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Gentle Warrior / Honor's Splendour / Lion's Lady / New Excerpt!
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Ideal Man comes an eBook box set of passion, seduction, and revenge featuring three of Julie Garwood’s classic titles (The Gentle Warrior, Honour’s Splendour, and The Lion’s Lady).
977 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 31, 2012
693 people are currently reading
375 people want to read
About the author
Julie Garwood
151 books12.5k followersWith more than 35 million books in print and 26 NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers, Julie Garwood has earned a position among America's favorite fiction writers.
Born and raised in Kansas City, MO, Ms. Garwood attributes much of her success to growing up in a large family of Irish heritage. "The Irish are great storytellers who relish getting all of the details and nuances of every situation. Add in the fact that I was the sixth of seven children. Early in life, I learned that self expression had to be forceful, imaginative, and quick," says Ms. Garwood.
She began her writing career when the youngest of her three children entered school. After the publications of two young-adult books, she turned her talents to historical fiction. Her first novel, GENTLE WARRIOR, was published by Pocket Books in 1985. Since then, she has branched into other genres including contemporary romantic suspense. Today, her name appears regularly on the bestseller lists of every major publication in the country, and her books are translated into dozens of languages around the world. Her bestselling novel FOR THE ROSES was adapted for the HALLMARK HALL OF FAME television movie ROSE HILL.
Ms. Garwood lives in Leawood, KS and is currently working on her next novel.
Born and raised in Kansas City, MO, Ms. Garwood attributes much of her success to growing up in a large family of Irish heritage. "The Irish are great storytellers who relish getting all of the details and nuances of every situation. Add in the fact that I was the sixth of seven children. Early in life, I learned that self expression had to be forceful, imaginative, and quick," says Ms. Garwood.
She began her writing career when the youngest of her three children entered school. After the publications of two young-adult books, she turned her talents to historical fiction. Her first novel, GENTLE WARRIOR, was published by Pocket Books in 1985. Since then, she has branched into other genres including contemporary romantic suspense. Today, her name appears regularly on the bestseller lists of every major publication in the country, and her books are translated into dozens of languages around the world. Her bestselling novel FOR THE ROSES was adapted for the HALLMARK HALL OF FAME television movie ROSE HILL.
Ms. Garwood lives in Leawood, KS and is currently working on her next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 27, 2018
Out of all three books I only read Lion's Lady this time. I had a taste for Victorian romance and I really enjoyed it. It's was actually funny at times. I loved the differences between Christina and Lyon. The way she was raised by Dakota Indians and the values that were instilled in her actually made her very desirable to Lyon. And Lyon being a spy and assassin for the crown made him the warrior she needed. The entire relationship was built on their differences and how despite them Lyon and Christina completed each other. Very intriguing and adventurous read. I highly recommend it!
October 10, 2023
This contained 3 books by the same author. The
late Julie Garwood wrote some great romances,
but not so much on the following.
1) Gentle Warrior -medieval. Gave this 3.5 stars.
Lady Elizabeth was treated like a boy by her sire IE
taught to ride a horse & to use a bow & arrow. And
had a pet hawk, 2 wolfhounds, & served as healer.
She wanted personal revenge for the death of her
sire & sisters. She made unwise decisions (almost
TSTL) but had good intentions.
She wed a baron, Lord Geoffrey, a too-serious
warrior, who lectured her IE stay inside the
castle walls, know your place etc. Geoff verbally
abused her, shook her, pulled her hair; bodice
ripper behavior. She felt he was too slow at find-
ing the murderer of her family & she thought
SHE knew.
2) Honour's Splendor- medieval. 2 stars.
Lady Madelyne saved a baron, Duncan, from her
baddie half-brother. Who planned for Duncan to
freeze to death. She feared horses & claimed to
never lie and to be a "good, gentle lady." The
moody MCs argued too often and seemed to have
the same convo. over & over. Their back/ forth
insults 'cut to the bone.' Why the drama? She sought
validation by others, but spoke too harshly to
almost everyone.
Was is necessary for readers to know half-brother
was a 'special friend' of the king & lusted after sister?
