Well this was a pleasant surprise in my ongoing project of clearing old NetGalley reads. And man do I wish I hadn't slept on this series!

While it was a fantasy romance novel, it did not have a lot of sex, but just enough. There were ever present tropes, but the tropes were not overly concocted and the story did not rely on tropes to carry it. All in all: good writing, good story, and I am definitely reading the rest of the books in the series!

I loved the characters and the storyline development of this book. It was absolutely one of my favorites so far and I can't wait to delve in to the next one that this author writes. The storyline was simple, enjoyable, and entertaining.

Kerrelyn Sparks has crafted a beautiful world in her Embraced series and I quickly found myself drawn into the story by Brigitta and Rupert.

This is an entertaining romp. I loved the injection of humor in a genre that tends to be so serious.

Get lost in the fantasy and romance!

This is the second in the series and it was as amazing as the first! Kerrelyn Sparks has created a literary world that I am once again happy to dive into. The Isle of Moon has spawned another amazing story… Brigitta and her sisters of the heart grew up together on an isolated island convent, safe from the dangers of the world. Each had unique challenges and strengths, but each would face them never alone.

As her elder sister had done before her, Brigitta was going to find out how she had come to be there and how it would affect her future. While the world they inhabited was wonderfully familiar, Brigitta’s story was anything but as she and Rupert were now together in a chaotic world of intrigue, danger and, surprisingly, love…

There are kingdoms and powers, people who are more than they seem and others who wish they could be so. It is paranormal and medieval-esque with lots of action and excitement, but with all the heart-punches of a feel good romance. If we are in the future or the past, it is a time and place that has me hooked, impatient for the next humour-filled and schmexy conversation between the lead characters. Ably supported by a quirky group of supporting friends and family, there is everything here I crave in a great story. And there is luckily more to come!

I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first book, I think that's half to do with my love of anything to do with old ships. lol. I blame The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

Just a fun, light fantasy romance. Definitely a good distraction.

A gripping fairytale romance unlike anything you’ve read read before. You’ll be drawn in by all the characters and left wanting more. I know I was. So many possibilities! I can’t wait to read more. 5 stars!!

so iv not read book 1 and wish i had as it took me a while to get to grips with the books and the world. but none the less Kerrelyn is an awesome writer and this book was a fun read.

I had to read the first one in order to get the second one's story. I liked this one a lot even though it was slow in the start but did enjoy the story. I loved how the wind magic Rupert uses throughout the book even using it on dragons. I do have the next one and planning to read it.

This is book two in The Embraced series, and even though it’s written as a standalone, I think you should read book one before you dive into this one. Reason for it is the world that the author built from book one might be a bit jarring and confusing to someone that is starting the series from this tale and because I really liked book one, I’d also recommend that you read that book as well.

The world of Aerthlan continues to fascinate and its magic is still intriguing and mesmerizing as well as the characters of Rupert and Brigitta. Their chemistry is instantaneous but the road to their happily ever after has a lot of bumps in it.

This was one of just a handful of paranormal romances that I’ve read and really got into it. I enjoyed the vast differences in main characters which produced entertaining dialogue and made me fall in love with the characters.

Highly recommending it and the whole series.

Melanie for b2b

A very nice blend of romance, likeable characters, danger with a dash of magic. Normally I am not a big fan of fantasy, however when written with Kerrelynn Sparks' talent it is a joy to read. We were introduced to the five adopted sisters in the first novel in this series. All were born while their world's two moons eclipse. Children born during this time are embraced, in other words, they are given gifts/powers. These five were sheltered on the Isle of the Moon for their protection. The time has come for them to one by one meet their intended mates. This is Brigitta and Rupert's story and what a story. It is fast paced, holding the reader's attention from beginning to end. I already have the next in the series loaded, can't wait to read it. Love these characters and this storyline.

Well, I might be kicking myself that it took me so long to start The Embraced series, but I’m glad that I didn’t have any waiting to do before starting on So I Married a Sorcerer right after finishing How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days. And I have to say — I loved it even more than the first book! It was so wonderful and I just couldn’t get enough!

