Book 4Seasons of Fortitude SeriesPassion ignites and the sparks fly when a border lord and a noblewoman skilled at the forge are brought together under unusual circumstances. Lady Winter has always been curious since childhood and even though she is a noblewoman, she has learned from the best blacksmith to be skilled at the forge. While at her sister’s wedding in Ravenscar, she decides to stay … she decides to stay and help the blacksmith who trained her. His eyesight is failing and although he was once the best blacksmith in all England, now he is doomed without Winter’s help. The late lord Ravenscar made a deal with Sir Martin de Grey of Northumberland. The blacksmith is to forge a sword from the finest Damascus steel. But to insure that Lord de Grey collects on his deal, he’s taken the blacksmith’s son in exchange.
Sir Martin de Grey arrives in Ravenscar to collect his sword. He needs it to go up against his enemy – Clan Dunbar in an age-old feud. Martin’s brother is imprisoned and he will do anything to save him. But when he discovers his sword is not ready and the man he made the deal with is dead, he takes drastic measures. He brings the blacksmith and his daughter to Castle Heaton to finish forging the sword. While there, he finds himself immensely attracted to the beautiful commoner’s daughter.
Winter finds herself in a predicament. Sir Martin de Grey has mistaken her for the blacksmith’s daughter since she was working in the forge. Now, to tell him the truth would risk her friend never seeing his son again.
Sparks will fly when the truth is revealed and circumstances turn lovers against each other. But with passion hotter than the fires of the forge between Winter and Martin, can something that started as lust turn into an undying love between them?
(This is the last book of the series. It is best to read the Legendary Bastards of the Crown Series, as well as books 1-3 of the Seasons of Fortitude Series first, however, each book stands alone.)
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3.5 STARS
I didn’t care for the 1/4 of the book. The h I liked until she hops in bed with the H too quickly. His ceiling has erotic images on the ceiling in his bedroom. She’s curious and wants to try them. They both went down hill in the creditability department.
As the story progresses I started to feel a connection to them. There is descriptive lovemaking, many times, heat level at least 4 out of 5. Still I felt more lust than romance.
Even though I didn’t care for the beginning, this was my favorite of the series. It is a stand alone, but as with most series, there are many crossover character’s.
There are many twists in this story that raised my rating. Some things I certainly didn’t see coming and I liked there was a kink in their road to HEA. One part I didn’t care for was the ridiculous choice the H makes in taking someone to his room – what? In one of the twists, I liked how the h acted with the H.
No cheating, no cliffhanger, HEA, little on romance and steam. (ljb)
This is excellent reading. I loved reading about a woman who can make the best swords. Winter’s adventurous spirit inspires me. She’s far braver than I, and she truly earned her happily ever after. Martin was so good to not give up throughout the many twists and winding pathways that love had to travel to reach its goal. It was clever how the many different obstacles were interwoven into the romance story. I also was very interested in the sword making information. These characters are very likable. Both are filled with life and bravely reach out to one another. They have a rough beginning and a delightfully smooth finish. Definitely recommend this unique book.
I liked it.
The fourth booknin the Seasons of Fortitude series, Winter’s Flame focuses on Lady Winter. Winter loves working in the blacksmith forge, and sets out to help Wallace forge a sword so he can meet a contract that will free his son Josef. Using Spanish steel, Winter begins to make a sword for Lord Martin. Wallace can’t help much because he is losing his sight, so the completed sword is months overdue. So begins Winter’s Flame and the romance between Winter and Martin. A relatively straightforward plot, the book has a couple of predictable twists in the romance. As usual, the entire extended family comes together at the end for a moving Christmas celebration.
A noble woman who has developed a passion for iron work and was trained by one of the best blacksmiths in Briton. While attending her sisters wedding shes mistaken for the blacksmiths daughter and forced by another Lord to go with the blacksmith to his castle to craft a sword for him. Add escapes, hostage taking, jail breaks, romance, former lovers and the usual misunderstandings and it makes for a fairly good story.
I liked how positions were reversed in this novel.
I received this as an advanced readers copy for an honest review.I really liked Martin and Winter’s story. It brings back my belief that if love is there, one can overcome anything. About the only thing that I didn’t like about this book is that it ended too soon. Martin was a very arrogant and high-handed individual not only kidnapping Wallace, the blacksmith but assuming lady winter was a commoner. Wallace was supposed to construct Martin a sword made out of Damascus steel, the most highly prized material in the world. When the work was not completed as scheduled, Martin forced Wallace and who he thought Wallace’s daughter was, but in actuality, was Lady Winter. She is the daughter of Ross Douglas. Because Martin compromised Winter, they married. I felt she took an inordinately long time to decide whether she was going to marry him. I felt she really didn’t have a choice because a noblewoman was supposed to be a virgin on her wedding night and there were not many options during that time available to women. The fact that Winter was a very good blacksmith was unheard of for women. I like this about the book that she was a very strong independent woman. Although, many times her independent nature got her into a lot of trouble. Ms. Rose has he had another very good story and if you like a lot of action and adventure, you will definitely like this book. If I could give it more than five stars I would definitely do that and I highly recommend this book. Thank you Ms. Rose for yet another enjoyable read.
