An Unexpected Redemption

Romalo Legacy #1

by Emily Hamsher

Prince Lucian of Brasov has been running from his family, from God, and even from himself. When he decides to take revenge upon his elder brother by stealing away his betrothed, Lucian is taken aback by the woman in his custody. Her pure heart and unabashed kindness thwarts his every cruel intention. Lucian finds himself hoping that she might hold the answers to heal his past, even though he knows she can never be his.

Every girl dreams of marrying her prince, so when Lady Adelina receives the unexpected announcement of her betrothal to the Prince of the realm, she takes it as a clear sign of the Lords will. When she is kidnapped by a band of ruffians and taken far from her home she quickly learns that the road to love is never as it seems. Though her captor portrays himself as a ruthless man, Adelina cant help but feel compassion for him and the pain she finds lurking beneath the dark shadows of his character.

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 8, 2018

About the author

An avid reader of Christian Romance Novels like those of Francine Rivers and Connilyn Cossette, Emily Hamsher enjoys creating exhilarating adventures that are set in a historical time period. Being a young adult in her mid-twenties, she seeks to write about what is most important to her: her faith, and her family. With a Master’s degree in Education, Emily loves to learn about different places, cultures, and unique traditions that she can incorporate into her novels. Outside of writing, she keeps busy working with a local youth organization, spending time with any one of her eight siblings, and building puzzles. As a young writer herself, Emily Hamsher has a heart to inspire her readers to engage their own creative gifts, and to encourage her audience to go after their dreams no matter how big they may seem!

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this strong Christian romance. My rating 4.75 of 5.0.

Lucian was adopted into a royal family. Although that is a special gift, he is still a young, rebellious boy who pushes the boundaries. When he is sent home form school, he knows he has disappointed his adoptive parents. When his elder brother scorns him he knows he has been rejected and he runs away so that he can live life with adventure and danger as he wants.

Years later he is a brigand leading a crew of misfits. When he receives an invitation to his brother’s wedding Lucian decides to kidnap the chosen bride.

Lady Adelina has always had a dream about the young prince who rescued her from bullies when she was a young girl. She is thrilled to be betrothed to the prince and sets out to meet her intended and the royal family. Shortly into the journey she is kidnapped by Lucian and his band of thieves. Her faith that her heavenly Father will protect her surrounds her spirit with dignity and strength. The brigands sense the deep goodness in Adelina and treat her gently and carefully. Especially Radu, Lucian’s best friend and second in command, seeks to protect Adelina. He himself has accepted faith in Jesus but has continued to live with Lucian. He hopes that someday he will be able to make Lucian grow beyond his bitterness and plans of revenge.

Lucian watches Lady Adelina and slowly his heart opens to the peace her faith exudes. But what chance does he have of gaining the love of the woman who is already promised to his brother? And when he returns her to his family’s home, what will be his reception from the parents he has been estranged from for ten years?

I wanted to like Lucian but he doesn’t make it easy. Lady Adelina’s steadfast faith and willingness to share love to a rogue is beautiful. The characters are well developed. There is action to move the story along but the strong, unrelenting faith of Adelina made to story extra special for me. The writing is straight forward and descriptive. My only disappointment was the abrupt ending that leaves the story suspended for a next book.

This is a wonderful mix of medieval dangers and a love that is all that is proper and blessed. I would like to read more by Ms. Hamsher. I recommend this to readers who enjoy medieval romance and are open to strong faith themes.

Source: 2018 NetGalley.

[Sissy's Romance Book Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Unexpected Redemption by Emily Hamsher is book One in the Romalo Legacy Series. This is the story of Lucian and Adelina.
Lucian was sent off by his adopted parents when he was young to learn to be a good person and not the mischievous boy he was. But the opposite thing happened and he feel deeper into his dark side and gathered a group of men to work with him. Lucian goes to kidnap the bride set a tone of revenge but what he found instead was sweet girl who was slowly stealing his heart and ways.
Cute young romance.

[Jerrye Tellmeagreatstorylove · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Unexpected Redemption by Emily Hamsher

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Story Notes

New author Emily Hamsher brings to Romance readers a lovely story that shows both the ruthless reality of a life lived for selfish gain and the peaceful contradiction of a life lived to please God.