Ms. Sparks does an excellent job of making her hero and heroine so likable because once again, I find myself having a hard time deciding who I loved more between Rupert and Brigitta. I really couldn’t pick who is my favorite, so I’ll just talk about Brigitta first. Brigitta is kind, creative, compassionate, and warm. She is strong and brave and true. Brigitta is every bit as honorable as Rupert — she is amazing and I loved her to pieces.

As soon as I heard about Rupert in How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days, I was hoping he would be one of the heroes in this series. What can I say — I have a thing for pirates — well, the good ones anyway. And Rupert definitely is one of the good ones. Don’t worry though, he’s like a pirate in the ways it counts, I won’t tell you how, but Sister Fallyn will let you know how. All kidding aside, Rupert is sweet, noble, and honorable. He’ll make your heart ache and melt and he will without a doubt steal it — he certainly stole mine.

So I Married a Sorcerer takes you on an exciting, heart pounding ride full of twists and turns and ups and downs. It will break your heart, but also warm it and it will make you keep turning the pages because you have to find out what happens next. There’s never a dull moment in this fun, passionate tale!

So I Married a Sorcerer is the second book in The Embraced series, but you can read it as a standalone although I highly recommend reading the first book as it is fantastic. It’s mostly told from Rupert and Brigitta’s POV and they do get a happy ending.

~ A Hopeless Romantic’s Booklandia, 5 Stars

QuickShot Review
My TBR, aka the Mountain, has been a scary place where ARCs have been known to disappear if one is not careful. So it was with this ARC, and I only realized I had it when I went to review the next book in the series. Oops. So, my apologies for the way late review.

Having said that, this book was….cute. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book, since it tended to be a bit repetitious, the love is just as insta but without the followup scenes to really make me believe in that love that the first book had. Like the first book however, the pacing is much the same - starts strong and peters out for a bit, then turns into a bone-jarring race to the finish.

I liked it enough that I’m still interested in reading the next book and I’d recommend if you’re a Kerrelyn Sparks fan and have read the first book, or if you have an interest in a mix of fantasy/historical/paranormal romances in general. Onto the next.



**ARC provided by publisher via netgalley for review**

This second installment of the Embraced series takes place about a year(ish) after the end of How to Tame a Beast in 10 Days. Luciana has married the Beast of Benwick and they are now King and Queen of Eberon. Luciana is expecting their first child and all her sisters are traveling from the Isle of Moon to see her and assist with the birth. However, as they are en route, their ship is overtaken by both the Tourin military fleet and the infamous pirate, Rupert.

Brigitta is the heroine in this installment, and she has been waiting for her fate to arrive since her last throw of the telling stones months ago. Brigitta grew up thinking she was an orphan, but finds out that she is actually a princess, with questionable family connections in Tourin. Brigitta was a balanced heroine. She was fair, courageous, and determined to right the wrongs of history that her family unfairly dealt. She was a little bit immature and naive - but not annoyingly so. I admired her determination to help our hero, even when it was dangerous for her to do so.

Our hero, Rupert, is a mysterious masked pirate and wind sorcerer. He has been harrying the Tourin fleet and stealing their gold for years in a bid for vengeance against its cruel rulers. As powerful as Rupert is, he is also vulnerable given his tragic childhood and the necessity for him to live most of his life in hiding. My heart went out to the younger Rupert - I can't imagine the terror he felt as a child. I liked that he was willing to listen to our heroine and allow her to participate in his quest for the throne. It solidified their relationship and made them stronger as a couple.

The secondary characters in this story remain stellar. Brody is an absolute favorite and I'm hoping he gets paired with one of our sisters from the Isle of Moon. I liked Rupert's captain and father figure, Stephan, and was glad he had that slot filled in his life after the earlier tragedies. I started out really liking Sister Fallon and her extreme fear of being ravished... but she got to be a little much at times and was an inhibitor at times to Rupert and Brigitta's relationship.

The next installment features a dragon shifter and our elvin sister, Gwennore, and it promises to be entertaining.

