Welcome to the Blog Tour for The Heir’s Beloved by Rhonda Dragomir, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
Title: The Heir’s Beloved
Series: The Ravenwood Chronicles #1
Author: Rhonda Dragomir
Publisher: Dragomir Group Publishing
Release Date: September 30, 2026
Genre: Christian Historical Romance
Torn from his mother’s arms after a deadly fire and spirited away to Scotland, Liam’s past refuses to remain buried. On his twenty-fifth birthday, he learns he is the rightful Duke of Ravenwood. His ancestral English estate is now ruled by the usurper who murdered his family in the fire and stole his inheritance.
The knight’s plan to reclaim Ravenwood and exact revenge hinges on secrecy—but a chance meeting with a courageous, kindhearted lass threatens to unravel everything. Ella would risk anything to protect a ragged band of orphaned children, and when her violet-eyed beauty draws the villain’s lecherous attention, Liam is forced to choose. Will he risk discovery and death to save the woman who has captured his heart? Or will saving Ella require him to surrender his thirst for vengeance and embrace God’s higher calling?
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | RhondaDragomir.com | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop
Also Available
About the Author
Rhonda Dragomir is an award-winning novelist and multimedia creative who treasures her fairy tale life in Central Kentucky. She insists her home is her castle, even if her prince refuses to dig a moat. Known for richly researched historical fiction, she weaves romance, faith, and redemption into the lives of unforgettable characters. Her newest novel, The Heir’s Beloved, launches The Ravenwood Chronicles, an Elizabethan historical romance series set along the Anglo-Scottish border.
Barbour Publishing released her award-winning debut novel, When the Flames Ravaged, in March 2024. Her work has also appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul®, Guideposts, and other anthologies and periodicals. Bible studies she co-authored are used by more than 10,000 women each week around the world. Rhonda’s writing has earned awards in both fiction and nonfiction, including being named 2019 Writer of the Year by Serious Writer, Inc. She was also a finalist in ACFW’s Genesis Contest for historical romance in both 2020 and 2022. Learn more about Rhonda at rhondadragomir.com.
My Review:
The Heir’s Beloved begins with Liam discovering his true identity–the only surviving heir of a murdered duke–who must return to claim his birthright before the murderer and current ruler marries and secures Queen Elizabeth’s goodwill. Meanwhile Ella, the lowborn granddaughter of nobles, agrees to marry the usurper in order to help provide for the six helpless orphans she takes care of.
I was instantly drawn into this story by the hidden nobility trope–everyone believes Liam is dead, and he remains undercover for most of the book as he gains allies and forges a plan to reclaim his birthright. This is one of my favorite tropes of all times, and the events surrounding it were some of my favorite parts of the book. But despite being the main character with this trope, Liam surprisingly wasn’t my favorite character in the book, due to reasons I’ll mention below. In actuality, Betha, Liam’s adopted mother and a blunt Scotch woman who pushes him constantly towards the goal of claiming his birthright, was my favorite, due to her gruff but goodhearted nature and unique style of getting her way.
Liam’s adopted cousin Symon was easily my second favorite character. Arriving late in the book to help Liam, he was a good-hearted, fun-loving troublemaker sort, who was still loyal to his cousin and kept his word, even when he clearly wished to do otherwise. I was very happy to see that the second book in the series will be focusing on him!
All the other side characters were also well developed and likable! Ella’s band of orphans, while not as developed as I would have preferred, were adorable for what I did see of them, and John, Betha’s betrothed and Liam’s mentor, was loyal, strong, and good-hearted. Even the priest, Father Timothy, was a super intriguing character, embroiling himself in non-priestly plots to help Liam and Ella, and I enjoyed the fact that he was secretly Catholic. I also appreciated the fact that, even though I’m not Catholic, Catholicism wasn’t shown in a negative light, as it typically is in novels set during the Tudor/Elizabethan era that I’ve read.
Ella I liked too–her loyalty to her orphans and religion, and faith in God was admirable. I also enjoyed her feistiness, although there were times she struck me as just plain dumb–why does she need to be present at a battle when literally she did nothing but get in the way? But, I still probably would have liked both her and Liam’s characters better if they’d allied with each other as friends.