I’m so glad I found new author Emily Hamsher, given her well written book and realistic characters. She took care to ensure that every detail was as it needed to be for this story to be believable. I really loved how she made the two main characters so completely different while also showing that they had important similarities too. She began her story with the parents of young Lucian of Brasov, who are once again trying to find a way to help their son behave. He has been expelled from school and while they have the authority to keep him there as the ruling sovereigns of Brasov, they don’t want to cause anyone further trouble or disruption. Their best plan at the moment is to sent Lucian away abroad with Lord Barden to see if he could curb Lucian’s desire to cause trouble. A decade passes and Lucian is now a man, but he has not given up his bent towards trouble. Having learned excellent swordsmanship from the finest masters in Italy, Lucian has honed his skill with a blade until he is the most accomplished in the land. But his penchant for adventure and wealth lead him to amass a band of men willing to take on whatever tasks earn them money, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. When he hears of his brother’s future engagement to Lady Adelina of Brasov, Lucian decides to make a sport of his brother and kidnaps Adelina as she travels. Little does he know that his decision will change his life and heart forever. Lady Adelina Nicolescu has long dreamed of marrying the kind prince who was her rescuer as a child. When she had become separated from her parents during a holiday celebration, a group of young men had began bothering her until the young prince stepped in for her defense. Believing this to be Prince Gabriel, Adelina is thrilled to hear that the King and Queen wish for her to marry him if they suit. How she has hoped for this but never dared to pray it might come true! The journey to the palace will take three days and as Adelina prepares her belongings, she also prepares her heart before the Lord. Praying that He will give her favor and she will find love, Adelina sets out with a company of soldiers towards the palace. But all does not go as planned and Adelina finds herself the prisoner of the mysterious “Lord Balan”, a handsome but very dangerous man. Not understanding why she was taken or the incredible hardness of Lord Balan’s personality, Adelina is taken aback. Finding peace and comfort from her faith gives Adelina a boldness to reach out to her attendants to learn more about her captors. Adelina also finds a unexpected urging in her spirit to be kind and treat everyone she encounters with the love of Christ. Not sure why the Lord gives her this mission as she is a bit shy, Adelina soon finds friends and allies with some in the band of rough men. One such friend is Radu, long-time companion and best friend of Lord Balan. A fellow Christian who is trying to reconcile his faith with his chosen profession, Radu often speaks with Adelina of spiritual matters. Lucian chooses to keep his identity secret from Adelina but finds himself drawn to her despite his loathing for her faith. As they travel further from Brasov, Lucian finds more guilt pressing on him but hardens his heart against such feelings. Why can he not put them aside as he always has before; what is it about this young woman that has him so off balance? Lucian will have much more trouble than he ever wanted when his brother sends companies of soldiers to retrieve his bride to be. Fighting them off leads to many of his men being hurt or killed and Lucian begins to question whether this adventure was pure folly as Radu had warned him it was. An enemy’s kidnapping of Adelina from Lucian’s camp will be the tipping point for his guilt and Lucian determines to send her to the palace after he gets her back. However, Lucian didn’t bargain on sending his heart along with her. Adelina’s quiet faith and gentleness towards him in spite of his ruthless treatment of her ingrained her deeply into his mind and heart, a problem given she is to be his brother’s wife. Lucian must deal with his own lack of faith if he is to set aside his anger and bitterness in order to return home. Radu shows him the way to Jesus and the peace he has sought his whole life. With his conversion, Lucian also finds that his love for Adelina only grows stronger. But how can he convince his family of his new ways and his love for Adelina without bringing them all more pain than they’ve had before. As Lucian and Adelina are reunited, they will have to decide to follow their hearts or do what is expected of them. They each will have to find the strength to face their past and look forward to a better future. As you can see, this book is very complex, weaving through many turns before the ending comes into sight. I loved the way that the main characters were written. Lucian was a hardened man who thought his family didn’t love him – making him seek his life and fortune wherever he could. His callousness was so great he had no regard for any life he might take in his seeking after the next adventure. But Ms. Hamsher rightly showed that God does not abandon us, even if we have determinedly gone the wrong way for a number of years. Adelina was a wonderful character who inspired others to be better. She wore her faith like a cloak and while she had moments of doubt, she quickly turned her worries over to God and asked that He use her as He wished. Her faith was genuine and did not need embellishment to be believed. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the Romanian countryside; it made me wish to visit there soon. And the inclusion of the Romanian language throughout the story was really well done. It was important to the story to have the language included but there was not so much as to make it annoying. My only issue with the book was the insertion of more modern terms like “switched gears” and a few misspellings of words. Those could be handled by a more thorough edit and did not overly affect my opinion of the book adversely. Overall, I found this book to be really well done and am looking forward to the next in the series. Ms. Hamsher left a good cliffhanger that will translate well into the next story. Hope it comes out soon!

I received this E-book from Westbow Press via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I will receive no fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.

[Gina Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book is as old as jealousy and the ache for love. Well developed characters with believable flaws.

It is a worthy read. There are some eyebrow-raising words that don't add anything to the storyline. I don't mind an author using foreign words, They just need explaining in the text, and some of these are not, so what good are they?

Hamsher does a very good job in helping the reader to feel Lucian's pain, and understand his need. There is a lot of reason given for why Lucian falls head over heels for his brother's betrothed, but no reasons for why she should return his love. I have a problem with that. Huge problem. Just because a man has great shoulders and a handsome face and a bad-boy attitude/lifestyle doesn't mean that a girl should fall in love with him. The spiritual gift of mercy usually confuses the compassion raised by another's hurting heart with love. I'm not sure Hamsher did a good enough job with that. It's troubling.

However, there is a lot of good to be said about how Adelina reacted to anger from another. It's a complicated issue and Hamsher did very well with that.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Wonderful Christian Medieval Romance!

It's a beautiful story full of faith, love, surrendering to God's will, and divine healing. I loved the theme that no one is too far gone for redemption.

There were a few points in the book that I felt had little to do with where the storyline was going, but, that said, it didn't detract much from the story itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes clean, Christian, medieval romance.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book through Netgalley. All opinions expressed are completely my own.)

[Emily Yager · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting YA Medieval fantasy. What would happen if you kidnapped by an angry Prince on your way to your wedding to another Prince? The constant threat of danger that was lurking just steps behind kept me wanting to know what is going to happen next.

[English · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book, it really wasn't. It has something of a fairy-taleish feel and was certainly a good story and redemption of a man who seems beyond hope, but is really just a wounded soul in need of grace.

However, is one of those novels that I really cannot understand the point of. What I mean by that is, what is the point of writing a novel set in Medieval Europe if you can't even get the most basic details right? I'm not saying that to be mean, its a genuine question.

There's no sense of period whatsoever, and apart from a few terms and phrases in Romanian there's little real sense of place either. The historical inaccuracies and cultural errors are frequent, and egregious. I counted references to a skunk and a chipmunk in Medieval Eastern Europe. Skunks are an American species.
Also, character refers to drinking hot chocolate. In the 1400s. Do I even need to tell you why that is wrong? A masquerade ball held in a ballroom several centuries before balls were even a thing, and characters eating in the American style with only a fork. Centuries before table forks were even used in most of Europe.



Also, and this is a major gripe of mine: I wish authors would learn what "strong spirits " actually mean. Perhaps readers can fill me in. Does the term refer to all alcoholic beverages in the USA? Because here in old England, 'spirits' mean alcoholic drinks that have been distilled to make them stronger.

Ale is not a spirit. It never has been, and in most of Medieval Europe it wasn't 'strong'. In fact, it had one of the lowest alcohol contents of any drink . Even today, most beers and ciders contain about 4-6% alcohol. Add to this the fact that in Medieval times ale and wine was generally watered down, so the whole idea of a person being so inebriated they can hardly walk after one cup of wine. No. Just no.

Towards the end there are some genuinely good scenes and romantic moments, but for the most part I found a lot of this story a bit of a slog. I have no problem with Christian content, especially since this is Christian fiction, but the way it was delivered here. Sigh. Its just so heavy-handed and obvious. The heroine goes around preaching to everyone, quoting the Bible, everything can be resolved with prayer, and even rebuking wolves in the name of Jesus. I mean to disrespect, but seriously?

Also, I the treatment of Christianity is totally wrong for the supposed historical setting of this story. Its meant to be set in Medieval Eastern Europe, specifically the region of Romania/Hungary.
The notion that people living in a region that had been officially Christian for centuries, in which there would usually have been several churches in every major town had never even heard of Jesus and don't for the most part even know about God is beyond frustrating. And totally unrealistic.