So I Married a Sorcerer continues about eight months after How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days. It is book two in the Embraced series by Kerrelyn Sparks. So I Married a Sorcerer features Brigitta. She is one of the adopted sisters from the Isle of Moon. The sister Luciana from book one has the gift of foresight and they use the Telling Stones game to each other’s future. Brigitta is worried about hers after Luciana predicted she would meet her tall and handsome man but that there would be seven suitors for her hand. Despite playing the game over and over in hopes of changing the prediction, it continues to tell her the same thing.

The sisters are on their way to Eberon to be with Luciana as she gives birth to her baby when they are approached by ships from Tourin. Those ships are demanding that Brigitta come with them. Here is where Brigitta learns where she comes from and what she is. As they debate the release of Brigitta, the ships are attacked by pirates who also demand Brigitta. Brigitta ends up on the pirate’s ship with the legendary pirate Rupert.

Rupert has led a secret life and his pirate persona is just one he is using until his plan for revenge on the king of Tourin is in place. Part of his plan involved Brigitta, but their relationship soon grows to a point where he realizes he can’t go through with it. Another option is presented and he becomes involved in the plot Brigitta’s brother has to hold a competition for Brigitta’s hand in marriage.

So I Married a Sorcerer was a lot of fun. Seeing not only Brigitta and Rupert’s relationship grow as well as a secondary romance that builds was exciting. Brigitta is brave and smart, coming up with plans to keep Rupert from getting in trouble as well as getting her safely back to her sisters.

The competition was exciting and I was sucked in rooting for Rupert to defeat the opposition. The story takes you on a great adventure across the lands and a character from book one continues to cause problems for the couple in this book.

I had a great amount of excitement with Brigitta and Rupert. Their story was romantic and with an edge of Brigitta’s overly dramatic ways. I loved the couple and the secondary couple’s relationship was a lot of fun too. I’m not normally a fantasy reader, but I’m really enjoying this series. Kerrelyn Sparks writing is very fluid and she includes a lot of great laughable moments. It makes me really eager to read her paranormal series. I think I would have a lot of fun with it.

The world is pretty complicated in this series, so its best to read the books in order. The stories have the feel of fairy tales, this one feels like Snow White. It was a fun, cute, romantic story with lots of drama and I can't wait for the next one.

Received ARC in exchange for voluntary honest review from NetGalley.

I always find this author funny and good light entertainment I preferred her earlier series to this new one. I'm not as interested in the fantasy elements.

I enjoyed Book 1 of the series, but I loved Book 2! To recap, the series follows a group of adopted sisters who’ve been secluded at a convent. Here we follow the second of the sisters, Brigitta. The convent is headed by Mother Ginessa. In the style of Albus Dumbledore, Mother Ginessa has kept the girls’ true histories secret until she’s forced to reveal some tiny amount info, at which time she reveals just a slice of the truth before sending the girl off on her merry way. (Because, you know, understanding their family histories and being able to prepare to meet those challenges head on is apparently a no-go for Mother Ginessa.) But as with Luciana from book 1, Brigitta rises to the challenge when she’s told she’s actually a princess (surprise!) who’s half-brother the king is suddenly requesting her presence (i.e., basically kidnapping her off the ship she’s on). But while she’s getting these truth bombs dropped on her, the infamous pirate Rupert interrupts her brother’s kidnapping with his own more successful kidnapping. Turns out Rupert haaaaates her brother and wants to use Brigitta as part of his revenge plot, and as Brigitta learns more about her awful brother and Rupert’s big secret, she realizes she’s sorta ok with that. The rest of the book becomes about Brigitta, Rupert, and their friends trying to right past wrongs and bring peace to the kingdom.

I adored both Brigitta and Rupert. Brigitta is smart and brave but in a way that’s realistic for a naive, sheltered young woman. She’s understandably freaked out by Rupert and isn’t stupid about taking risks, but she also knows that if she doesn’t go with him she puts innocent people in danger. I love the way she’s so protective of her friends and, later, of Rupert and his crew. She’s Embraced as well (a person born with magical powers, which is illegal in most of the world), although I didn’t think her power was used to its full potential for most of the book. She can find things that are hidden, which can mean objects as well as a person’s secrets. I thought there could be more done to explore this talent, but instead it really only plays a major role towards the end.

