I really enjoyed this book. It is well written and the characters are well developed. The story line moves well and draws you in. The ending to this book was a little abrupt but definitely leaves you wanting to read the next book. However, there are areas that could be better written. The book is written as a period piece but is full of misplaced items and settings. It would work for someone that has very little historical knowledge but feels a bit forced and overly flawed for anyone that has studied this period in history.

This wasn't a bad book, it really wasn't. It has something of a fairy-taleish feel and was certainly a good story and redemption of a man who seems beyond hope, but is really just a wounded soul in need of grace.

However, is one of those novels that I really cannot understand the point of. What I mean by that is, what is the point of writing a novel set in Medieval Europe if you can't even get the most basic details right? I'm not saying that to be mean, its a genuine question.

There's no sense of period whatsoever, and apart from a few terms and phrases in Romanian there's little real sense of place either. The historical inaccuracies and cultural errors are frequent, and egregious. I counted references to a skunk and a chipmunk in Medieval Eastern Europe. Skunks are an American species.
Also, character refers to drinking hot chocolate. In the 1400s. Do I even need to tell you why that is wrong? A masquerade ball held in a ballroom several centuries before balls were even a thing, and characters eating in the American style with only a fork. Centuries before table forks were even used in most of Europe.

Towards the end there are some genuinely good scenes and romantic moments, but for the most part I found a lot of this story a bit of a slog. I have no problem with Christian content, especially since this is Christian fiction, but the way it was delivered here. Sigh. Its just so heavy-handed and obvious. The heroine goes around preaching to everyone, quoting the Bible, everything can be resolved with prayer, and even rebuking wolves in the name of Jesus. I mean to disrespect, but seriously?

Also, I the treatment of Christianity is totally wrong for the supposed historical setting of this story. Its meant to be set in Medieval Eastern Europe, specifically the region of Romania/Hungary.
The notion that people living in a region that had been officially Christian for centuries, in which there would usually have been several churches in every major town had never even heard of Jesus and don't for the most part even know about God is beyond frustrating. And totally unrealistic.

Now, I understand if this was meant to be set in communist times, but its not. Its meant to be the 1400s. What is it which all the characters having to be atheists or total heathens? What's wrong with some (shock, horror) Catholics? Some people who actually vaguely know about Christian beliefs and teachings? Some priests, monasteries, etc.

This leads to my next point that the religion here is clearly modern American Evangelical Christianity. Its not Medieval Christianity, its nothing like it. Characters pray about every single life decision, from who to marry, to what occupation to take up, talk about 'leading people to the Lord'.

Now of course I'm not suggesting there is anything fundamentally wrong with any of those things, or putting the Gospel in a novel, but as I said before, why bother to set it in Medieval Europe, which the characters are basically American Evangelicals ?
Believe it or not, if I pick up a novel set in Medieval Romania, I actually want to read about how Medieval Romanians "did" Christianity. That would be interesting.

Anyway, whilst this wasn't my cup of tea at all, I'm sure many people will enjoy this novel. Thanks to the Publisher for approving my request for this title via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

An Unexpected Redemption is an unexpected surprise of love, trials, forgiveness, and the strength to follow God’s will for our lives and follow our own hearts. A very enjoyable read that captivated the reader into the world’s of Adelina and Lucian. Reading of Adelina’s courage to openly share her faith of God and Jesus is refreshing and inspiring. It makes one truly contemplate “am I that bold in my faith? Am I that open to God’s voice and His will for my life?” Even for someone that does not believe, the reader cannot help but see themselves fighting the inner battles of life, choices, sins, and rejection as Lucian does. The book does end a cliffhanger making the reader anxiously anticipating the next installment to this series. A wonderful story of redemption and love set in beautiful landscapes. The characters inner struggles, fighting one’s inner demons, trials that life throws at us, following your heart, but most importantly, following God’s will for us is sure to enrapture any reader.

Despite good intentions, this book is a hot mess! The author strove to write a story that hinged on the beauty of grace and redemption, but some serious faults overshadowed this. The book has a prologue and then jumps ten years ahead, and we don't really understand how we got from A to B for a while, so it was a little confusing. The author had some rather prodigious information dumps at the beginning, which for me always slows down the pace of a story (and never in a good way). There were many glaring errors in word choice, grammar, usage, and punctuation, enough to be overly distracting from the story. For instance, the word “urethral” was used instead of “ethereal” when describing cherubs, and as you might imagine, that was quite a jarring error! Often in conversation, the word “naught” (nothing) was used instead of “not” (a negation). There were strange punctuation errors all over the place. At a certain point in the book, I felt like I was more making a game of spotting the mistakes and correcting them in my head than actually enjoying the story. I think this story has potential, and the author certainly does as well, but it certainly was not realized here.