3) Lion's Lady- Regency. Finished Ch 12 & then DNF.
Beautiful Christina was raised by a Native American
couple. Fast forward to Boston, then England. Her
greedy countess/ aunt/ guardian x 1 year ran out of
money & now wanted all of niece's inheritance. Lyon,
a marquess, met the beauty and then nearly stalked
her. The beauty proposed to Lyon. Who'd want grumpy
immature, former spy, Lyon? I liked his bestie better.
Sorry, not my cup of tea.
4) books #1 and 2 had similar elements.
Elizabeth saved 1 warrior & Madelyne saved 2. Mad
feared horses, had no survival skills & a thrown to-
gether map & planned to seek refuge w/ her female
cous in Scotland. Huh? Both women cried too often.
Both chided spouse b/c the warrior wouldn't share
w/ wife his military strategy- huh? Both men were
obsessed warriors who never smiled or joked. Both
men showed authority by placing their hands on
their hips. Enough already! Both lectured their wives
and/ or broke her spirit. Both wives contradicted the
warrior in front of his men-uncool. These themes
seemed too much the same.
5) All 3 heroes were huge men with huge chests and
shoulders etc. And huge egos to match.
6) IMO much better books by this author: The
Wedding, The Bride, the Secret. The last one I've
read several times.
Revised 09/04/23.
late Julie Garwood wrote some great romances,
but not so much on the following.
1) Gentle Warrior -medieval. Gave this 3.5 stars.
Lady Elizabeth was treated like a boy by her sire IE
taught to ride a horse & to use a bow & arrow. And
had a pet hawk, 2 wolfhounds, & served as healer.
She wanted personal revenge for the death of her
sire & sisters. She made unwise decisions (almost
TSTL) but had good intentions.
She wed a baron, Lord Geoffrey, a too-serious
warrior, who lectured her IE stay inside the
castle walls, know your place etc. Geoff verbally
abused her, shook her, pulled her hair; bodice
ripper behavior. She felt he was too slow at find-
ing the murderer of her family & she thought
SHE knew.
2) Honour's Splendor- medieval. 2 stars.
Lady Madelyne saved a baron, Duncan, from her
baddie half-brother. Who planned for Duncan to
freeze to death. She feared horses & claimed to
never lie and to be a "good, gentle lady." The
moody MCs argued too often and seemed to have
the same convo. over & over. Their back/ forth
insults 'cut to the bone.' Why the drama? She sought
validation by others, but spoke too harshly to
almost everyone.
Was is necessary for readers to know half-brother
was a 'special friend' of the king & lusted after sister?
3) Lion's Lady- Regency. Finished Ch 12 & then DNF.
Beautiful Christina was raised by a Native American
couple. Fast forward to Boston, then England. Her
greedy countess/ aunt/ guardian x 1 year ran out of
money & now wanted all of niece's inheritance. Lyon,
a marquess, met the beauty and then nearly stalked
her. The beauty proposed to Lyon. Who'd want grumpy
immature, former spy, Lyon? I liked his bestie better.
Sorry, not my cup of tea.
4) books #1 and 2 had similar elements.
Elizabeth saved 1 warrior & Madelyne saved 2. Mad
feared horses, had no survival skills & a thrown to-
gether map & planned to seek refuge w/ her female
cous in Scotland. Huh? Both women cried too often.
Both chided spouse b/c the warrior wouldn't share
w/ wife his military strategy- huh? Both men were
obsessed warriors who never smiled or joked. Both
men showed authority by placing their hands on
their hips. Enough already! Both lectured their wives
and/ or broke her spirit. Both wives contradicted the
warrior in front of his men-uncool. These themes
seemed too much the same.
5) All 3 heroes were huge men with huge chests and
shoulders etc. And huge egos to match.
6) IMO much better books by this author: The
Wedding, The Bride, the Secret. The last one I've
read several times.
Revised 09/04/23.
December 9, 2023
always an adventure with feeling thrown into the mix.
August 5, 2023
A beautiful historical romance. Ms. Garland will be greatly missed.
