Book Review-When Love Awaits

When Love Awaits
Johanna Lindsey
Avon Romance,
343 Pages,
June 1986
Medieval Historical Romance

Synopsis:
Lady Leonie, the exquisite mistress of Pershwick, recoiled in horror. Cruelly pledged to the dreaded Rolfe of Crewel, she knew that her life was indeed over. But when she met the dark, magnificent, man who came to claim her...when she felt his burning caresses igniting her soul... all fears faded like a dream.
Yet the terrible demands of past hatreds amt misunderstandings would tear Leonie and Rolle apart again and again. Until in the blazing glory of passion's realm, they learned the truth that only love can bring.

My Review:
Lady Leonie grew up without a mother, her father remarried, and her step mother ends up controlling everything in the household when she drugs her father enough to appear drunk. No one is aware of this. Leonie, one day curses the "Black Wolf" whom she is afraid of. The peasants hear her, and since they are very loyal to her start wreaking havoc on Rolfe; minor incidents but enough so that he wants to take action. He decides to marry Lady Leonie to stop these incidents. Lady Leonie refuses to marry him at first, but her step mother takes action, and has one of her loyal servants beat her until she is black and blue; so that she will consent to marry him. She wears a veil to cover herself up, so no one will notice what has happened.

During their wedding day, they barely say two words to each other. On their wedding night, Rolfe touches her, and she reacts in pain and accidently cuts him with a knife. Lets just say things don't start out as they imagined it. Weeks later, he finds out beautiful his wife really is, and and wants to reside with him permanently when before he would have preferred her distanced away from him. From the moment that they first kissed, he sensed that there was something different about Leonie, and knows that there is a growing passion developing between them.

Leonie, is a amazing woman and was very aptly descripted in When Love Awaits. Leonie is strong, responsible, beautiful and smart. She handles the situations that she is dealt with. As her sensual relationship develops with Rolfe, so does her emotional one and she finds herself falling in love with him. There is one problem that she can never get over, and doesn't know if she will be able to get Rolfe to understand along with her. Rolfe has fought many battle, he has over seven keeps, close friends with the current King of England, his ward is his mistress who runs his household, and decides to marry Lady Leonie out of revenge. However after living with her and their powerful passionate embraces, he senses something growing between them that far outweighs desire.

This was a average read though, I  didn't enjoy it as much as I thought that I would. The characters didn't seem to connect, and it seemed to not flow smoothly. I found myself frustrated throughout the whole book; I mean I enjoyed reading it, but there also many moments where I just wanted to pull my hair out!!! The story although had a good start, didn't seem continue in that same pattern, it seemed to flow unnaturally and not to my liking.

My Grade For This Book:
3 Blossoms