A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
This book includes knights and castles and jousts—so much fun. I most relate to Jennifer Merrick’s stubbornness. Although, I cannot relate to her continued family loyalty—that aggravates the hell out of me.
Another favorite and highly recommended. This book ends my Judith McNaught historical romance rereads.
I love Royce Westmoreland—his sensitivity and empathy with Jennifer. There is a scene that pissed me off and you’ll know it when you get to it; I can only surmise that McNaught has a spanking kink and while I don’t wanna knock her for getting her kinks where she may, I, however, do not like it. It reeks of patriarchal paternalism and if not handled correctly, can ruin an entire story. I love how Jennifer handled it here though—with a knife slicing and carving. 🤣 He learned his lesson.
The third act is excitement and pure drama and I can only imagine how it would play in an actual series.
I wanna amend to a statement I wrote in an earlier review about utopian fanfiction. I love, love, love what Shonda Rhimes does with her creations and we would be so, so fortunate to have her flip the switch on all these historical romance novels with gay dukes and black duchesses and transgender queens, etc. That would be such an empathetic and creatively refreshing way to re-examine history while also doing some serious critical thinking and discussion on the whitewashing of it. It would be a fantastic way to cede white cishet spaces to the marginalized while also promoting a diversified representation (think Hamilton but historical romance novels and less singing—although I like the singing too!). There is a number of things I’ve learned these past few years and above all is that people are incredibly ignorant of history. This would be a welcome change with the love and passion and hot sex! I get excited just thinking about it. Bring it!
*This site is an Amazon Associate and any Amazon links shared on this site or via social media are Amazon Associate links.
meanderings.me 