December 2, 2019
Sweet and Spicy
If you like your heroes alpha but with a soft spot for the right woman, and your heroines smart and strong; if you like your villains villainous and your endings happy, pick up this book. Ms. Garwood has a gift, a great vision of medieval England and Scotland, and a real feel for the give and take of intimate relationships. You won’t be disappointed!
If you like your heroes alpha but with a soft spot for the right woman, and your heroines smart and strong; if you like your villains villainous and your endings happy, pick up this book. Ms. Garwood has a gift, a great vision of medieval England and Scotland, and a real feel for the give and take of intimate relationships. You won’t be disappointed!
May 3, 2023
Two great books
There are three in the set, but the first book, “Gentle Warrior,” is my least favorite of her historical romances. The male protagonist is frankly just not very likable, the other two books, however, are both great, though this was kind of an odd pairing: two books set around 1000-1100 ACE, then one in the 19th century. Still, “Honor’s Splendour” (unclear why one word in the title is spelled the American way, while the second uses the British spelling) is a favorite because both protagonists are quite lovable. The same is true for the third book, “Lion’s Lady”—both the male and female characters are quite likable. Both the second & third books have a good pace, too. The first one doesn’t—it’s all negativity and so much unlikable behavior by the man in the book until almost the end, that it’s really hard to root for this couple. It doesn’t help that the characters, especially the man, are content to have sex, but they won’t speak to each other at all, or the man behaves horribly all day long. There is even a suggestion of sexual misconduct, as the woman doesn’t always want to be touched but is “required because of her marital duty.” I realize the author is writing about a time over 1000 years ago, but virtually forcing even a spouse to have sex is dangerously close to assault and is frustrating. These scenes could have been written so that it didn’t seem that way. The marital duty argument, while certainly believed in by many people then (and even now), is a little icky, and at a minimum, doesn’t feel romantic. It is barely tolerable the way the first book’s “gentle” man behaves at times, and it’s frustrating to read that take for almost the whole book. “Honor’ Splendour” is refreshing because the man falls in love first, and the woman isn’t expected to be so “obedient” (keep in mind these books cover the same time period.). The third book is a nice addition but would go better with its companion novels. At any rate, 2/3 books in this package were enjoyable.
There are three in the set, but the first book, “Gentle Warrior,” is my least favorite of her historical romances. The male protagonist is frankly just not very likable, the other two books, however, are both great, though this was kind of an odd pairing: two books set around 1000-1100 ACE, then one in the 19th century. Still, “Honor’s Splendour” (unclear why one word in the title is spelled the American way, while the second uses the British spelling) is a favorite because both protagonists are quite lovable. The same is true for the third book, “Lion’s Lady”—both the male and female characters are quite likable. Both the second & third books have a good pace, too. The first one doesn’t—it’s all negativity and so much unlikable behavior by the man in the book until almost the end, that it’s really hard to root for this couple. It doesn’t help that the characters, especially the man, are content to have sex, but they won’t speak to each other at all, or the man behaves horribly all day long. There is even a suggestion of sexual misconduct, as the woman doesn’t always want to be touched but is “required because of her marital duty.” I realize the author is writing about a time over 1000 years ago, but virtually forcing even a spouse to have sex is dangerously close to assault and is frustrating. These scenes could have been written so that it didn’t seem that way. The marital duty argument, while certainly believed in by many people then (and even now), is a little icky, and at a minimum, doesn’t feel romantic. It is barely tolerable the way the first book’s “gentle” man behaves at times, and it’s frustrating to read that take for almost the whole book. “Honor’ Splendour” is refreshing because the man falls in love first, and the woman isn’t expected to be so “obedient” (keep in mind these books cover the same time period.). The third book is a nice addition but would go better with its companion novels. At any rate, 2/3 books in this package were enjoyable.
July 24, 2020
Where do I even begin? This review is for the first book 'Gentle Warrior'. A misnomer if I've ever heard one, the dude is as gentle as a thorn in the bottom of your foot.
So let's start here: Geoffrey is an ass, and grandpa is an expositional tool to tell the main characters how the other feels because they both have the emotional understanding of a gnat.
