I found a new series to love

What a terrific new book and great author. This is the first book in a new series that I can't wait for the next one. This story has everything. Great characters, wonderful dialogue, suspense and history as well. A real page turner that will find you staying up late saying just one more chapter. Treat yourself. You will not be disappointed. ( )

This is the first book in a trilogy surrounding Lady Eleanor d’Outremer and Robert FitzStephan. Robert is loyal to Edward I and has been since before he took the throne. As a reward for that loyalty Edward rewards Robert with the hand of Lady Eleanor and all of her lands – after he kills her father and brother in a confusing raid. Eleanor – called Noor – is not happy with this arrangement at first but has little choice in the matter. What the King commands must be obeyed.

But these two find that they are quite well suited to one another and find themselves enjoying one anothers company and form a strong bond but there is one problem – Edith, Robert’s former lover who doesn’t want to be put aside. Edith is angry that Robert didn’t marry her and that he is now putting her aside to be faithful to his wife.

As Eleanor and Robert forge their life together they have to navigate a treacherous world but they have each other.

I am a big fan of Ms. Belfrage’s books and was very excited to learn she had a new series available. As far as I can glean this is to be a trilogy so there are more adventures ahead for these two. Robert is the kind of hero any woman would want on her side and Eleanor is fiesty and smart.

The book read very quickly and I was engaged from the beginning. As with all of Ms. Belfrage’s books the characters are well developed and the storyline is engrossing. The bad guys are evil and I am very much looking forward to Robert and Eleanor’s further adventures. ( )

Okay. Okay, okay, okay. I am just going to jump right in and get started, because OHMYHOLYMEDIEVALSTARS it’s Anna Belfrage, you guys!

I have read, to the best of my knowledge, every book that Anna Belfrage has written. (I have an entire bookshelf devoted to her novels, because I have so many of them and it’s glorious to behold.) I absolutely adored her series, “The Graham Saga.” I couldn’t get enough of “The King’s Greatest Enemy” series. I couldn’t put “The Wanderer” series down. But His Castilian Hawk might be her best work yet. (Which I can’t believe I am even saying, because I didn’t think she could top herself. But Y’all, I think she might just have.)

I love medieval stories from the very bottom of my book-nerd-heart. His Castilian Heart takes place in the time of Edward Longshanks, i.e. King Edward I of England. Robert FitzStephan is rewarded for his service to the king with land, property, and a wife. Marveling at his good fortune, he humbly accepts his prize, and quickly obeys his king’s order to marry the heiress of his newly acquired lands as soon as possible.

Eleanor “Noor” d’Outremer knows that she should be grateful to be under a new husband’s protection. But her fiery spirit balks at being under the thumb of anyone, let-alone a stranger. Especially one with secrets to hide and a devious mistress lurking in the shadows.

Okay, let me just come right out with this. Robert pissed me off. Like setting-my-book-down-just-to-glare-at-it-until-I-felt-better, pissed me off. He is ridiculously easy to love, mind you. You just want to gently shove Noor out of the way and take her place as Robert’s wife the majority of the time. But the way that he handles his long-time mistress…who I seriously want to throw something at…as he is navigating this new marriage of his drove me to eat way more cookies than I am comfortable divulging.

Noor, on the other hand, I flipping adored. She isn’t your typical, flawless, photo-shopped beauty. She is real! Finally! Thank you, Anna, you amazing woman, you. Noor has curves that border on plump, she isn’t the tallest woman around, and leans more to the quiet and shy side. But her spirit! When she witnesses an injustice being done or looked-over, when she feels that she herself is not being treated as she ought to be, she is not afraid to speak her mind; be it to her husband, his mistress, or even to the king. And I loved her fiercely for it.

With all of that said, I couldn’t even sit here and share with you how these characters made me feel, were the writing not superb. Ms. Belfrage is an exceptional author, with a staggering ability to tell a story and to flump the reader right into the middle of the happenings. (Sorry Y’all, but the author isn’t exactly gentle about pulling you into the story. Once you’ve opened that book, you’re there. Thus, you shall be flumped.) Besides the amazing interplay between Robert and Noor, and their complete inability to stay on the page, the story is so beautifully set in the time period of King Edward I that you forget your surroundings. Everything from the sights, the dress of the time, court life and daily living is between the first and last pages of this book, and I could. not. get. enough.

Bottom Line: Robin Hood and Maid Marian, who? ( )