Spring’s Fury by Denise Domning #DeniseDomning @sophiarose1816 #KindleUnlimited

Desperate to avoid a forced marriage to Sir Gilliam FitzHenry, the man she claims killed her father, Nicola of Ashby stages a daring escape attempt. To no avail, even though she uses all the warrior’s skills she learned at her father’s knee, including wielding her sword with deadly effect against a pack of thieves. She cannot elude this knight who is as much her match as her mate.

A fourth son, Gilliam FitzHenry had no hope of ever having his own home or a wife in his arms until he besieged Ashby and claimed its folk as his own. With winter approaching he must take Nicola as his wife and return her to her place as Ashby’s lady if his home and folk are to survive the hungry season. Once he’s done this, he dared to dream he might one day make this deadly and dangerous woman a wife in more than name only, a task that will demand every bit of his natural talent for taming wild creatures.

The fierce Valkyrie-like warrioress, Nicola of Ashby, refuses to give place to the Graistan knight who conquered Ashby and killed her father.  Gilliam has regrets in his life, but not the taking of Ashby or wanting its lady for a bride.  Denise Domning’s medieval romance series continues to sizzle and shine with compelling characters and intriguing plots set against a well-crafted 12^th century world.

Spring’s Fury is the third installment in the Graistan Chronicles– or sometimes titled- Seasons series.  While Spring’s Fury is a standalone story, both characters have been present since the first book and the events that lead to their story begin in Winter’s Heat.

Spring’s Fury opens with Nicola imprisoned at Graistan on the eve of her forced marriage with Gilliam Fitzhenry the new acknowledged lord of her family’s manor at Ashby.  Gilliam’s oldest brother is the overlord her own father rebelled, held Rannulf Fitzhenry captive, and Nicola herself barred the gates when Gilliam came to retrieve his brother.  These decisions gave the Fitzhenrys the right to take Ashby by law.

However, Nicola is having none of it.  That manor is hers- she put in the work and she’s the heiress.  And, she will do whatever it takes to wrest it back from the powerful Fitzhenrys even if it means claiming a betrothal to a neighbor who she can’t stand and only wants her for Ashby lands.  Over her dead body- but more likely his- will she wed the man who killed her father.

Gilliam has spent the time of Nicola’s captivity and the legal process time rebuilding Ashby and building rapport with the people there.  Rannulf and Geoffrey think he is crazy to take Nicola as wife.  She’s an Amazon-sized female with formidable fighting skills who will fight and has promised to kill to hold Ashby on her own.  Gilliam has a way of taming wild creatures and perhaps this will hold him in good stead with a strong woman- besides, he is convinced this is his penance for a past sin.

Nicola has a heedless plan that sets into motion events she will later come to regret- but she already has regrets for her part in Ashby’s burning and her father’s death- just like Gilliam.  Her temper always gets the better of her and she speaks before she thinks.  She’s a skilled, capable woman living in a man’s world and it chafes at her.

Spring’s Fury starts out in a way that left me twitching to smack the heroine.  She has reason for her grief and some anger.  But boy howdy was she acting like a spoilt brat- a toddler smashing its toys about.  And, her decisions were equally immature.

However, there was hope for her and she had to fall pretty low to see that she needed to change.  I’m glad that some of Gilliam’s self-flagellation attitude that was strong in Winter’s Heat had lessened by Spring’s Fury so I didn’t have to deal with his drama at the same time.

This was an unlikely pairing that found a way.  Gilliam was the calm, steady rock at the heart of the story.  The people of Ashby saw his strength and the heart he had for the manor, holdings, and even Nicola long before she caught a glimmer.   This pair wrestled with the emotional trauma of being on opposite sides when Ashby was fought over, but they slowly found common ground restoring Ashby in their own areas of expertise and also as they worked with the boy squire Gilliam was training who started as a mama’s boy and didn’t want to be a squire.

And, just to be clear, forced marriage didn’t mean Gilliam forced himself on Nicola or abused her (actually, she was the abusive one).

But, the relationship drama was only the central aspect.  There was also the neighbor, Ocslade, that Nicola gave an excuse to try his play for Ashby by foul means since he had no honorable rights to it.  Spring’s Fury focuses on life at Ashby and the romance, but in the back of the reader’s mind is the knowledge that Ocslade would make his play.  The suspense built and I liked how it all culminated in an exciting climax.

Spring’s Fury turned out to be another strong winner for me and I am eager to continue to the last Graistan brother, Geoff’s story.  These are not soft tales and portray the grittier side of medieval life even among the nobles who have to fight hard for love and for lands.  Definitely a recommend to those who love this period for historical romance.

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Sophia

Reviewer at Books of My Heart

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening.Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

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