Customer Reviews

Angels on Crusade

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since another reviewer gave you a good description of the story I'll give you my reasons for four stars. I'll explain to you why I LIKED this book. I wanted to give ANGELS ON CRUSADE five stars but it took me forever to read the complete story. I actually set this book down in the middle of reading it and started (and finished) another book.

That said, it was not suspenseful but yet it had me plodding through to find out how the story of Isobel and Jean would end. It wasn't a book that I could leave unfinished. The excellent description of what the characters felt like...dirty, hair with lice, depressed...you felt you were there and living in the 13th century. When you read something like this, you know how glossed-over and unrealistic other romances from this time can be.

The age of some of the characters and their relationships can be a put-off for some but hey, I am not from that time. And when you are lucky to live to adulthood who knows what will happen.

Can I recommend this book? Yes. Is it a heart-racing, can't-put-down novel? No, so if you need constant action in a romance this is not for you BUT if you can stick through it I think you will enjoy learning about how people lived during this time.

Hundreds of years in the future, a condemned criminal must be sent back through time in order to correct history so that a future royal family can exist.

Serving life in prison for the accidental death of a child, Isobel jumps at the chance to redeem herself. One minute she was carefree and in love, the next minute she is spending her life in prison donating her eggs to infertile couples. When Isobel is given the choice to return to the time of the Eighth Crusade, she doesn't hesitate to agree and is sent through
a time portal back to France.

Her mission? Isobel is to stop a future royal family from dying out by
returning a runaway son to his father. Isobel sets out to find the son, Jean de Bourbon-Dampierre. But when she finds him, Jean doesn't cooperate. Because of his stubbornness, Isobel finds herself traveling with fellow crusaders from France to Antioch in order to keep her charge safe and alive until he agrees to return to his father. Isobel has no time for failure; to fail would mean complete erasure from history, as if she never existed. If she succeeds, she will be allowed to live out her life in the 12th century. However, her mission seems doomed from the start. Not only will Jean not cooperate, he goes out of his way
to be foolish. Isobel protects him as best as she can, but tragedy strikes. Can Isobel find a way to save the future royal family and avoid punishment? Love holds the answer.

Samantha Winston's Angels on Crusade is historically accurate. The pageantry and political intrigue of the Crusades is dead on. I ached for Isobel and her possible punishment because I just knew she was destined to fail. The book held more surprises than I expected. At the end I found myself sighing with pleasure when, out of the depths of despair, love bloomed . Angels on Crusade is well-written, and while there was very little explicit sex, it was still a good read. I find myself curious to read more from Samantha Winston.

Talia
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I had picked up this book with high hopes; too high perhaps.
The promise of a time travelling tale back to the middle ages where our heroine must go to complete a mission and offer repentance for what she has done starts of promising.

Our heroine is from the future, a car crash where she accidently kills a child changes her life in which she find herself sentenced to life in prision. Given a chance to remain in jail for the remainder of her years or to travel back in time and complete a task and when succeded stay and reclaim some semblance of life in the 1300s, our heroine choses life and makes the journey.

Delegated with the task of persuading a petulant boy that he must return home despite having joined what was the little known Childrens Crusade, our heroine faces a difficult task.

Thwarted at every turn and even made to barter for the boy's freedom with her body, this story is not a traditional romance nor is it a profound tale of history. Sometimes, the tale feels disjointed and what was perhaps most disheartening about this read is the lack of development and the unfulfilled promise that was this potentially fabulous premise.

Our heroine ultimatley does experience the unpredictability of life that is the 1300s and she does find love here, but it is the unexpected that eventuates in this tale and with its good moments equally those of the obscure and disappointing.

A mixed read; better to be approached with a clear mind and not too much anticipation and expectations.