Customer Reviews

Conquer the Night

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Once again Shannon Drake strikes gold! The story she weaves will keep you glued to the book. The story of Arryn Granham and Kyra Beniface in my opinion is one of Ms. Drake's best. Ms. Drake weaves a story of two people caught up in turbulent times in Scotland. A time when people like William Wallace, Andrew deMoray fought England's Edward I for freedom. Skillfully she has told a beautiful love story mixed in with true historical facts. Yet not once has this story compromised historical facts nor the purpose of the story of two strong-willed people. You will not be bored with facts, dates and such. Yet the story flows through events; such as, Berwick, Stirling Bridge, yet remains true to the romance novel we want to read. Here is a story of a man, Arryn, hurt, bitter, wanting revenge against Kinsey Darrow, who destroyed his home, his people, killed his wife and his unborn child. Kyra who is to marry Kinsey, is taken prisoner by Arryn and is to be used as a tool for revenge. Yet though all the hurt, bitterness, misunderstandings, a love is born that will survive. This may sound like your typical medieval romance story, and to some degree it is (so what, I love that type of story). However, it is more than typical. It is an excellent written story. I highly recommend this book. Now I have to wait for next year for her third installment of the Granhams.

Kyra was willing to enter into any bargain with God to escape her prospective marriage to Kinsey Darrow. Betrothed by King Edward himself, Kyra cannot prevent the marriage to a man she finds unbearable, coarse, and cruel. But Kyra certainly did not consider the arrival of Sir Arryn and his men to be an answer to her prayers. Indeed, as the Scotsmen overthrew the castle, she took up a sword, dressed as a man, and fought the leader of the invaders herself.

Arry's wife was brutally murdered by Kinsey and his men. Arryn welcomed the opportunity to take both Kinsey's castle and his independent, spirited woman. Conquered by the bold knight, Kyra chooses to follow Arryn even though her choice means forsaking her home, her King, and her wealth. But Arryn suspects her motives, and she can't bring herself to confess that she not only despised the man to whom she's pledged, but she fears him.

As Arryn fights for Scotland to belong to Scotland, and not England, so will he fight to retain possession of his heart. He had thought that his heart was safe, insulated by grief. But the fiery Kyra has unexpected results. Further, Arryn's ill prepared to cope with the way Kyra leaves him feeling shaken and beguiled. Her fire and spirit lay bare his heart as easily as he wields his sword, though he won't admit it.

True lovers of historical romance will relish Shannon Drake's CONQUERING THE NIGHT. The carefully researched historical detail lends complexity and depth to the passionate romance. Indeed, Shannon Drake writes with a zeal and flair for history seldom matched. I highly recommend CONQUERING THE NIGHT.

This is book 2 of the Graham family series. Before reading this book, be sure to read "Come the Morning." These books are the best written romance stories of the Scottish vs. English war that I have ever read. They are more than pin cushion romance. They draw you into the desperate struggle for Scotland's freedom. These stories stay with you long after you finish them.

My personal suggestion for reading this series:

Each book picks up where the last left off. You are given a realistic view of the devastating war between England and Scotland. The Graham men are Scottish, fighting for their freedom. The heroines in these stories are English. I have read the first three books so far, and each one has the couples paired that way.

In order to enjoy each book, without feeling the themes are redundant, I suggest reading a book that is not connected with this series in between each of the Graham series books. This will make each story stand on it's own, while still keeping you personally connected to the Graham men... And these books are written well enough that you will feel that personal connection.

Conquer the Night:

Kyra's beloved father has died. He has spent his life loyal to the English king, although his estate is in Scotland. His only heir is his daughter, Kyra.

Kyra is devastated. Not only has she lost her father, but a horrible man has convinced King Edward to give Kyra to him in marriage. She loathes this man, Kinsey Darrow, and uses her personal connections to Edward to stall the wedding.

As a servant and knight to King Edward, Darrow leaves Kyra's estate temporarily to fight in the war. When he returns, he finds that the castle has been overtaken by the Scots. When he hears it is Aaryn Graham who has taken the castle, he knows that Graham will have taken his betrothed as well. He is certain Aaryn will use her as revenge for the fact that Darrow had raped and murdered Aaryn's young pregnant wife a year earlier.

Aaryn feels triumphant. Revenge will finally be his! He has taken the castle that Darrow hoped to claim through marriage, and he has taken Darrow's betrothed prisoner. He plans to ruin her by taking her virtue. He is certain Lady Kyra encouraged the ravishment of his wife and home.

