for Catherine to fall in love with Dunbar. He was good with her, treated her with respect, and was totally hot. But for Dunbar is was more difficult, specially because he was surrounded by enemies and he always was suspecting of Catherine's motives.

I don't usually read medieval romance because women are usually quiet and in need for protection. Catherine definitely needs Dunbar's protection, but she's not quite at all. She has a fire inside her that made me like her immediately, and I was very pleased (and surprised) that she was the one who sought him.

Overall, I enjoyed By Grace Possessed. I really liked Dunbar's and Catherine's story, but I wished they would have been more open with their feeling since the beginning, it would have been much more easier to them to just accept they were meant to be together, hehe. Still, I'd love to read the next book, Seduced by Grace.

More about this book at jenniferblake.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.