I received this as a complimentary copy by netgalley - thank you


The leading characters include strong threads re faith - very much part of the plotline - as someone who is not particularly religious I found the premise interesting but not totally for me

It would, though, I feel, make an interesting choice for a book club - discussions regarding faith could be interesting but also potentially inflammatory so it would need to be thought about beforehand and chosen for the right group of people in a book club

In this sense it does go a little against the trend for more explicit books but if you are looking for a more wholesome type book this could be for you

There were a few typos which I found a little jarring but didn't put me off too much and certainly didn't stop me finishing the book. With a little more attention to detail in the proofreading, editing phases, I think there could have been corrections and revisions that would have made the book more enjoyable and a more straightforward read.

Having said that, I wouldn't want to discourage the author as I feel the writing shows real promise. I think the let down is more in the proofreading and any revisions - editing

I have still given it 3 stars because I think the book can still be improved on and still has promise

**2.5 stars**
This medieval romance using Romanian culture as context is about redemption, a redemption of Lucien, the prince whose adoptive parents sent away and the resentment made him take distance from his family. As revenge, he decides to kidnap his brother’s fiancée Adelina, who is the one changing him through conversion to her religious beliefs.

Overall, it is a romance with some action that keep the story alive and narrated from different point of views. Some of the characters have strong religious beliefs that are shared repeatedly. It has also some action that keeps the story active.

A few parts of the story felt slow. Also, I really struggled to connect with Lucien. However, it could be considered overall as an entertaining read.

**ARC provided through Netgalley for an honest review

This story was definitely one that had a slow pace to it. For me, at times it felt too slow.
Lucian's lifelong friendship with Radu was a welcome part of the story. They started out as scalawags but a life-threatening event caused a encounter with lisus (Jesus). It caused some radical changes in Radu but he also still wouldn't desert his friend Lucian. Even though since Radus's conversion he disagreed with many of Lucian's choices. There were also several different interesting people in the story besides Radu. That included Lucian's mother and father and Adeline's father, mother and sister.
I did find it interesting when Lucian and Adeline have a dangerous time with a pack of wolves. .
Even though Lucia and Adeline get sort of a H.E.A. for now, I didn't care for the abrupt ending to this book. Yes, it offered further adventures but I still didn't care for that.
On a final note:
Although I found the expressions of faith a good part of story, not everyone is going to enjoy that.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

An Unexpected Redemption by Emily Hamsher

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

______________________________________________________________________________

Story Notes

New author Emily Hamsher brings to Romance readers a lovely story that shows both the ruthless reality of a life lived for selfish gain and the peaceful contradiction of a life lived to please God.