However. This is a romance. And as anyone who’s read my book reviews before know, the romance is typically the part of books I have the most issue with. Unfortunately, this one was not one of the few exceptions.
Liam and Ella have an almost insta-love connection. I take issue with insta-love not only because it’s unrealistic, but also because it’s purely physical in nature; insta-lust, you might call it. In fact, the villain has the same type of “love” for Ella, all physical. And the only difference between the two is Liam at least (somewhat) respects Ella’s desires for purity and holds them himself, whereas the villain just wants it now.
Then, Ella’s inconsistency in the moral department served as a great source of irritation for me. She feels uncomfortable when the villain puts his arm around her waist and touches her elbow to escort her, or when his knee touches hers–but with Liam, she full-body hugs him, lets him kiss her multiple times, and pick her up around the waist–and she actually wants more? (In her defense, when Liam picks her up, it’s to get her attention to warn her, and he drags her into his house–but the fact that she doesn’t go down kicking and screaming, and that she didn’t even slap him when he proceeded to kiss her (this is their second meeting, by the way) screams double standards just because she’s attracted to him, whereas with the villain it’s not okay because she’s not).
Also why would Liam do that? Just warn the girl, don’t drag her into your house, call her your sweetheart and kiss her on your second meeting. To her credit though, at the end when Liam asks her to marry him, she points out they’ve only known each other a few weeks–but then of course agrees to. I think, for me, it would have worked better to have made Liam’s motivation also helping the orphans by winning back his birthright, and had him and Ella get to know each other through their mutual goals and fall for each other gradually.
Ella was inconsistent in other ways as well, such as being stated to be afraid of horses, and yet she drives, feeds, and cares for one just fine. And she also felt a bit like a a “see how special I am” character in that she seemed to master a skill on her first time of doing it.
There’s another point of inconsistency in the story though. Ella spouts off Liam’s identity in front of another guy–and yet this guy shows no reaction at all, and is shocked later on when he hears it, as if he wasn’t there when Ella originally spouted it off. I actually went back and reread the section to make sure I didn’t miss anything. There were a few other issues as well, such as abrupt time skips and head-hopping, but these were minor and did little to affect my overall enjoyment of the story.
The dialogue was quite good–I enjoyed that the author included some Scottish terminology alongside regular English, and it fit the story and characters well. Each character had their own unique voice, especially Betha’s, which is another reason I absolutely loved her! Her backstory, loyalty, and desire to avenge her mistress was literally everything I love in a strong female character.
Most of the story outside of the inconsistencies listed above was great. Planning Liam’s recapture and duel with the villain was one of the funnest parts of the story, and Betha’s and Ella’s own plans they formed and executed behind his back to further help him were quite entertaining.
My only other plausibility question was regarding a couple of the historical details. This is set in the Elizabethan Tudor era (not the medieval, please don’t call it medieval!) so I’m not as well-versed in this time period and may be wrong. In the novel, the villain’s main motivation is to fully usurp Liam’s title and become the duke himself, and Queen Elizabeth finally decides to grant it to him when he marries, since he’s one of her favorites. Elizabeth is also said to be a romantic and would let two people of unequal classes marry. The only reason I take question to this is the fact that she became so furious when her favorite, Robert Dudley, secretly married, she permanently banned his wife from her court, and she literally imprisoned Sir Walter Raleigh, another favorite, when she discovered he had also secretly married and had a child. Perhaps this anger was more out of the fact that they married secretly and without her permission, but at the very least, I don’t think this warrants calling her a romantic.
In light of all that, I think I’m going to have to give The Heir’s Beloved a solid three stars. I loved the tropes, all the side characters, and the action, setting, and Scottish terminology, but struggled to connect with the two main characters and unfortunately detested the romance. However, I would still highly recommend this novel to lovers of historical romance–the message, writing, and setting of the book are beautiful.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Content Warning: There are mentions of sexual harassment and abuse, however none are described and all is tactfully handled in a clean, Christian way.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and a positive review was not required. All views expressed are my honest opinions.
Tour Giveaway
(3) winners will each receive a print copy of The Heir’s Beloved and When the Flames Ravaged, plus a $15 Amazon card!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight September 29, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on October 6, 2026. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
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