This story was okay. It doesn’t really feel like it’s from a particular historical period, the characters ages were brushed over as well.
I came very close to dnf’ing this book. About 30% in, I skipped over a huge chunk of it to try and get towards something a little more interesting and mostly because I didn’t want to dnf out of pure stubbornness. Unfortunately, that did not help. The main character, Winter, proved to be a rebel without a cause, which, while a classic movie, is not an entertaining character to follow along on a journey. Winter does things not because she’s making a point, not because she’s making a stand, and not even because it’s the right thing to do, but because she feels like it, or because someone told her not to so now she wants to. I found her insipid, annoying, and bratty in many respects. The romantic male lead whose name I have already forgotten was eye-rollingly broody and the romance was also cringy. There was no realistic lead up, no real reason behind these two falling in love, aside from the fact that no one else was going to fall in love with them, so I guess in that respect they deserve each other. Boring plot, poor characterization, no real character growth, and senseless romance. Not a fan.
Not one of my favorites by Elizabeth Rose. I thought it was a slow start and you needed to read the earlier books to truly appreciate the story. Ended well. I do like that Winter is bright and independent but I didn’t strongly feel anything for either character.
I thought there were too many characters to keep up with. I enjoyed the originality of a female blacksmith character though.
This was a different story. Interesting as the lady was a blacksmith. So fun and entertaining.
A nice adventure with the main character disguising herself with real work unlike many of her class.
This girl has a crazy, wild family and though you don’t see a lot of them in this, her adventure is entertaining and she is very strong willed. Liked the characters and the storyline.
Did not think story believable for the time period.
Enjoyed the story line —
Worth reading for a mind journey.
too many things tioo far from reality… too contrived
Audiobook Review
I’ve enjoyed this series, although I didn’t read any of Legendary Bastards of the Crown Series which the author suggests. I didn’t find the series lacking because I hadn’t. Each sister is very different and with great entertainment I followed their difficulties in life while finding their true loves.
Winter is very stubborn and high-spirited. She is also very protective of people she loves, as we discover when she does something unthinkable for a noble lady—works in the forge to help the blacksmith. She also discovers she has a passionate streak when she meets Sir Martin de Grey.
The story is quite comical, even though the stakes are high. As Winter is helping the blacksmith who no longer has good enough eyesight to do his work, Sir Martin de Grey comes to the forge demanding his sword. Of course, the sword hadn’t been worked on because Sir Martin had taken his son as a hostage, who most recently did the blacksmith’s work.
Now Sir Martin enjoys women, pure and simple — but never touches a virgin. He sees Winter, thinking her the blacksmith’s daughter, and is immediately interested in the wench. Lady Winter has to pretend to be the daughter and eventually they must both go to Sir Martin’s own forge to work on the sword.
I liked Lady Winter’s curious manner and her desire to learn more about what happens between a man and woman. Her demeanor has Sir Martin thinking she has done this before–which she hasn’t! Her curiosity could just kill the cat! Her no-nonsense approach to life, even at nineteen gives her a maturity other girls don’t have at her age.
When Sir Martin de Grey approaches her, taking her to his chamber, she goes. That chamber has painted scenes on the ceiling which should make any maiden swoon. Not Lady Winter. Like I said it’s all very comical and you will get some laughs from it. Sir Martin almost forgets why he needs the sword to be forged and doesn’t learn of Lady Winter’s true identity until he has done the deed. All this just complicates the situation further.
Another character I find humorous is the nanny. In fact, the narrator does the personification of this woman to perfection. Nanny is a seer, but doesn’t see all. Just glimpses. She’s been Lady Winter’s nurse since she was a bairn and follows her to Sir Martin’s castle. She tries to talk reason into Lady Winter, but Winter is just too curious!
On the whole, his narration was good. It’s pacing and tone was one of levity. It is with some regret I felt the narrator portrayed little emotion from Lady Winter as she is in Sir Martin’s bed or close to. The tone of the dialogue rang false, feeling too dry and methodical, rather than playful.
Bottom Line: 5 for story , 4 for performance
This story had me involved from the very start. Loved the characters as well as the intrigue. Great ending to a great series.