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I received this book in a giveaway. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Captured on her way to her sister, Willow finds herself in a precarious situation. When her jailer decides to throw her in a hole with a naked man, things go from bad to worse. Slatter is currently on the losing end of his back and forth battle with a man named Beck. He's been planning to escape but when an innocent woman is thrown into his jail with him, he knows he must stay to protect her.
Willow thinks she knows Slatter but lies, revenge, and the truth are all about to be revealed.
“A woman only belongs to a man if she’s wed to him. So if you want to leave here with her, you’ll wed her,”
Second in the Macardle Sisters of Courage Trilogy, I would highly suggest reading the first. The story begins right away with the action, Willow being kidnapped, and I had no idea the who and whys of the situation. There was other background information that would have been helpful, character motivations and how they were all tied together, by family or enemies. There was also an overuse of the word “poke” (sex), it was used 22 times with the second and third chapter, that became extremely tiresome and redundant to read. I personally like to see emotional/mental growth in my leads romance before the sexual occurs and this had Slatter giving Willow an orgasm within the first three chapters. This put me in the mindset that the story was going to be steamier but the tone changes and the sexual aspect actually doesn't really appear until later in the story, this made the beginning feel even more separate from the rest.
The war between Slatter and Beck, was confusing for me and I didn't understand their connection and animosity (maybe something I missed from not reading the first) and when the story moves on to Willow and Slatter at her brother's, it is forgotten for while in favor of a different one, involving characters thinking Slatter is a lying, adulterous, killer. The author keeps Willow and Slatter together through a forced marriage and they move to caring for each other and suddenly not wanting to get divorced very quickly. Willow and Slatter try to convince everyone that someone who looks exactly like Slatter is impersonating him and that guy is the true villain. This story thread also left me confused and not feeling it was fully fleshed out, again, characters and reasons felt left out.
“A husband sees to his wife’s care. I am your husband and I will be your husband until I am no more.”
I really think if you read this series in order, you would get more out of it. You'd have the foundation for the three sisters each book centers, the hows, whys, and character relationships. The first sister isn't shown in this but the third and youngest sister, Snow, has a teased enemies-to-lovers romance with the Lord of Fire, someone wanting Slatter dead for supposedly killing one of his warriors.
As a new reader to the series I was lost on character relationships and didn't fully grasp storylines. There was an interesting revenge plot but with the other threads going on, especially the whole Slayer, a man who mysteriously appears when you ask for his help in killing the “unjust”, mystery that felt tagged on in the end and didn't land the shock or emotional impact it should have. I ended up feeling lost for most of the story and never really connected with Willow and Slatter's romance.
