Title: Immortal Champion
Author: Lisa Hendrix
Genre: Historical Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Number of Pages: 338
Source: Found for free on Amazon.
I found Immortal Champion by chance on Amazon under it's freebies list, and am so glad I found it. Every time I think I'm ready to give up on historical romances, along comes a book that changes my mind. In this case it was Immortal Champion that gave me hope that I don't have to break up with this genre after all.
Immortal Champion is book three in the Immortal Brotherhood Series, but can be read as a stand alone. I didn't feel like I missed anything by not reading the first two books in the series.
Gunnar the Red is apart of the a viking crew that was cursed by a witch long ago. The crew found out by chance that only true love can break their curse. Gunnar has long given up on finding his true love-that is until he meets Lady Eleanor de Neville.
Gunnar and the other 8 members of the crew that was cursed by a witch tend to stay by themselves so no one will discover what they are. At sunrise each day, Gunnar is transformed into a beast-and is made human again at sunset. When he rescues Lady Eleanor from a fire, he is forced to break one of his rules and stays the night at the castle because he doesn't want to offend her father-a powerful lord. Lady Eleanor is immediately smitten with him. Gunnar thinks that she is too young, and puts the incident out of his mind.
Years later, they meet up at a tournament of some kind. Lady Eleanor is bethroed to someone else, but finds herself still attracted to Gunnar. Now that she is all grown up, Gunnar finds himself very attracted to Lady Eleanor-but knows they can never be together because of his curse. This is just a gut wrenching novel because of all the missed opportunities that happen between Gunnar and Lady Eleanor, but it's tender at the same time because they never stop thinking about each other. This is what makes Immortal Champion different then other historical romances I've read. The love story manages to stay true to the time period it's in. However, this is also what almost lost me in the story. The two do find their way back to each other, but it happens very late in the story-I would have liked to have seen more of them together. I also would have liked to see the other members of the crew a bit more, and the other characters from previous books involved more. Despite those two things though, I really enjoyed this freebie and look forward to going back and reading the first two books in this series to see what I missed!
Curran Crush Meter: Medium
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Low (sorry Gunnar!)
Martini Sigh Meter: Medium
