February Read: Enamored by Jody Hedlund

Hey everyone! I’m back with my book review of the month! Of course, this month being February, I decided to read a romance book. A roll of the dice for me, since romance isn’t my thing but okay. This book had multiple things going for me. Not only is it a medieval fantasy, it’s Christian, and it’s also vaguely styled after the King Arthur legends. I LOVE King Arthur, so this was something I definitely wanted to try.

As always, my content review comes first, and will have spoilers. My personal review may or may not have spoilers, and comes beneath it.

The Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads)

A princess in need of a husband, a young Sage who cannot have her, and a web of deceit that threatens their love.

Having been raised by her childless aunt and uncle, the king and queen, Princess Elinor finds herself the only heir to the throne of Norvegia. As she comes of age, she must choose a husband to rule beside her, but she struggles to make her selection from among a dozen noblemen during a weeklong courtship.

With aspirations to become the wisest man in the land, Maxim is summoned home by his father Rasmus, a Royal Sage. Reunited with Elinor, once his closest friend, Maxim is quickly enamored with her even though he can never be considered a prospect for her husband.

Elinor’s feelings for Maxim are rekindled too . . . until she learns he has been unwillingly drawn into Rasmus’s scheme to take control of the throne. With the kingdom under attack both from within and without, can Elinor and Maxim overcome the deceit spinning around them? Or will it destroy their love once and for all?

The real story of Excalibur.

Content Review:

Positive Content: This book had lots of positive content! First, Elinor’s aunt and uncle took her in and raised her with love, as if she was their own daughter. They also don’t arrange a marriage for her, but allow her to choose which man she would like to marry (within the stipulations of the kingdom’s laws, of course, but that’s more than some princesses get). Elinor also wants their approval of whoever she marries (though there is more on this below in the Other Negative Content section).

Maxim finds himself coerced into following his father, Rasmus’ schemes. However, at one time, he finally puts his foot down and refuses to deceive Elinor anymore, even though he knows he may lose everything he’s worked for, Elinor’s love and affection, and even his life.

While alone accidentally with Elinor, Maxim realizes he may stain her reputation and puts some distance between them. The two decide later on not to let fear guide their decisions.

Elinor stands up for a friend when he is unfairly treated. She also wants to marry someone who is worthy to be king, and worries she is not worthy to be queen based off some of her choices. Despite her own life being in danger during a battle, she seeks to take care of the wounded and evacuate them to safety, and she almost sacrifices her own life to save that of the king’s.

Elinor’s bodyguard always looks after her and takes care of her. He also refuses to let Maxim touch or kiss her until they’re married.

Another character, Lis, saves the king’s army with the help of her draco, a dragon-like creature she can communicate with, despite not even being involved in the conflict.

Rating: 4.5/5

Spiritual Content: There was some spiritual content in this book, but I didn’t feel it was too preachy and it seemed to flow well with the story. Christ is mentioned, and the sword (the thing based off the Sword in the Stone (NOT Excalibur, more on that in my personal review)) is said to have been given to Christ by the magi.

Elinor prays God will help her find the right man to marry and be king. She also prays with Maxim. Maxim says God gives people courage to do the tasks He sets before them.

A man’s sincere faith in God, churches, and holy relics are mentioned, including a nail and sliver of wood rumored to be from the Cross.

A verse in Proverbs is quoted, and some Scriptures are paraphrased.

Rating: 5/5

Romantic Content: Obviously since this is a romance book, there is a lot of romantic content. However, it is all Christian and appropriate. The main plot of the book is obvious–Elinor needs to pick a husband to marry her and be the future king of Norvegia. However, she is attracted to her childhood friend, Maxim, a common sage, who is also attracted to her.

Maxim and Elinor are forced to hide in a small crevasse during an attack, and Elinor realizes how her touch affects him. They hold hands and Elinor runs her hands through his hair.

As children, Maxim said he would marry Elinor. He gets jealous when she speaks in admiration to a knight. He also thinks about what it would be like to kiss Elinor, and tells her he wants her. They kiss twice, once after declaring their love for each other and one of the kisses is slightly descriptive.

Elinor thinks after she gets engaged to someone, it’ll be okay for her and Maxim to just remain friends, despite their attraction to another.

Spoilers – though this is probably expected, since it’s a romance, the two do get married at the end and kiss at their wedding.

