Fresh Face Friday: The Beltane Choice by Nancy Jardine

Happy Friday!  I hope you all have had a good week and like me are looking forward to a nice weekend.   To start your weekend off right I am spotlighting a wonderful historical romance by Nancy Jardine called The Beltane Choice. This story set in a time of turbulance between Celtic clans and the threat of Roman invasions fosters a wonderful Romeo and Juliet like story that will capture all readers.  For my full review be sure to keep reading after the book blurb.  I hope you all have a great weekend and if your stuck in snow keep warm and if its sunny in warm keep me in mind cause I’m freezing my butt off up here!  🙂

Book Blurb: (courtesy of Goodreads)

AD 71.

Banished from the nemeton, becoming a priestess is no longer the future for Nara, a princess of the Selgovae tribe. Now charged with choosing a suitable mate before Beltane, her plan is thwarted by Lorcan, an enemy Brigante prince, who captures her and takes her to his hill fort. Despite their tribes fighting each other, Nara feels drawn to her captor, but time runs out for her secret quest.

As armies of the Roman Empire march relentlessly northwards, Lorcan intends to use Nara as a marriage bargain, knowing all Celtic tribes must unite to be strong enough to repel imminent Roman attack. Nara’s father, Callan, agrees to a marriage alliance between Selgovae and Brigante, but has impossible stipulations. Lorcan is torn between loyalty to his tribe and growing love for Nara.

When danger and death arrive in the form of the mighty Roman forces, will Nara be able to choose her Beltane lover?

Review:

When The Beltane Choice begins we find, Nara, Princess of the Selgovae, stuck up a tree threatened by a wild boar.  As she cries out for help,  an unknown rescuer comes to her aid and kills the boar.  When Nara sees that her rescuer is actually a warrior from a rival clan she resists but is drawn to him in ways no other man has ever drawn her.  Lorcan, Prince of the Brigantes, sees the beautiful mysterious Nara and realizes he can’t let her go like he should.  Lorcan takes Nara prisoner and drags her back to his settlement.  During their journey home they learn and grow closer even while Nara tries to escape every chance she gets and Lorcan fights himself from taking Nara the way he really wants to take her.  Through their journey they realize their affection for each other lies deeper than they both know.  At last back at the settlement, Lorcan proposes a viable way for a truce between Nara’s father and his own people.  Unfortunately, things don’t go as smooth as Nara and Lorcan would like.  The invasion of the Romans, Nara’s father’s ridiculous stipulations and the love they have looks as though it will be swiftly taken from them.  But, when Beltane comes around Nara must choose who she will love forever and who she will live her life with.  For some this means two different people, but for Nara her choice is made for her or so she thinks.  In a time of turbulence and strife can two rival clans get passed their difference and find a lasting love or will circumstances end the star-crossed lovers forcing them apart?

As I wrote the synopsis for this book, it really hit me how much of this story can be compared to Romeo and Juliet.  Most readers love a good will they or won’t they story and this one set in the early dawns of AD definitely will entice readers.  Nara and Lorcan’s love story is one for the ages.  I adored their chemistry, but with Nara’s fiestiness and Lorcan’s obstenance they are wonderful.  It’s not just Nara and Lorcan though.  Their story would be mundane if it wasn’t for the historical elements of Roman invaders and rival clans.  I think Nancy Jardine did an excellent job in illustrating the historical climate of the time and also adding in the additional socioeconomic customs of the clans.  Things would be very different for both Nara and Lorcan if they weren’t born to who they were born.   Overall, this is a great historical romance that will captivate the reader.  I can’t wait to pick up Nancy Jardine’s  next novel.  I’m sure it will be equally romantic and historically captivating.

Author Bio:

(courtesy of www.nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com)

A big  hello from me. If I’m not found typing away at my desk then the remainder of my week tends to be spent between working in my large garden, which often gets very neglected, and childminding my energetic granddaughter who is now 2 years old.

I’m still writing in different sub- genres of fiction and like the challenge of switching from contemporary to historical. My curent project is my family saga which begins around the 1850s and will likely be concluded around 1930s. Three books are planned, but who knows? 

I also have ideas for a fourth Celtic/ Roman Britain historical and would love to find the time to add another book as a follow up to my time travel adventure for early teens.

Sounds like a lot of plans for the remainder of 2013.

My personal novel/fiction reading has been very limited since I’ve been too easily sidetracked with my non-fiction researches into Roman Britain. I’m now spending time on Victorian Scotland and I’m really enjoying that!