Hello, Sunshines, I have the huge pleasure to be sharing my review for; The Maiden And The Mercenary by Nicole Locke, which is the tenth book in the amazing Lovers and Legends series – how on earth can we be on the TENTH book? Wow! I can’t wait to share this book with you all, but first I want to say thank you to Nicole Locke for the complimentary advanced copy. Now, let’s have a look at this book…
About the Book
The Maiden And The Mercenary by Nicole Locke.
Genre; Medieval Romance
Series; Lovers and Legends #10
Publisher; Mills and Boon, Harlequin
Keep your friends close…
But your enemies closer?
In order to find a legendary treasure map, mercenary Louve of Mei Solis must infiltrate his enemy’s fortress under the guise of a servant. There, Louve meets beautiful maiden Biedeluue, a fellow servant with her own hidden agenda…to save her sister from the malevolent lord’s clutches!
Their high-stakes missions may be at odds with one another, but their attraction cannot be denied even in this most dangerous of situations…
Purchase Link – Amazon
Review
As soon as I met Louve in the previous books, I was fascinated by the caring yet brutal mercenary, there was something hugely enthralling about him and I have been looking forward to his story for a long time. Louve crept under my defences and has plagued me from the moment of meeting him, I would have probably had a temper tantrum if he didn’t get a story of his own, but thankfully he did get a story which has made this little reviewer incredibly happy – plus no temper tantrums 😉
The Maiden and the Mercenary is the tenth book in the thrilling and ever-so-romantic; Lovers and Legends series, I can’t believe there have been ten books already, amazing! You can easily read each book as a stand-alone, I am speaking from experience as I did come into this series pretty late and have yet to read the first ones but I have loved each and everyone I have read so far.
The story opens in 1297, where the ‘Warstone War‘ is still going strong – for those who have been following this series will know all about the Warstones – if this is your first Nicole Locke book don’t worry this is well and truly a stand-alone everything you need to know about the nefarious Warstones is right here.
Louve of Mei Solis, ruthless, hardened, jaded and easily the sexiest mercenary in town has been tasked to infiltrate the deadly Warstone lair and retrieve a crucial parchment piece (I won’t say too much about that as it is linked to the Lovers and Legend overall story) but going into the lion’s den especially being who he is will be hugely deadly, not more so once Ian Warstone knows of his presence and the games begin. But Our lovely Louve isn’t one to be intimidated he is the one who does the intimidating but even he knows one wrong move in this game of chess could lead to his and his men’s death. Once inside the castle he soon finds an unlikely ally, but what is it that his beautiful ally is hiding?
Biedluue has her own mission, she won’t allow this stranger who comes bursting in and starts barking orders at everyone, to get in her way. She – like Louse – has smuggled herself into the castle with one thing in mind, and that is to rescue her beloved sister from the beastly clutches of that devil; Warstone. As you can see both Louve and Biedluue have the same enemy, but can they trust each other enough to help one other?
The overall plot and romance didn’t disappoint, I did have my own issue (which I will discuss later) but there is so much to love about The Maiden and the Mercenary; that much loved edgy, lustful and tense chemistry between the characters which leaps of the page as you read. The intricate and compelling plotline dazzles, plus some serious swooning hero love coming from yours-truly 😉
The romance between Louve and Biedeluue really crackles with unrequited lust and want, there is a shimmer of star dust which surrounds them. Yet – and I do hate to say anything negative about these books, but I have always vowed to always be honest – I actually struggled to get into the story at first. It took quite a huge part of the begging of the book for everything to slot into place for me to start to love it, personally the first six or so chapters felt a little muddled to me, I felt there was a wee bit too much pushed into such a short space in the beginning and that’s what I struggled with especially with the amount of character’s which sort of bombard you in that first scene with Louve and Biedeluue.
To be perfectly honest I was a little surprised that it took me so long to really fall in love with this book as I had been looking forward to Louve’s story for so long, and I hate to say it but I was a little disappointed with not getting that instant buzz which I usually do with these books. But, everything fell into place eventually and then I ‘got’ what Locke was doing in the beginning, she was building up the tension, the relationship between characters and pushing both our main character’s personal reasons for being in the castle at the reader early so you could enjoy the ride later. (Does that make sense? Well it does to me)
I have to mention the names, I really love them, I can’t for the life of me figure out how to pronounce Biedeluue properly, I’m sure that I am pronouncing it completely wrong – which isn’t nothing new for me, I am terrible with names – it fits her character’ perfectly too.
Lovers and Legends Series
A clash of Celtic passions
Book 1: The Knight’s Broken Promise
Book 2: Her Enemy Highlander
Book 3: The Highland Laird’s Bride
Book 4: In Debt to the Enemy Lord
Book 5: The Knight’s Scarred Maiden
Book 6: Her Christmas Knight
Book 7: Reclaimed by the Knight
Book 8: Her Dark Knight’s Redemption
Book 9: Captured by Her Enemy Knight
Book 10: The Maiden and the Mercenary
About the Author
Nicole first discovered romance novels hidden in her grandmother’s closet.
Convinced that hidden books must be better, Nicole greedily read them. It was only natural she should start writing them (but now not so secretly).
If she isn’t working on the next book in her historical series, she can be reached at NicoleLocke.com, Facebook and on Twitter @NicoleLockeNews!
Chicks,Rogues and Scandals 