Now, I understand if this was meant to be set in communist times, but its not. Its meant to be the 1400s. What is it which all the characters having to be atheists or total heathens? What's wrong with some (shock, horror) Catholics? Some people who actually vaguely know about Christian beliefs and teachings? Some priests, monasteries, etc.

This leads to my next point that the religion here is clearly modern American Evangelical Christianity. Its not Medieval Christianity, its nothing like it. Characters pray about every single life decision, from who to marry, to what occupation to take up, talk about 'leading people to the Lord'.

Now of course I'm not suggesting there is anything fundamentally wrong with any of those things, or putting the Gospel in a novel, but as I said before, why bother to set it in Medieval Europe, which the characters are basically American Evangelicals ?
Believe it or not, if I pick up a novel set in Medieval Romania, I actually want to read about how Medieval Romanians "did" Christianity. That would be interesting.

Anyway, whilst this wasn't my cup of tea at all, I'm sure many people will enjoy this novel. Thanks to the Publisher for approving my request for this title via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

[Jamie Bee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite good intentions, this book is a hot mess! The author strove to write a story that hinged on the beauty of grace and redemption, but some serious faults overshadowed this. The book has a prologue and then jumps ten years ahead, and we don't really understand how we got from A to B for a while, so it was a little confusing. The author had some rather prodigious information dumps at the beginning, which for me always slows down the pace of a story (and never in a good way). There were many glaring errors in word choice, grammar, usage, and punctuation, enough to be overly distracting from the story. For instance, the word “urethral” was used instead of “ethereal” when describing cherubs, and as you might imagine, that was quite a jarring error! Often in conversation, the word “naught” (nothing) was used instead of “not” (a negation). There were strange punctuation errors all over the place. At a certain point in the book, I felt like I was more making a game of spotting the mistakes and correcting them in my head than actually enjoying the story. I think this story has potential, and the author certainly does as well, but it certainly was not realized here.

I received a free copy of this book from #NetGalley, but that did not affect my review.

Read my other reviews at https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com.

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

***ARC was provided to me for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 2.5/5 Medieval Christian romance, Adelina trying to get Lucian to see the light of God.

Heroine (Lady Adelina): 4/5 A Lady who thinks the prince she is to marry is the boy from her childhood. She’s twenty two, auburn hair, green eyes and can hear the voice of God in some parts.

Hero (Prince Lucian): 2/5 A boy born on the streets who lost his parents is adopted by the King and made a prince. He has some abandonment issues and turned to a life of crime when his royal family is perceived by Lucian to not to be wholeheartedly on his side.

Plot: 2/5 Prince Lucian has all but renounced his title and has taken up a life of crime. He finds out his brother is getting married and intercepts the soon to be bride. She spends the whole time as his captive trying to change him and get him to hear the voice of God.

Personal Review: Not a fan of Christian romances and wish it was advertised more as such. I originally picked up this title due to the medieval element. I don’t love the social implications that the girl has to change the bad boy, or in this case save his soul.

[Maria Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

**2.5 stars**
This medieval romance using Romanian culture as context is about redemption, a redemption of Lucien, the prince whose adoptive parents sent away and the resentment made him take distance from his family. As revenge, he decides to kidnap his brother’s fiancée Adelina, who is the one changing him through conversion to her religious beliefs.

Overall, it is a romance with some action that keep the story alive and narrated from different point of views. Some of the characters have strong religious beliefs that are shared repeatedly. It has also some action that keeps the story active.

A few parts of the story felt slow. Also, I really struggled to connect with Lucien. However, it could be considered overall as an entertaining read.

**ARC provided through Netgalley for an honest review

[Joe Lynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot stopped thinking of this book and many more books to come !

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book, showing how a strong faith can move others. Emily Hamsher did a great job of telling her story in a compelling way.

Adelina is captured by a group of men, but instead of giving up hope, she sets her mind on trying to convert Lucian, the one over all the men, to the faith.

Lucian lets Adelina go and is surprised to still feel what he thought was simple compassion towards a kind woman.

Calvinistic doctrines are seen throughout the story plot.

This was a very good read, one I would definitely itely reread and recommended to a friend. 5/5 stars. The writer does a wonderful job of making the book almost impossible to put down.

(I received a complementary book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)