Rupert is also Embraced, and his power is much cooler. He can control the wind, a power he uses to great effect when he’s pirating or whispering sexily in Brigitta’s ear from across the ship. He’s very much a pirate in the style of Westley from A Princess Bride, in that he's handsome, kind, only steals from bad guys, and always protects innocent people. He’s kind to his crew, helps out the underdog, and is so tender with Brigitta, even from the start. That doesn’t change the fact that he is planning to use her in a cruel way, though. As readers we can see immediately that he would never be able to go through with it, but he experiences some major internal conflict as he wrestles with his desire for revenge and his desire for Brigitta. He has spent his entire life plotting revenge and hating both Brigitta and her brother, but the more he gets to know her the more he sees she is not what he thought. I loved that as his feelings grew for Brigitta, he realizes he has to find another way, and then he’s all in with her. He is just such a good man!

There were two relatively minor things I didn’t like about the book. First, I thought the ending with Brigitta’s brother was kind of rushed and trite. I also got annoyed by the constant jokes about the pirates ravishing Brigitta and her chaperone, Sister Fallyn. It is a pretty serious subject and, in reality, would be a huge threat to both women. It went on way too long and just felt kind of icky, when there were other ways Sister Fallyn could have provided comic relief.

I think you could certainly enjoy this book without reading Book 1 of the series, but I think you’d get a lot more out of it if you started with Book 1. I am beyond excited to read Book 3 (one word: DRAGONS!!), and I can’t wait to see where this series goes.

Funny and interesting. Quite different from the author's other works, yet didn't disappoint.

So I Married a Sorcerer by Kerrelyn Sparks is the second book in Sparks' Embraced series. It is a fantasy romance (which is a very small genre that needs more attention). While I had some of the same misgivings as I had from the first book, How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days, I enjoyed this book more than its predecessor.

Brigitta knows nothing of her origins. All she knows is her life growing up on the Isle of the Moon with the nuns there and her adopted sisters, and that she is Embraced. Being Embraced means several things. First, she was born on one of the days where the two moons eclipsed, which then caused her to have a magical ability. For Brigitta, this is an ability to know when someone is hiding something, to discover those secrets, and find hidden objects. It also means that should she step foot on the mainland, she is in danger because four of the five kings fears her abilities, and would kill her because of them.

On her way to visit one of her adopted sisters who is about to give birth, her ship is attacked by pirates. She is surprised to find she is a missing princess of Tourin, and her brother, the king, has been looking for her. These pirates think to take a ransom from King Gunther in exchange for his little sister. One of these pirates is Rupert, who has made it his life's mission to thwart King Gunther who he claims ruined his life and family.

Rupert struggles with his conscience and honor with delivering Brigitta to King Gunther. She is of the same lineage as the man he hates the most, but she appears to be nothing like the cruel man. He then finds out the true purpose for the King's recent search for his sister, and he doesn't want to put her into such a horrible situation. Brigitta is also torn when it comes to Rupert. She despises the way he threatened the people she loves to abduct her, but the secrets he holds close inflame her curiosity. She also gets confused by his pirate side which conflicts with his honorable side.

The romance and passion in this story were very compelling. Sparks was able to create a complex chemistry that worked so well. I found myself needing to know and understand every secret! My only misgivings were the same as with the previous book. Some of the dialogue felt too modern for the fantasy setting. I also didn't like how the book had an intro that spells out the magic system and the land's political standings. In most of the fantasies I've read, you learn about those things within the story so it feels like you're discovering them as you read. This is just my personal preference however; I could definitely see other readers liking it all spelled out in the beginning to help them understand.

This book was great, and I'm glad I've read it. This tiny genre of fantasy romance needs more material, and I'm stoked to have this installment. It's been quite awhile since a book has captured my attention as well as this one. I can't wait to read the third in the series!

**ARC provided by Publisher**