5 stars for By Promise Made by @FurlongLeigh #historicalromance #medievalromance #bookreview
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  • N. N. Light
    • Nov 16, 2020
    • 3 min read

5 stars for By Promise Made by @FurlongLeigh #historicalromance #medievalromance #bookreview



Title: By Promise Made

Author: Susan Leigh Furlong

Genre: Medieval Romance, Scottish Romance

Book Blurb:

Hugh Cullane, accused of murder and sentenced to hang, is forced to deliver a message of betrothal to four-year-old Queen Mary of Scotland. He faces death yet again when, in rejecting the proposal, the queen’s guardian orders his severed head sent back to England in a jar.

Trained to protect her queen at all costs, Katherine Payne can show no mercy to the handsome messenger, despite the way his stolen kiss unsettles her single-minded sense of duty. Trapped between the English and Scottish armies, she must escape with Mary. Hugh joins her as they are chased by men determined to murder the young queen in their own quest for power.

My Review:

Katherine Payne is young Queen Mary of Scotland's guardian so when handsome Hugh Cullane arrives with a message of a proposal, she orders his beheading. She can't abide the English, much less a handsome man who steals kisses from her in the forest. She can't afford to lose sight of her duty, to protect the future of Scotland, Queen Mary. But somehow, Hugh's pleas of innocence worm their way into her heart. As the Scottish and English armies surround her, she flees with Mary and Hugh. Men vow to murder the young queen except for Hugh. He vows to protect her with his life. As Katherine and Hugh embark on a journey neither will forget, they find comfort in each other's arms and discover love is worth risking it all.

By Promise Made is a historical romance I couldn't put down. I have read a lot of books dealing with Queen Mary of Scots but this story puts a new spin on the young queen. From the first page, I was transported to medieval Scotland. The descriptive narration is so well done, I sniffed the air and heard the sounds of everything going on in By Promise Made. The plot moves at a great pace with plenty of twists and turns. Told in multiple POV's, the reader gets a secret glimpse into what motivates characters which I adored. The characters themselves are so expressive, I instantly connected with them. My favorite character has to be Katherine. Her heart wars with her sense of duty which brought such a depth to her. Start to finish, By Promise Made, is a brilliant historical romance and one I highly recommend!

My Rating: 5 stars

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Author Biography:

Susan Leigh Furlong was born in the middle of blinding spring snowstorm at the University of Michigan, which forced her mother to walk across campus in the snow to the hospital while in labor. Susan doesn’t remember any of this auspicious beginning, but it always makes for a good story! As a child she moved across the country six times to various big cities before the age of fourteen because of her father’s career in women’s ready-to-wear clothing. At college she met and married her love, and moved to his small hometown in southern Ohio, and you couldn’t get her out of there with a crowbar! She taught first grade and fourth grade and raised her children who did not have to change schools even once. Creating stories started early in life—as is typical of most writers—even before she could actually write. Then came handwritten pages stuffed in her underwear drawer, followed by stories created on a manual typewriter. Her first computer—a Commodore 64—was replaced by a series of computers and laptops, which her husband promised she could never fill up the storage space, but she always did. At age 32 she performed in her first community theater play—Guys and Dolls—where she quickly realized that she wanted to play ALL the parts, which is exactly what a writer does. She writes and/or directs church-related plays and sketches and also performs and sings with a music and drama ministry, LightReaders.

Her love of history led her to write two plays about her now hometown, followed by two historical non-fiction books published by Arcadia Publishing. She loves to do the research even though old books and documents make her cough and sneeze! Susan first discovered romance novels when she won a copy of Velvet Song by Jude Deveraux at the local bookstore. She reads all varieties of books, but historical romance is forever her first choice. The shelves in her closet are filled with her unpublished stories and books, but Steadfast Will I Be and By Promise Made are her first published by The Wild Rose Press.

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Reviewed by: Mrs. N

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