Zeek's Reviews > Saving Grace

Old bookie friend reminded me I never reviewed this one even though I've re-read it often so here goes after a recent re-read...

One of the best of Garwood’s old historicals; it features a heroine who bravely finds a way out of an abusive situation- and, fortunately, into a love match. A hero who is gruff but noble. And an intrigue plot featuring kings and conspiracies.

Okay, okay, it’s a romance novel plot, solved with a perfect Happily Ever After ending, accompanied by men too amazing to be believed and women who every woman wants to believe they can be, but whatever, that’s what I love about JG old historicals.

Johanna has been beaten and told she’s less than dull-witted cattle in God’s grand scheme of things but she’s never believed it in her heart. When her husband is lost and thought dead she ensures her release from her enslavement, (for that’s what her marriage was), by blackmailing an annulment out of devious King John. Thinking her independence secure, she’s less than pleased, to say the least, when her beloved brother secures another husband for her- mostly, she’s scared witless. But she moves ahead, determined to be courageous.

Gabriel Macbain is the Laird of a renegade Scottish clan formed from the merging of two. His new wife and the land that comes with her will help with the merging. but she needs more than a husband. She needs a protector, for she has a secret that will change the destiny of kings and countries.

The Macbain is a strong leader, but his little wife is stronger. And when they come together as partners in life as well as in love, they become a force to be reckoned with. She may have started off as a means to an end, but she actually becomes his saving grace.

This is one that sticks with you- sometimes between re-reads, I'll forget a plot point or two, but certain aspects will remain. Saving Grace I always remember as- "The one where the heroine sews two plaids together". (you'll understand why such a mundane task stuck with me when you read it.)