The Deed (Deed, #1) by Lynsay Sands
Series: Deed #1
Published by Avon on August 30th 2011
Genres: Historical
Pages: 384
Goodreads

FINAL DECISION:  The story is uneven and while it has some very funny parts, I ultimately found it pretty average.  It was okay as a one time read but I don’t think I would read it again and I’m not excited about reading further in the series.

THE STORY:  Emmaline Eberhart has to petition the King to get her husband to consummate their marriage.  When her husband dies on his way home to do his duty, Emmaline is widowed and now in a vulnerable position.  The King sends Lord Amaury de Aneford to marry her.  He doesn’t want to, but agrees to in order to gain the estate.

OPINION:  This book had great promise based on its blurb.  The book has some great humorous moments surrounding Emmaline’s innocence regarding sex.  I liked how she tries to grieve her dead husband by dying every single piece of cloth in the castle black.  She doesn’t even really understand that her prior marriage was not fully consummated and that leads to some humorous moments.  But at times, her innocence and naive nature got annoying to me.  It is a one joke story that never really gained any depth to the story after the punchline was told.  I did like the story one time going in but those little issues are what I remember about this story rather than the romance.  I really like medieval stories so I wanted to like this one, but I just found it average.

WORTH MENTIONING:  This book was originally published in 1997 and has been republished with a new cover.

CONNECTED BOOKS:  THE DEED is the first book in the Deed series.

STAR RATING:  I give this book 2.5 stars.