I’m so glad I found new author Emily Hamsher, given her well written book and realistic characters. She took care to ensure that every detail was as it needed to be for this story to be believable. I really loved how she made the two main characters so completely different while also showing that they had important similarities too. She began her story with the parents of young Lucian of Brasov, who are once again trying to find a way to help their son behave. He has been expelled from school and while they have the authority to keep him there as the ruling sovereigns of Brasov, they don’t want to cause anyone further trouble or disruption. Their best plan at the moment is to sent Lucian away abroad with Lord Barden to see if he could curb Lucian’s desire to cause trouble. A decade passes and Lucian is now a man, but he has not given up his bent towards trouble. Having learned excellent swordsmanship from the finest masters in Italy, Lucian has honed his skill with a blade until he is the most accomplished in the land. But his penchant for adventure and wealth lead him to amass a band of men willing to take on whatever tasks earn them money, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. When he hears of his brother’s future engagement to Lady Adelina of Brasov, Lucian decides to make a sport of his brother and kidnaps Adelina as she travels. Little does he know that his decision will change his life and heart forever. Lady Adelina Nicolescu has long dreamed of marrying the kind prince who was her rescuer as a child. When she had become separated from her parents during a holiday celebration, a group of young men had began bothering her until the young prince stepped in for her defense. Believing this to be Prince Gabriel, Adelina is thrilled to hear that the King and Queen wish for her to marry him if they suit. How she has hoped for this but never dared to pray it might come true! The journey to the palace will take three days and as Adelina prepares her belongings, she also prepares her heart before the Lord. Praying that He will give her favor and she will find love, Adelina sets out with a company of soldiers towards the palace. But all does not go as planned and Adelina finds herself the prisoner of the mysterious “Lord Balan”, a handsome but very dangerous man. Not understanding why she was taken or the incredible hardness of Lord Balan’s personality, Adelina is taken aback. Finding peace and comfort from her faith gives Adelina a boldness to reach out to her attendants to learn more about her captors. Adelina also finds a unexpected urging in her spirit to be kind and treat everyone she encounters with the love of Christ. Not sure why the Lord gives her this mission as she is a bit shy, Adelina soon finds friends and allies with some in the band of rough men. One such friend is Radu, long-time companion and best friend of Lord Balan. A fellow Christian who is trying to reconcile his faith with his chosen profession, Radu often speaks with Adelina of spiritual matters. Lucian chooses to keep his identity secret from Adelina but finds himself drawn to her despite his loathing for her faith. As they travel further from Brasov, Lucian finds more guilt pressing on him but hardens his heart against such feelings. Why can he not put them aside as he always has before; what is it about this young woman that has him so off balance? Lucian will have much more trouble than he ever wanted when his brother sends companies of soldiers to retrieve his bride to be. Fighting them off leads to many of his men being hurt or killed and Lucian begins to question whether this adventure was pure folly as Radu had warned him it was. An enemy’s kidnapping of Adelina from Lucian’s camp will be the tipping point for his guilt and Lucian determines to send her to the palace after he gets her back. However, Lucian didn’t bargain on sending his heart along with her. Adelina’s quiet faith and gentleness towards him in spite of his ruthless treatment of her ingrained her deeply into his mind and heart, a problem given she is to be his brother’s wife. Lucian must deal with his own lack of faith if he is to set aside his anger and bitterness in order to return home. Radu shows him the way to Jesus and the peace he has sought his whole life. With his conversion, Lucian also finds that his love for Adelina only grows stronger. But how can he convince his family of his new ways and his love for Adelina without bringing them all more pain than they’ve had before. As Lucian and Adelina are reunited, they will have to decide to follow their hearts or do what is expected of them. They each will have to find the strength to face their past and look forward to a better future. As you can see, this book is very complex, weaving through many turns before the ending comes into sight. I loved the way that the main characters were written. Lucian was a hardened man who thought his family didn’t love him – making him seek his life and fortune wherever he could. His callousness was so great he had no regard for any life he might take in his seeking after the next adventure. But Ms. Hamsher rightly showed that God does not abandon us, even if we have determinedly gone the wrong way for a number of years. Adelina was a wonderful character who inspired others to be better. She wore her faith like a cloak and while she had moments of doubt, she quickly turned her worries over to God and asked that He use her as He wished. Her faith was genuine and did not need embellishment to be believed. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the Romanian countryside; it made me wish to visit there soon. And the inclusion of the Romanian language throughout the story was really well done. It was important to the story to have the language included but there was not so much as to make it annoying. My only issue with the book was the insertion of more modern terms like “switched gears” and a few misspellings of words. Those could be handled by a more thorough edit and did not overly affect my opinion of the book adversely. Overall, I found this book to be really well done and am looking forward to the next in the series. Ms. Hamsher left a good cliffhanger that will translate well into the next story. Hope it comes out soon!

I received this E-book from Westbow Press via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I will receive no fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

I liked this strong Christian romance. My rating 4.75 of 5.0.

Lucian was adopted into a royal family. Although that is a special gift, he is still a young, rebellious boy who pushes the boundaries. When he is sent home form school, he knows he has disappointed his adoptive parents. When his elder brother scorns him he knows he has been rejected and he runs away so that he can live life with adventure and danger as he wants.

Years later he is a brigand leading a crew of misfits. When he receives an invitation to his brother’s wedding Lucian decides to kidnap the chosen bride.

Lady Adelina has always had a dream about the young prince who rescued her from bullies when she was a young girl. She is thrilled to be betrothed to the prince and sets out to meet her intended and the royal family. Shortly into the journey she is kidnapped by Lucian and his band of thieves. Her faith that her heavenly Father will protect her surrounds her spirit with dignity and strength. The brigands sense the deep goodness in Adelina and treat her gently and carefully. Especially Radu, Lucian’s best friend and second in command, seeks to protect Adelina. He himself has accepted faith in Jesus but has continued to live with Lucian. He hopes that someday he will be able to make Lucian grow beyond his bitterness and plans of revenge.

