Castles (Crown's Spies) [Kindle Edition]

Julie Garwood (Author)

Book Description

Orphaned and besieged, Princess Alesandra knew that only hasty marriage to an Englishman could protect her from the turmoil in her own land. To the amusement of her makeshift guardian, Colin, younger brother of the Marquess of Cainewood, the bold raven-haired beauty instantly captivated London society. But when Alesandra was nearly abducted by her unscrupulous countrymen, the fighting instincts that won Colin a knighthood for valor were kindled.

Deceiving himself that he wanted only to protect her, Colin swept her into a union meant to be a marriage in name alone...yet Alesandra's tender first kiss and hesitant caress ignited a wildfire in his soul. As the lovely princess dashed headlong into unforseen dangers, Colin would follow, knowing he must claim her as his own forever. Now he would risk life itself before he would lose this sweet, tempestuous angel...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Princess Alesandra (of some unspecified country) has been happily tucked away in a convent, but in 1820 the wicked General Ivan indicates that he has designs on the princess: if he marries her, he can take over the kingdom. Alesandra's guardian, the Duke of Williamshire, brings her to England to assure her safety. Unfortunately, the duke and his wife become afflicted with a "mysterious ailment"; the only solution is for the princess to live with Colin, the duke's eligible bachelor son, in his London townhouse. The duke and duchess think Colin should marry Alesandra. Colin, however, wants no part of marriage; and Alesandra, who alternates between moments of intelligence and sheer vacancy, will marry anyone who won't hand her over to that awful Ivan fellow. When Alesandra is almost abducted by men from her homeland, Colin's protective instincts shift into high gear. Can love be far behind? Also lurking in the background is a serial killer, who threatens Alesandra but serves no immediate purpose in furthering the silly plot. Garwood ( The Secret ) has done better work than this.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Romantic Times A charming, sweet, funny romance, brimming with sparkling dialogue, delightful characters, and a story that flies.

Rendevous The story is splendid, the characters are wonderful, and the dialogue excellent....The secondary characters are marvelous and there are many from which to choose, including some of our friends from Ms. Garwood's earlier books....A keeper.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 799 KB
• Print Length: 388 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (May 10, 2011)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004SH6XHK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,149 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read in order for more effect.... September 22, 2000

By Abbys

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Before reading Castles, I suggest to start with the Lion's Lady, then The Guardian Angel, The Gift and lastly, read Castles. The characters in all 4 books are friends/related to each other. It is more fitting if you know each character before reading the next book. If you read it in this order, I think it will bring more excitement as some questions are answered on the later book. Some secrets are also revealed beforehence.

Castle is a story of Colin, who is the younger brother of Caine (in The Guardian Angel) and a troubled Princess Alesandra, who is the ward of the Duke of Williamshire, Colin and Caine's father. Alesandra was searching for a good husband in three weeks time, to save her from marrying a ruthless General, who wanted to marry her only for the throne. I find the search very enjoyable. The list of every noble and available earls and Dukes names... and of course, the dipping of ink to cross each one off, as Colin finds each name in the list horrobly inappropriate. This is my favorite part. I find the herione funny yet unselfsih, charming and regal. Even in her frustrations and anger, mostly of Colin, she manage to remind herself "Dignity & Decorum". She is afterall a princess. Her obsession of LISTING everything in a notecard is also quite amusing. Colin is a proud yet somewhat a sensitive man. The best way to describe him is to compare him to a wild horse that needed to be tamed. Alesandra did just that with love and patience. Flannagan, the butler, is also one of my favorite character in this book. The Romance between the two is perfectly match. There are just so many interesting and funny scenes. I don't want to give it all away so you have to pick up the book to find out yourself. It is worth your time.... The whole family helping each other to solve a mystery crime is also thrilling and heart warming. Although, i wished Nathan and Jade (in the Gift), Lyon and Christina (in The Lion's Lady) are mentioned more in this book, I still love it and will keep it in my collection. I have reread it more than once and still have the same reactions. Read more ›

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite romance novel - ever! May 3, 2000

By Laurie Gold VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Julie Garwood's Castles is my favorite romance novel. It's also the first Garwood romance I ever read (several years ago). What makes it shine so bright? Incredible humor, fabulous love scenes, and characters so very easy to love. All that, and a princess too!