Little brother Thomas has memory lost for the first half, then PTSD for one literal paragraph when he remembers that he saw his family murdered, and is suddenly fine for the rest of the book. The main battle (the one against the brother-in-law who arranged to have her family killed, yeah, that guy) was completely skipped. Yup, just skip right over what could've been an interesting battle, nothing to see here.
There was no danger, no moment for Baron Geoffrey asshat Berkley to realize he's made a mistake in being such an unbearable twit.
Instead he sits by a lake, realizes he loves Elizabeth, but then still decides to let her wallow in sadness, thinking that her husband will never love her, to make sure she "learns a lesson" after saving his friend Roger (from not just enemy soldiers but drowning too).
On top of it all the other bad guy, uncle mustache twirler, doesn't really have any comeuppance. Sure, he doesn't get control of the castle and guardianship of Thomas, whoop-de-doo, not enough of a punishment to be satisfying in this book.
The moral of the story seems to be: obey your husband, and maybe he won't lock you in a room with no food or water... Again.
So let's start here: Geoffrey is an ass, and grandpa is an expositional tool to tell the main characters how the other feels because they both have the emotional understanding of a gnat.
Little brother Thomas has memory lost for the first half, then PTSD for one literal paragraph when he remembers that he saw his family murdered, and is suddenly fine for the rest of the book. The main battle (the one against the brother-in-law who arranged to have her family killed, yeah, that guy) was completely skipped. Yup, just skip right over what could've been an interesting battle, nothing to see here.
There was no danger, no moment for Baron Geoffrey asshat Berkley to realize he's made a mistake in being such an unbearable twit.
Instead he sits by a lake, realizes he loves Elizabeth, but then still decides to let her wallow in sadness, thinking that her husband will never love her, to make sure she "learns a lesson" after saving his friend Roger (from not just enemy soldiers but drowning too).
On top of it all the other bad guy, uncle mustache twirler, doesn't really have any comeuppance. Sure, he doesn't get control of the castle and guardianship of Thomas, whoop-de-doo, not enough of a punishment to be satisfying in this book.
The moral of the story seems to be: obey your husband, and maybe he won't lock you in a room with no food or water... Again.
November 19, 2022
A very fun read.
I have read this book many times, but I picked it up this week after nearly 2 decades since I last read it. I found that I found it just as delightful and entertaining. I have read and enjoyed all of Garwood's historical romances, but this one stands out. The heroine is raised by Indians in America and is very different from other females Garwood has created in her books. Her story makes me laugh every time I read it.
I have read this book many times, but I picked it up this week after nearly 2 decades since I last read it. I found that I found it just as delightful and entertaining. I have read and enjoyed all of Garwood's historical romances, but this one stands out. The heroine is raised by Indians in America and is very different from other females Garwood has created in her books. Her story makes me laugh every time I read it.
April 20, 2025
Julie Garwood box set
This is three good stories which can be easily re read many times. My preferred book is the last of the three.
In fact Lions Lady is in my top 10 of stories read.
Each book has an easy flow with good characters, the main characters are very likeable and each book has strong supporting characters. I would also recommend another book from this author Saving Grace.
This is three good stories which can be easily re read many times. My preferred book is the last of the three.
In fact Lions Lady is in my top 10 of stories read.
Each book has an easy flow with good characters, the main characters are very likeable and each book has strong supporting characters. I would also recommend another book from this author Saving Grace.
April 13, 2022
Loved this boxed set.
I actually own all three books and was excited to see it in a boxed set and had to get it. I don’t normally buy historical but I love all books by this author including the historians. I’ve read each story at least three times, they are so good. I highly recommend this book.
I actually own all three books and was excited to see it in a boxed set and had to get it. I don’t normally buy historical but I love all books by this author including the historians. I’ve read each story at least three times, they are so good. I highly recommend this book.
January 13, 2023
A wonderful deal!
Julie Garwood is by far one of my favorite historical romance authors. She writes of courageous women and exciting adventures and has me never wanting to put the books down! I got this book set with three high quality stories for the price of one, can't get better than that.