Lucian watches Lady Adelina and slowly his heart opens to the peace her faith exudes. But what chance does he have of gaining the love of the woman who is already promised to his brother? And when he returns her to his family’s home, what will be his reception from the parents he has been estranged from for ten years?

I wanted to like Lucian but he doesn’t make it easy. Lady Adelina’s steadfast faith and willingness to share love to a rogue is beautiful. The characters are well developed. There is action to move the story along but the strong, unrelenting faith of Adelina made to story extra special for me. The writing is straight forward and descriptive. My only disappointment was the abrupt ending that leaves the story suspended for a next book.

This is a wonderful mix of medieval dangers and a love that is all that is proper and blessed. I would like to read more by Ms. Hamsher. I recommend this to readers who enjoy medieval romance and are open to strong faith themes.

Source: 2018 NetGalley.

This is a difficult review to write because I feel the premise of this book is good, the author is earnest, and she has writing skill. It is hard to find wholesome books, and I applaud the author's attempt to include strong faith in her leading characters, and seeking God as part of the plotline. I would not want to discourage anyone who is brave enough to swim against the current, when a titillating plot might be better received.

However, I feel this book was not ready for publication. I was jarred by many serious typos and obvious uses of the wrong word. For example, early in the book, the text refers to "urethral" cherubs. Unless these statues were urinating on something, that is probably not the correct word. Similarly, at one point the prince admiringly says to his lady, "...you are extinguished in your looks tonight." I imagine any woman's good mood would be extinguished by a compliment like that. Another place referred to a "billiard" style dance and I could only think of dancers running into one another, and rebounding for the corner pockets. Initially, I marked these in my Kindle as I thought they could easily be corrected, at least in the e-book version, but I gave up after a while because there were so many. The word "naught" was almost always substituted for "not," instead of for "nothing," leading to dialogue that was just painful to read, such as, "It is naught what you think." This led me to wonder if the hearer was mistaken or were his thoughts of no import? I believe a good, solid edit would take care of much of the issues and am puzzled why this wasn't done early in the writing process.

Sadly, there are other problems. After opening with the predicament of an angst-filled teenager who finds himself in trouble again, the book inexplicably skips ten years into the future. That initial gap was a jolt for the reader and left me saying, "what? wait..." as I struggled to understand what had happened, and why the prince was suddenly a hardened man apparently exiled from a family portrayed as loving, At one point, this man killed one of his gang of ruffians in cold blood for a small offense, with no qualms and no repentance then or later. Equally abrupt and mystifying is the ending, which I assume was meant to be a cliffhanger, but instead was just startling. As a character has just declared his love, soldiers rush into the ball, and the king calls a halt to the dance and says, weirdly calm, "My honored guests, this evening's festivities have now concluded. It seems we are at war!"war!" Yes, the book ends with a typo. Despite its problems, this book has much potential. I'd like the chance to read and review this novel again after a thorough edit and some fleshing out of the gaps in the plotline.

A Wonderful Christian Medieval Romance!

It's a beautiful story full of faith, love, surrendering to God's will, and divine healing. I loved the theme that no one is too far gone for redemption.

There were a few points in the book that I felt had little to do with where the storyline was going, but, that said, it didn't detract much from the story itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes clean, Christian, medieval romance.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are completely my own.)

The premise of this book is as old as jealousy and the ache for love. Well developed characters with believable flaws.

It is a worthy read. There are some eyebrow-raising words that don't add anything to the storyline. I don't mind an author using foreign words, They just need explaining in the text, and some of these are not, so what good are they?

Hamsher does a very good job in helping the reader to feel Lucian's pain, and understand his need. There is a lot of reason given for why Lucian falls head over heels for his brother's betrothed, but no reasons for why she should return his love. I have a problem with that. Huge problem. Just because a man has great shoulders and a handsome face and a bad-boy attitude/lifestyle doesn't mean that a girl should fall in love with him. The spiritual gift of mercy usually confuses the compassion raised by another's hurting heart with love. I'm not sure Hamsher did a good enough job with that. It's troubling.

However, there is a lot of good to be said about how Adelina reacted to anger from another. It's a complicated issue and Hamsher did very well with that.

This review has been Facebooked, Tweeted, and Blogged.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get into it. I tend to enjoy stories from older time periods, and I understand authors writing as realistically as possible, but at one point I couldn’t focus on the plot itself because I was too busy trying to read the old time English. Now, if that’s something other readers enjoy I’d recommend this book and I’ll read another one by this author to give her writing another chance. This was just my personal opinion but doesn’t necessarily mean the book itself was bad.

What a lovely story. I generally enjoy romance novels and historical fiction. This was period romance with a strong Christian basis guiding the main female character, Adelina. She is a young woman who lives her faith throughout trying circumstances. Through her example, she inspires others. The characters, especially Lucian, demonstrated that often we misread intentions into the actions of others. Much of the angst of all could have been avoided if only . . . Adelina even inspired me to look at how I react to situations in my own life. The sprinkling of foreign phrases (Czech? Romanian?) was a nice touch and added to the atmosphere. Even if I didn't understand this language, the dialog and context made clear what was being said.

My only complaint was the ending. How could you leave me hanging like that?! I guess I will have to wait for the next book.

I requested this title because it was sold as an adventurous and romantic. In many ways, it did deliver. I loved the world building and the characters were interesting. The writing was a bit simplistic but refreshing in some ways. I am not a fan of religious stories though, the girl trying to make the bad guy redeem himself to save his own soul and things like that. If I would’ve known that was a big part of the plot, I probably wouldn’t have requested it. That is my personal opinion though, so if you like those types of stories, you’ll like this one.

*ARC was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. *

***ARC was provided to me for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 2.5/5 Medieval Christian romance, Adelina trying to get Lucian to see the light of God.

Heroine (Lady Adelina): 4/5 A Lady who thinks the prince she is to marry is the boy from her childhood. She’s twenty two, auburn hair, green eyes and can hear the voice of God in some parts.

Hero (Prince Lucian): 2/5 A boy born on the streets who lost his parents is adopted by the King and made a prince. He has some abandonment issues and turned to a life of crime when his royal family is perceived by Lucian to not to be wholeheartedly on his side.

Plot: 2/5 Prince Lucian has all but renounced his title and has taken up a life of crime. He finds out his brother is getting married and intercepts the soon to be bride. She spends the whole time as his captive trying to change him and get him to hear the voice of God.

Personal Review: Not a fan of Christian romances and wish it was advertised more as such. I originally picked up this title due to the medieval element. I don’t love the social implications that the girl has to change the bad boy, or in this case save his soul.

Note for the publisher (not in any of my online reviews): the e-galley had a ton of formatting issues; sentences would break in the middle and start up again in a new paragraph, it was impossible to keep up with the POV changes due to no break in the paragraphs between characters. I hope these issues didn't make it to print.

I have mixed feelings about the story. At first, my response was very positive - redemption, romance, forgiveness..., and yet I fear the message it might send to young women about "dating to save" and abusive relationships. While I would be curious to read the next book in the series, I would also have a long heart to heart with any young woman who read this book.

Thank you net galley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

An Unexpected Redemption by Emily Hamsher is book One in the Romalo Legacy Series. This is the story of Lucian and Adelina.
Lucian was sent off by his adopted parents when he was young to learn to be a good person and not the mischievous boy he was. But the opposite thing happened and he feel deeper into his dark side and gathered a group of men to work with him. Lucian goes to kidnap the bride set a tone of revenge but what he found instead was sweet girl who was slowly stealing his heart and ways.
Cute young romance.

An interesting YA Medieval fantasy. What would happen if you kidnapped by an angry Prince on your way to your wedding to another Prince? The constant threat of danger that was lurking just steps behind kept me wanting to know what is going to happen next.

Lucian was the youngest son of King Andrei and Queen Melita. Lucian was adopted at the age of 6 by the King and Queen when he was a street waif who had been abandoned by his mother. Lucian was not dutiful and trustworthy like his older brother, Gabriel, who resented Lucian’s mischievous ways.
Lucien’s parents decided to send him to a far away place where he might be able to learn how to be a good man, but the opposite thing had happened, he learned how to steal and kill, and he had gathered a group of men around him.
Adelina was a young lady who had been chosen by Prince Gregory to be his wife, she loved art, music and books. She was traveling with a group of the King’s knights when she was kidnapped by Lucien and his men because Lucien wanted to keep Gregory from marrying het, he wanted revenge for all of the times that Gregory had been mean to him.
But Adelina was a woman who had strong faith in God, and she relies on Him to help her out of this situation. Lucian takes Adelina through the rough, forested countryside in his effort to escape Gregory’s men.
You will have to read the book for yourself to see the dangers Adelina and Lucian are put through, and how Adelina’s faith helps both of them.