Some readers find Garwood's heroines too stupid to live, but I never have. I do, however, find each's quirks to be lovable, and when I interviewed the author back in 1997 and she revealed their flaws are based on her own, I marveled at how she could turn personal weaknesses into delightful quirks of character.

The heroine is not only wonderful in this book, though - the hero is to-die-for. As I wrote in my Desert Isle Keeper Review at All About Romance, "While he doesn't want to marry her himself, he finds something wrong with every single bachelor he, his father, his brother, and Alesandra discuss. One has bow-legs, another gambles, and still another has a case of 'bad humours'."

This is truly a delightful and charming romance and I encourage one and all to read it. If you are like me, you'll end up with two copies - one to keep and one to lend out to friends.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

Publisher, All About Romance

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I fell in love with this book! December 14, 1999

By Claudia

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I found this book in the trash and it looked somewhat intriguing so I decided to see what it was all about. I started reading it and could not put it down until I finished it. The character were cleverly written and Julie's incredible gift for writing shined throughout the entire novel. I fell in love with her from that moment on and did not rest until I owned every single Julie Garwood title that was available! Sure enough I also loved every single other book that shes written and I can never seem to wait until she writes another. I reread everyone of her books at least once a month and her books have enriched my life ten-fold. Julie you are surely a treasure that needs to be better appreciated!

Thank you for everything that you have inadverantly done for me!

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Lackluster--because amazon.com does not condone stronger language November 21, 2006

By Rynette

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Rarely have I ever met a book so god-awful I wanted to shoot myself in the face before I could finish. This one takes the proverbial cake. After page 190 (halfway?) when the hero and heroine talk through their first sexual encounter (and I finally stopped deluding myself that the story would pick up)-- I just had to go online to see what other people thought of it. I was fully prepare to relish the cutthroat reviews I was sure this book deserved, so you can imagine my suprise at finding pages and pages of "this book is great!"

....

I don't understand this phenomenon. Can someone please explain? Because I certainly have a "list" of grievances.

For starters, Julie Garwood's prose is terrible. Her ENTIRE book is comprised of "she did this," "then he did that," "and she said this." "then he said that." The result is a dialogue that is so painfully dull, it makes me wince everytime someone calls her characters "witty."

Not to mention the slew of the words "certainly," "terribly," "at all," slathered liberally across every other page. And while the word 'too' is great for including an extra thought, the author should probably be introduced to the words 'also,' 'moreover,' 'thus' etc.-- which might have saved the reader the complusion to slam their head on the table everytime the sentence structure "She was angry-- and furious too," came up. Either that, or Garwood should stop adding extra thoughts. In fact, it would probably refine her writing.

While most books can skate by poor writing with a decent plot. The book lacks even that. Besides for the confusion of genres incurred by opening the novel from a psycopath's narrative-- this psycopath pops up randomly throughout the continuing chapters as if to remind the reader "oh hey!... i'm still here! Be terrified~! I just killed someone." then leave again after his pointless update. I have yet to find out how he matters to the story in anyway-shape or form. Other than the fact he obviously has to due with the "dissapearances" throughout the story of minor characters. And by minor I mean-- undeveloped, sometimes nameless people. But that's ok, because the family of these victims are perfectly content to write off their loved one's "dissapearance" as an elopement they've obviously developed. They are so ashamed of it, that they never want to bring it up again. (as opposed to finding out what really happened to them, elopement or otherwise.)

Alesandra and Colin may have been remotely interesting if Garwood had done a better job developing their characters. She introduces Alesandra as a rebellious, troublesome imp-- only to continue the story with Alesandra being a perfect angel of a woman. One has to wonder how the words "dignity and decorum" could render such a deep change in a character's personality. And Colin? He was an ogre.

I do not find ogre's attractive.

If you're interesting in something witty, with loveable and believable characters-- Julia Quinn is, hands down, the most witty author I've ever had the pleasure to read. Read more ›

More About the Author

Julie Garwood is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Fire and Ice, Shadow Music, Shadow Dance, Murder List, Killjoy, Mercy, Heartbreaker, Ransom, and Come the Spring. There are more than thirty-six million copies of her books in print.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#8 in Books > Romance > Historical

#10 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Historical Romance

#36 in Books > Romance > Romantic Suspense

#38 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Suspense

#52 in Books > Romance

#8 in Books > Romance > Historical

#10 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Historical Romance

#36 in Books > Romance > Romantic Suspense

#38 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Romance > Suspense

#52 in Books > Romance