Medieval Historical Romance Based on Real People

As was often the case at the time, Joanna and Philip’s marriage was arranged, but they found love. Joanna of Castile was a passionate woman, and her passion earned her the term “mad Joanna." This author wrote about how these two royals might have loved one another. There was also court intrigue, politics, and alliances of the time.

This is a well-written, Steamy historical romance. It is based on real people who lived at the time. If you don’t research Joanna and Philip's story, you will be reading a happy romance with some serious drama. If you search their life story, you will learn the facts about their lives. What I like about historical romance is that the people in the stories are imaginary. When the story ends with a happy ever after, you can imagine them living forever, as unrealistic as that might be. When a book is based on historical fact, reality intrudes, and it is not always happy.

What can I say? I loved this book! Loved the characters. I really think this author's writing flows well. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a great intriguing and heartfelt romance story.

A magnificent and stunning romance. I have absolutely adored this series. The spice, humor, banter, plot are all executed with alluring talent. I can't wait for book three.

Take actual history related to past kingdoms, study what has been validated and published then write a fantastic creative piece on the personal perspective of these royals and what do you have? A smash! Fabulous, engaging, page turner of a story. The story of Joanna and Phillip is based on historical facts and brought to life with the creativity of this author. The life of these two was fraught with love, jealousy, court intrigue, affairs, so much more. Joanna was married at 16-17 and Phillip was only 18, way to young to marry and deal with all the ups and downs of marriage. Joanna was so strong minded that at the time, it was thought she was crazy. Phillip on the other hand was only interested in power and his own personal pleasures, even with his love of Joanna. TAKE NOTE; If you like stories based on true historical facts, you will love this book. If however you only like the fantasy of that time period, this isn't for you.

This is not a cardboard story of life during that time but a true look at what was taking place based on power, inter marriage, struggles and more amongst the royals that shared the world we have today.
As I'm a lover of true history, I love this book as well as the one before it. I can't wait for the next one as this author has become one of my favorites.

This book is a historical but not like the whole bridgerton vibes its a medieval historical romance set in the 1400’s AD times. It was a really good book where I could keep up with it because every page was certainly interesting and not anything I have read before.
It starts with the main character Joanna who needs to find a husband, of course she gets arranged but doesn’t want it so she finds her match which is a man she has never met before named Philip. They instantly fall in love have great chemistry. The book has a lot of spice in it almost a couple of chapters I have read they were having sex. Her sister Isabella married a man in portugal who died in a riding accident so she got married again and she died during childbirth, Also her baby who is from portugal also died, her sister had such unfortunate luck in the story. I found the main character’s husband a little weird, he cared about power. Politics and couldn't wait for his wife to have a baby.

She ends up having a baby and he is all happy till he finds out her first born is a girl.
Joanna wants to name it Eleanor after her grandma if i remember correctly and Philip goes with it, she tells him not to be so mad she feels that the next kid they have will be the boy he wanted so he can be king one day and become a heir to the throne. There is a lot of fighting with Philip because his father put him as the title of ‘consort’ and he was mad about it and mad at his wife because he thought that she didn’t care that she wasn't feeling much about him and she said of course I feel bad for you. So Joanna thought she was going to travel with Philip but he said no she would not go with him till she gives birth and didn’t want her to be traveling with such a big belly. I thought of him as too controlling and bossy. He didn’t want her traveling by boat because he knew that she didn’t like it too much. Since she got sea sick quite easily.

But she said to him it would be the only way because it would be the easy way to go since France is too dangerous for them to pass. He said King Louis himself has invited us to spend time with him at court and she told him she didn’t want it because king louis is a snake and Philip thought otherwise.

There was a lot in the book I think Joanna was most of all constantly jealous of her partner thinking that hes cheating and flirting with the female couriers the ones that work in the palace and he kept telling her all the time that he was not cheating on her.Her mother at ones made her stay in the castle so she wouldn't leave while pregnant saying she was ill because she had her next baby and didn't want her to go that it wasn't normal for a princess to be constantly with her husband everywhere she goes because her mother never did it with her father and he was having other women in his bed, and she told her mother its not my fault that you and dad had a loveless marriage. Joanna showed that she was really in love with her husband and wanted to be with him every waking day wherever he went and to be with him while other people thought it was strange.

The scene in the book where she ripped the hair of one of philips old childhood friends was so crazy he thought it to be extreme trying to persuade her that it isn't what it looks like, and while she was pregnant with her 4th child she thought he was getting his pleasure elsewhere but he told her that he wasn’t doing it with any woman just his hand late at night that was funny to me
Then towards the end of the book when her mother passed she had a will for her daughter to be queen of spain but nothing for philip and she wanted to change the will to persuade her father but philip told her that her parents never really liked him and wouldn’t do it, but Joanna’s dad thought he was still king he made these coins with his face on it and she had a good idea to put her and philips face on their own coins.

Although towards the end they are in a boat lost at sea and he is the king of England's court together. I enjoyed this story and the love how strong it was with Philip and Joanna. It was a really really good book and I am happy that netgalley gave me this book to read with my opinion being 100% my own.

*MMC is the son of the couple from book #1 of the series
*heavy duty “my wife” energy
*arranged marriage between royals
*historical fiction based on Philip I and Joanna (of Aragon) of Castile
*he falls immediately. So very immediately.
*lots and lots of jealousy (Joanna)
*Philip is way too controlling for my tastes

Not overly spicy (honestly, I’m hoping to never again encounter the word “c**ny” as frequently as I did in this one) . The story, though well written, felt like it was lacking in a way. I did like it, but not as much as I’d hoped.

I do look forward to the third title in this series, but this one was not a favorite for me.



Thank you to Dragonblade Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC