Review and Giveaway - Love's First Light by Jamie Carie

Love's First Light by Jamie Carie





rating: 4.5/5.0



From Amazon.com:

New from Jamie Carie, today’s most awarded new Christian romance writer.

Christophé, the Count of St. Laurent, has lost his entire family to the blood-soaked French Revolution and must flee to an ancient castle along the southern border of France to survive. But the medieval city of Carcassonne proves more than a hiding place. Here Christophé meets the beautiful widow Scarlett, a complex and lionhearted woman suddenly taken by the undercover aristocrat’s passion for astronomy and its influence upon his faith. Although their acquaintance begins brightly enough, when the Count learns that Scarlett is related to the man who murdered his family, he turns from love and chooses revenge. Heaven only knows what it might take for Christophé to love again, to love his enemy, and to love unconditionally.

I read Wind Dancer by Jamie Carie a few months ago and loved it, so I was not surprised at all to fall in love with Love's First Light also. This time Ms. Carie uses the French Revolution as the backdrop for her story which starts in Paris and moves to the French countryside and returns to Paris. This is another time frame I am not familiar with at all, but it came alive for me. I feel like I learned things about the people during this very tough time when the country was in transition.

Christophe was your basic tortured hero and so much more. He lost his family to the revolution and fled Paris for his decrepit family castle to live the life of a hermit, but instead stumbles upon Scarlett, the pregnant widow.

Scarlett was not married long before the Revolution took her husband and left her widowed and pregnant. She returns home to her mother and sister and with the help of her husband's uncle they make baked goods to support themselves. Then Scarlett's restless soul happens upon Christophe and a friendship grows into love.

The characters of Scarlett and Christophe are amazing. Christophe is flawed, Scarlett is naive, but yet worldly. There love feels real. I enjoyed the secondary characters of Scarlett's family and Christophe's familiy friend in Paris. The action kept the story moving and so did the characterization.

A well-written and well-executed novel from the first page. I was swept up in the story and didn't want to be put down at the end.

Binding: Paperback
On-sale Date: July 1, 2009
Publisher: B&H Books
Pages: 320

I received this from The Library Thing Early Reviewers Program courtesy of the publisher.

Also I would like to give away my copy which is an arc. I will open the contest today through August 29th . US and Canada residents only please. Please enter by:

1. Commenting on my blog, make sure I have a way to contact you. (+1)
   
2. Become a blog follower or let me know if you are already a follower (+1)
3. Tell me any other Jamie Carie books you have read and enjoyed (+1)
4. Tweet about this review and giveaway, use @cfulcher in the tweet so I can find it (+1)
5. Follow me on Twitter (or let me know if you are a current follower) (+1)
6. Blog about this contest and let me know the link (sidebar or post is fine) (+1)

So there you go - 6 ways to get an entry into this contest. You can leave them in separate posts or one post, it doesn't matter, I will make sure you get your entries, just make sure to let me know what you do.