Book Review: A Love By Any Measure by Killian McRae

A Love by Any Measure by Killian McRae

Publisher: Tulipe Noire Press

Publish Date: November 8, 2011

Paperback, 344 pages 
Fiction, Historical, Romance
 ISBN: 978-0983979708

My Review: 
Killian McRae mentioned in my interview this morning that A Love By Any Measure was critiqued as "an unromantic romance".  I can kind of see where the person who critiqued the book came up with that and the author agrees, but I also see the subtle romance in the book.

I was more sold on the characters and the setting of the book than on anything else and I love my romances, but I love a great historical as well and don't think they have to be mutually exclusive.  Ms. McRae has done a brilliant job mixing the historical setting with getting to know August and Maeve both in the present and in some flashbacks.  I loved seeing how they interacted with each other and also how they interacted with others and how the social system of the time was set up.

There is also some intrigue to move the plot along as well which I enjoyed.  As I turned the pages there were new surprises for me all through the book and I loved it.  I was captivated from the first page with Maeve who only wants to save her family home and August who only wants to see the girl who knew long ago.  Both have truly missed each other but really don't know what to do about it since they come from different countries and different stations in life as well.  Also Maeve is engaged to be married.  Lots of complications to the relationship from the very beginning, but these just make the book even stronger.

I learned some new history while reading A Love By Any Measure and this is one of my favorite thinigs about historical fiction.  I found history boring in school but if I can pick up little things here and there from great fiction stories I feel smarter.  So thank you Ms. McRae for helping educate me a little more while entertaining me thoroughly.

If you like an extremely well-written historical romance with an innocent yet spunky heroine then A Love By Any Measure is a book for you. There are so many layers to this book that you will find yourself continually amazed while reading and you will not want the book to end.


My Rating: 4.75/5.0


About the Book:
An Irish lass. An English lord.
A love that overcomes all boundaries.

August Grayson has secretly dreamt of the girl living on his family’s Irish estate since childhoods spent together in Killarney. Now a proper Lord of the British Empire, he knows that Maeve could never be more than just a distant fantasy. Still, if only...

Maeve O’Connor owns nothing in this world but her good name, which proves just enough to win a proposal for a marriage of convenience to a good, Irish lad. Until the wedding, however, she’s in dire straits. Rent on the cottage she and her father share is due, but there simply isn’t the money to pay. Driven to desperation, Maeve hopes Lord Grayson, her childhood-chum-turned-dashing-English-rogue, will prove lenient when she comes seeking clemency.

The temptation presented proves too much, and August offers Maeve a compromise: should she permit him twice as long on each succeeding visit to do whatever he wishes in pursuit of his pleasure, he will consider her rent paid. Starting with a mere five seconds, pulses soon out race the ticking clock, as August’s desires become Maeve’s own. Passion blinds them to the challenges closing in on both the Irish and English fronts, threatening to destroy the love they’ve discovered.

Working to bridge that which divides them, tempting fate with each stolen kiss, and torn between desire and obligation, Maeve and August must strive to overcome all and find a love by any measure...

About the Author (from Goodreads.com): 
History is Killian's primary love in life, outside her family and, yes, sadly her dog. Therefore, her works of fiction often are packaged inside historical wrappers, as she tugs and twists on the edges of reality to ask the ever-present "What if?"

Born and raised in rural Michigan, Killian used the local library- a single room in her village's firehouse- as an escape, before actually escaping to the relative jungle of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. There, after several minor attempts to establish a major, she finally completed a BA in Turkic History and nearly attempted a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance. ("Theys call it the opry 'round these parts," she says in her heavy, Michiganian accent.)

Though she had written three novels before graduating high school, she never thought of trying to publish for- oh, it must have been well into her 30's. 12.21.12 was her first published work, released in late 2010. A second work, "A Love by Any Measure," is a historical romance set in 1860's Ireland and is due out in Fall 2011.

Killian is a member of Stanford University's Writer's Certificate program and a PRO member of the Romance Writers of America. Her other interests include musicology and did we mention history? She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area, though she is quite often unhappy about this fact.

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FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher for an honest review. 

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