I will get into more of my personal opinions on this romance below in my personal review, since… I do have some strong opinions on this. However, content wise, this pretty clean romance warrants four out of five.

Rating: 4/5

Violence: Being a romance book, there isn’t much violence, and what violence there is, is vaguely described. Creatures called Dracos attack Elinor and the queen, and Maxim, rescuing Elinor, is injured in the head.

When it looks like Maxim betrayed the king, Elinor’s bodyguard threatens him and his sword cuts him. The wound is bad enough to “need tending to”. A battle takes place and men are wounded and in shock.

Rating: 4.5/5

Language: No language here!

Rating: 5/5

Other Negative Content: I’m going to focus on the content only for this section, not my thoughts on the story, which I am reserving for my personal review. So here we go.

Obviously, the villain’s entire plot in the story is rooted in deception. Rasmus wants Maxim to seduce Elinor in order to take over the throne. Maxim has his own desires–he likes Elinor truly, and he doesn’t want his father to ruin his future career chances, so for awhile, he goes along with his plan.

Elinor is… extremely dense when it comes to romance, and for all her desires to be a good queen and stuff, she comes across to me as a selfish jerk in the romance realm. She seems to think that her future husband will be A-okay with her hanging out (alone) with Maxim, and would rather hang out with him than her future husband. At least Maxim has enough sense to know that wouldn’t go over big with any husband.

But then Maxim kisses her, even though he knows he has no hope (and therefore, no intention) of marrying her.

Elinor enters Maxim’s bedroom once when he’s in the process of changing. It’s revealed this was set-up by Rasmus to encourage the whole seduction thing, but like, was the girl never taught to knock before entering someone’s room?

Spoilers – towards the end of the book, Elinor discovers her older sister alive. This older sister has no desire to be queen and is in denial of it; she’s lived on a farm her entire life, etc, etc. But Elinor, who doesn’t want to be queen because she can’t be with Maxim then, decides to throw it on her in a, “she’s the rightful heir and I can’t take it from her” sort of thing despite being trained her entire life by her loving aunt and uncle who asked for nothing in return but that.

Herbs are used to drug soldiers. Rasmus is emotionally abusive towards Maxim.

The final thing goes along with what I mentioned in the positive content section. Elinor wanted her aunt and uncle’s approval over whoever she marries… and yet she and Maxim elope and marry without her uncle’s permission (and actually totally against his wishes).

There were also a couple of things that confused me, that I never figured out.

I’ll get into more during my personal review on this subject.

Rating: 3.5/5

Total Content Rating: 3.58/5 Stars

Personal Review:

Warning: A rant ahead.

Well, there is a lot to talk about in this review. Romance books are always hit or miss (and more often miss) with me, but this one looked extremely good, seeing as it had three major things going for it–it’s Christian, it’s a medieval fantasy, and it’s partly inspired by King Arthur. And anyone who knows me knows I’m kinda crazy about King Arthur. So I had to try this one.

And honestly, I don’t know what to think of it. I liked both the main characters. Maxim is styled off Merlin, so that was super cool. I didn’t actually hate Elinor, which is surprising because usually I dislike the female leads in romances. The princess’s bodyguard, and Lis, the girl who communicated with her draco, were also cool bonuses!

And I’m going to say right up front here, I will probably read more in the series. Especially since Lis is the main female lead in the next book and I’m curious about what’s going to happen with the kingdom and Rasmus.

However, I had quite a few mixed feelings jumbling about upon finishing this book. First, the Excalibur reference. This probably isn’t a biggie for anyone who isn’t a hardcore King Arthur fan, but as I read into the book, it became clear the sword the author referred to as Excalibur is actually the Sword in the Stone. I can’t fault her entirely and say she didn’t do her research, as I did see some people do refer to the Sword in the Stone and Excalibur with the same name. However, I follow Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur legends and consider those the canonical ones, therefore, Excalibur is the sword which Arthur receives AFTER the Sword in the Stone breaks. The Lady of the Lake gives him Excalibur and its magical sheath in exchange for him fulfilling a request of hers at a different date.

In this story, whoever can remove the sword from its case will be the next king, quite like whoever removed the Sword in the Stone would be Britain’s next king. So I was keenly disappointed when it was the Sword in the Stone, not Excalibur, which was used.