Julie Garwood is by far one of my favorite historical romance authors. She writes of courageous women and exciting adventures and has me never wanting to put the books down! I got this book set with three high quality stories for the price of one, can't get better than that.
April 21, 2018
Great collection of classic Garwood
These were some novels Ms. Garwood wrote in the 1980s but, since they’re period pieces, they hold up beautifully. All 3 of the stories were enchanting.
These were some novels Ms. Garwood wrote in the 1980s but, since they’re period pieces, they hold up beautifully. All 3 of the stories were enchanting.
January 15, 2023
More Than Worth the Price!
Three classic Garwood tales. All excellent historical reads. What a bargain book. No one writes like Julie Garwood. Trust me when I say if you like historical romances don’t miss this one.
Three classic Garwood tales. All excellent historical reads. What a bargain book. No one writes like Julie Garwood. Trust me when I say if you like historical romances don’t miss this one.
September 4, 2024
Garwood knows the language, time period and life of the warriors. But not all warriors are face off on the battle field. These stories show the courage, honor and kindness of women and the love they show helps the men see a different side of love and life. There is joy, respect and laughter
August 3, 2019
Box set
This box set was a fun read. All 3 had romance intrigue and fisty ladies. 😊 i would recommend for a light fun read.m
This box set was a fun read. All 3 had romance intrigue and fisty ladies. 😊 i would recommend for a light fun read.m
March 28, 2020
Nora Roberts
I like all of Nora Roberts books keeps you e
Interested. Also Jude Devereux, Julia Garwood,n a bunch of others. Some with drama
I like all of Nora Roberts books keeps you e
Interested. Also Jude Devereux, Julia Garwood,n a bunch of others. Some with drama
April 11, 2020
What to read while in quarantine
These books are rereads for me. They take me away with humor and fun. I love the heroes and heroines.Try it you might like it.
These books are rereads for me. They take me away with humor and fun. I love the heroes and heroines.Try it you might like it.
January 10, 2022
“Trust a white man? Never!” Full of gems, a little dated but lovely.
March 20, 2023
Story Telling
Absolutely loved this book.cried & lol couldn't put it down.Story telling at it's finest. Ms.Garwood never disappoints I've enjoyed all of her romance novels.
Absolutely loved this book.cried & lol couldn't put it down.Story telling at it's finest. Ms.Garwood never disappoints I've enjoyed all of her romance novels.
March 12, 2024
Awesome boxset by Julie Garwood
This box set is a compilation of three books by Julie Garwood. If you love her work, then you will also love this box.
This box set is a compilation of three books by Julie Garwood. If you love her work, then you will also love this box.
July 27, 2024
Garwood classics
Always a great read when it's a julie garwood historical romance. Too bad there was no new excert included as listed.
Always a great read when it's a julie garwood historical romance. Too bad there was no new excert included as listed.
August 8, 2025
Great books
Honor's Splendor is my very favorite book. Lion's Lady was really great too. Gentle Warrior was a delight. The three of them together was a wonderful choice.
Honor's Splendor is my very favorite book. Lion's Lady was really great too. Gentle Warrior was a delight. The three of them together was a wonderful choice.
January 24, 2015
This author's books are always very sweet and slightly wacky. I love them! The MC, Madelyne, is loving and brave, but is congenitally illogical. Dizzlingly so. Her partner is touched by the depths of her emotions and loves the positive impact she has on everyone and everything around her. He loves her despite himself, at first, and wholeheartedly by the end. A feel good love story.
November 7, 2014
I read the Gentle Warrior many years ago, but I didn't want to reread it. I didn't finish Honor's Splendour. I didn't see the need for Bible
Scriptures in the book. I couldn't read Lion's Lady after reading the Prologue. They were not to my taste.
Scriptures in the book. I couldn't read Lion's Lady after reading the Prologue. They were not to my taste.
July 21, 2014
5 stars
July 6, 2014
Awesome books
April 9, 2015
See reviews for each book under individual titles.
January 29, 2016
I read all of her books - so good!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews