Review & Giveaway: Snow in July by Kim Iverson Headlee

Snow in July

by Kim Iverson Headlee

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BLURB:

Commanded to marry by William the Conqueror, and facing shattered oaths and a ravening evil power determined to overthrow the new king, Alain and Kendra face a battle unlike any other as their honor, their love, their lives, and even their very souls lie in the balance.

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My Review:

It 's a good historical novel, with an intriguing love story, lots of action and plot twists, adventure, a bit of paranormal and magic.

It's  set after the battle of Hastings where Kendra and Sir Robert have lost both a brother. They feel guilty for not having protected them enough. William the Conqueror reward Sir Robert, alias Alain, for the help in the battle  giving him the land of kendra's father and he was offered the girl as wife. How can Kendra marry the murderess of her brother? She will marry him only if it will snow in July, the month of their marriage. It will be really hard for them to be together.

The characters are very complex and realistic: real people are perfectly blended with the fictional characters. William the Conqueror is a very active within the story. Alain is a man with a great sense of duty. He arrives in his new land under a false identity, he wants to better identify the outlaws and block their violence. Kendra is a girl determined to fulfill the last wish of her brother: find happiness and fight for it. Should try to learn to use the gift she inherited from her mother, that of healer. I really like to see the tension and chemistry between Kendra and Alain

It 's written really well, the pace is a bit slow in the first pages but then becomes so exciting and addictive that it is impossible to put it down. The descriptions are so detailed that it's like having a time machine and have transferred in 1066. Research carried out by the author were really thorough.

I recommend it to anyone who loves historical novels.

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EXCERPT:

As Sir Ruaud babbled in his semicoherent English about Sir Robert, Kendra fought a jumble of emotions regarding Ruaud’s squire. Not only was his station beneath her rank, his being Norman placed him beneath her contempt. And yet she couldn’t tear her gaze from him.

Several inches taller than Sir Ruaud, the squire was trim where Ruaud sported a paunch, and he radiated quiet dignity to counter Ruaud’s comic disposition. Both men wore their blond hair cropped close, but Ruaud’s darker locks didn’t curl about his ears and forehead in whimsical wisps begging to be touched. Ruaud’s nose bore the lumpish evidence of having been broken at least once, but no scars marred the squire’s face. And those eyes—merciful heaven, if the squire regarded her once more with those probing, sea-green eyes, she would faint from the delectable agony.

Relief washed over her when he broke eye contact and strode to the packhorse. Broad shoulders and sinewy arms rippled as he wrestled something from a saddle pack. For one wanton moment, she imagined being encircled by those arms, protected, cherished. Loved… happy…

She shook her head. One of his countrymen had murdered her brother. She must despise this man.

And yet that task was proving to be a major chore.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Kim Headlee lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia with her family, cats, goats, Great Pyrenees goat guards, and assorted wildlife. People and creatures come and go, but the cave and the 250-year-old house ruins—the latter having been occupied as recently as the mid-twentieth century—seem to be sticking around for a while yet.

Kim is a Seattle native (when she used to live in the Metro DC area, she loved telling people she was from "the other Washington") and a direct descendent of twentieth-century Russian nobility. Her grandmother was a childhood friend of the doomed Grand Duchess Anastasia, and the romantic yet tragic story of how Lydia escaped Communist Russia with the aid of her American husband will most certainly one day fuel one of Kim's novels. Another novel in the queue will involve her husband's ancestor, the seventh-century proto-Viking king of the Swedish colony in Russia.

For the time being, however, Kim has plenty of work to do in creating her projected 8-book Arthurian series, The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, and other novels under her new imprint, Pendragon Cove Press.

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