The second thing: Elinor and her romance. I said above, I didn’t hate Elinor. However, she was so infuriatingly DUMB when it came to romance. What made it even worse was how the author made her and Maxim extremely intelligent (which I enjoyed, she made her Merlin character have intelligence rather than magic which was a neat twist!) Don’t get me wrong, I liked the romance and wanted Elinor and Maxim to get together. But she was so stupid and selfish when it came to her romance, which was what really annoyed me, and she was far from my favorite character (I liked the bodyguard and Lis better, they had more sense. Even Maxim had more sense. And Elinor was supposed to be intelligent??)

Examples: Elinor has twelve men to pick to be her husband. Both she and Maxim know they have no chance to be together. Yet what does she do? She holds his hands, runs her hands through his hair, and thinks her future husband would be totally fine with her hanging out with a grown man she clearly has feelings for, ALONE. Because she’ll be the queen and the boss. Yeah, friends totally do stuff like that, holding hands, running hands through each others hair and hanging out alone together. I’m not buying that, and Maxim had enough sense to know that wasn’t going to fly either, so kudos for him.

The second example is the fact that her aunt and uncle raised her as their own child, of their own free volition. They spoiled her and clearly loved her. All they asked in return was for her to succeed them as queen, since they had no heirs of their own. Instead, she elopes with the man her uncle did not want her marrying, because she suddenly finds her older sister and the kingdom suddenly becomes her responsibility now. A true, self-centered person if I ever saw one.

Not only did she throw her uncle and aunt’s kindness in their face, she runs off with the man they didn’t want her to marry, without any word of where she’s going and if she’s okay, and she throws her responsibility (which she’s trained her whole life for) onto the girl who just saved her life and who made it clear she didn’t want any kingdom responsibilities, who’s lived on a farm her entire life and knows absolutely nothing about it. Elinor puts all these people into a tight spot just so she can fulfill her romantic pursuits and do what she wants.

Honestly, her actions are quite unChristian as well, since Christ requires us to honor our authorities (both her aunt and uncle were fellow Christians) and lay down our lives for our friends (and that doesn’t always mean dying; it can also mean living and serving in a place you don’t want to really be in). Does this mean she should have given up her love and lived miserably? Not necessarily. Since she did have an older sister, there was plenty of excuse for her to be able to give her throne over to her, and to marry Maxim. She could have gotten everyone used to the idea, helped her sister out, and gotten her uncle and aunt’s blessing. But she went around it completely wrong.

But of course, the book ends before we can see any of the consequences of her actions. Granted, it is the first in the series, so maybe in the next books we will see.

My final thing is a few points that confused me. Someplace, something is mentioned that Maxim may not have been Rasmus’ biological son? But it wasn’t addressed or mentioned any other time so maybe I misread it?

The main part that confused me was the climax, which also tied into why Elinor and Maxim got eloped. A final battle ensured and they rescued the king, but had to withdraw. During the withdraw, Elinor and Maxim, with Elinor’s bodyguard, go somewhere else. Why? Well, apparently because Rasmus is the king’s personal sage and a Super Important Person, they don’t think they can return home because Maxim went against him, and Rasmus intends to give Elinor some hallucinatory drugs in order to be able to control her.

But Rasmus also is the one who arranged the king’s murder. Elinor overheard him, and he was telling his plot to Maxim. They discovered the two people Rasmus bribed to kill him and killed them. There was clearly a plot to kill the king. They could have just gone home and told the king Rasmus was bad, and whala. Elinor is his niece, and Maxim saved his life. He’d believe them of anyone, I’d guess. So why the heck did they run off? There was no reason, except for to get eloped since after all, they saved the king and told the older sister she’s the true heir or whatever, so they don’t have any more responsibilities and can live happily ever after. Yay.

Maybe I’m not understanding something. If I’m not, and you’ve read the book, totally let me know what I’m missing. But it just made remotely no sense to me.

But hey, I’m still willing to put myself through another book to see what happens, so there is that. (And maybe it will clarify some of these things too).

In all, if someone likes medieval romances with Christian principles, I’d recommend the book. However, I would ask for Christian readers to beware of the message of “following your heart” I felt Elinor’s story gave, rather than following one’s duty and allowing Christ to work to give us the desires of our heart in a more Scripturally sound way.

Personal Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Have you read this book? Do you want to read this book? What romances have you read and enjoyed? Are there any which annoyed you? Let me know in the comments below! ~ Kay Adelin