RELEASING HENRY by Sarah Hegger


RELEASING HENRY
Sir Arthur's Legacy #5
by Sarah Hegger

Genre: Historical Romance

Pub Date: 8/29/2017


A light in the darkness . . .

The youngest son of Anglesea, the once idealistic Henry has survived the Holy Pilgrimage, but lost all his deeply held beliefs in honor and nobility. Captured in battle, he is sold as a slave into the home of Alif Al-Rasheed, a wealthy Genovese merchant who has converted to Islam. Bereft of faith, imprisoned in a foreign land, Henry has lost hope in his ability to love again—until he lays eyes on his captor’s beguiling daughter.

A marriage of opposites . . .

To Henry, Alya is a beacon of beauty he cannot ignore. But the heart of this proud daughter of Cairo will not be won so easily. Divided by religion, language, and culture, Ayla has little in common with the disillusioned Englishman—and yet he has vowed to protect her life in exchange for his freedom. As they embark on a perilous journey to safety, their bond will grow—and be tested—in ways neither can anticipate. For their greatest challenges will arise where Henry least expects. With threats conspiring to divide them, will he find the strength to stand by Ayla—and together will they find a common ground on which to build a future?


Some may choose to skip over this series, especially this book, because they feel it has religious themes within. They would be missing out on a wonderful writer and a very special story.
Henry of Anglesea is a trained knight, born of a courageous and loyal family. Being idealistic and against the family's wishes, he took off on a crusade to spread the principles of Christianity. Sadly, he was treated horribly during this pilgrimage and found himself a slave to a wealthy man in Cairo.

The daughter of this wealthy household, Alya, led a protected existence. Although her family had the status of wealth, they were seen as outsiders. The locals were becoming less tolerant and more aggravated about merchants who moved in and took their wealth. Violence became a more common occurrence. When circumstances presented themselves, and someone came to reclaim Henry, pronouncing him of a noble birth, Alya was sent away with these Englishmen and her father's most loyal servant to protect her.

I will call this a romantic adventure as well as historical fiction. The difficulties of keeping Alya and her wealth safe during passage keeps the reader on edge. Henry's struggles to come to terms with his past and his reclaimed life is a very emotional read. Alya must find her own place in a world she has o experience with and where she is not treated kindly. Themes in this book are about tolerance and ignorance and how people should look for our similarities rather than focus on our differences.

I appreciated the way differences were dealt with, how strong the women were.
Descriptive passages set scenes exceptionally well. The story moved at a good pace and plotlines are strong. Characters are well developed and complex. At times I both wanted to hug and slap Henry.
Born British and raised in South Africa, Sarah Hegger suffers from an incurable case of wanderlust. Her match? A Canadian engineer, whose marriage proposal she accepted six short weeks after they first met. Together they’ve made homes in seven different cities across three different continents (and back again once or twice). If only it made her multilingual, but the best she can manage is idiosyncratic English, fluent Afrikaans, conversant Russian, pigeon Portuguese, even worse Zulu and enough French to get herself into trouble. Mimicking her globetrotting adventures, Sarah’s career path began as a gainfully employed actress, drifted into public relations, settled a moment in advertising, and eventually took root in the fertile soil of her first love, writing. She also moonlights as a wife and mother. She currently lives in Colorado with her teenage daughters, two Golden Retrievers and aforementioned husband. Part footloose buccaneer, part quixotic observer of life, Sarah’s restless heart is most content when reading or writing books.







Comments

  1. Thank you for hosting me. The review was a wonderful surprise. Thank you

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