While bathing in the master chamber, which is the room he keeps Kyra in, she thinks she can convince him that using her would be worthless. She taunts him with stories of how "well used" she already is. She claims to have been with every stable boy, servant, and knight in the keep. When Aaryn has had all he can take of her words, he quickly grabs her and takes her himself. When he does, he stops immediately. He finds that she had lied about being experienced. Still, she is hard to resist. Aaryn finds it becomes more and more difficult to keep her out of his thoughts.

Over the next weeks, Aaryn is surprised to find how happy the people of Kyra's land are to have him there. They believe he was sent by God to save her from her marriage to Darrow. Aaryn trains the people daily, preparing them for Darrow's return. They must fight the English soldiers to keep Kyra free of Darrow. They have realized that Darrow will murder Kyra once he has married her to claim her title and home.

Aaryn can't stay in Kyra's land forever. He must return to the battle with England. One of the greatest battles in this wars history is about to take place. He must be there to fight for Scotland. However, he can't leave Kyra alone. He knows Darrow will capture her and kill her. Aaryn brings Kyra along, planning to hide her with the wives of the Scottish soldiers.

Who will win the battle for Scotland's freedom? (The outcome is based upon true facts of the war.) Will Darrow find Kyra? Will Aaryn be slain in the combat against England?

There is a traitor among Kyra's people. Who is it? How will he betray her? Read and find out.

There are 5 books in this series. Reading them in order does make a difference. Here is the order of the series:

Come the Morning

Conquer the Night

Seize the Dawn

Knight Triumphant

The Lion in Glory

I am yet to have read the last two, but I have ordered them from Amazon. I look forward to the continuing story of the Graham family.

This was the first Shannon Drake novel that I have read cover to cover and I was emensly pleased. My favorite romances are the ones set in the medival era with both the bride and the groom being forced into a marriage of convience niether of them wants. I believe it adds spice to the story and makes the ending all the more romantic when the hero and heroine finally admit their love. However, though I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I was a little annoyed in some asspects. For one, it resembles its preceeder, Come the Morning, too much. Basically, both novels are about two pawns caught in a war of kings and power and through all the lies, betrayels, and danger, the two vowed foes fall in love. Though each pair of characters have different motivations and directives, the basic story is there. Even an entire line and action seemed to have been cut out of Come the Morning and stuck into this novel. Despite those little dissapointments, I loved this book to the extremes. Kyra was stubborn but not to the point that you wanted to strangle her. Arryn was charming and stubborn as well but Mrs. Drake balanced his personality out so well that you couldn't help but love him. It's definatly a story you can fall for and I would recommend it to anyone.

Hey romance reader fans...don't expect to read medieval romance and not come across the occasional "forced sex". From the 10th-14th centuries, women were right down there with the ox and the sheep. Christianity didn't do us any favors back then, as we were all viewed as "Eve" that could destroy "Adam" if a man allowed us to. It was considered great weakness for a man to follow his emotions/heart too closely. They use to refer to this as "bewitched" the modern version being "whipped."

If you took over a castle, and a desirable female was within, she was considered part of the booty you had a right to enjoy (and no one back then thought twice about hearing these stories...sadly not even the women of this time period). In fact, if you had a beautiful wife, and another man decided he wanted her for himself...he simply breeched your castle and took your wife to keep and impregnant with his own offspring.

Welcome to medieval romance ladies!

As backwards as this causes we modern women to stretch our imagination to the unthinkable, people were essentially barbaric back then. Even men who held great affection for their wives wouldn't hesitate to hit her if he felt the need arise. Believing this was for her own good! If you consider we were still burning witches at the stake not so long ago...appreciate that humans have really evolved in the intelligence of being humane by the 20th century.

Some authors like to insert an essence of non-fiction into their fiction. Give them some slack, and respect them for making an effort in keeping it real. In addition, for those of you who really find this offensive, and prefer the fluffy "predictable" romance - I suggest you lean on the side of caution (instead of hammering the author with poor undeserved book reviews) and avoid reading any romance novels that are staged between the 10th and 14th centuries! As romance and courtship back then was of a very different essence.

Drake doesn't always write using forced sex as the starting point of growing desire and affection. I personally appreciate Drake's efforts to make her stories as believable and varied as possible.

Like other readers, I was not a fan of the hero raping the heroine in the begining, although I was willing to look past it as he thought she was "experienced" and stopped right after he realized she wasn't. However, the fact that he then truly raped her shortly after disgusted me. I almost stopped reading right then. These characters had very little chemistry - all they did was bicker and yell, yet they somehow fall in love? I like romance in my romance novels - sweet words from the hero, a tender kiss here and there. Seems like every sexual encounter in this book had some sort of violence attached to it.

Some people obviously like this type of "romance" but it was not for me.

I am a BIG Shannon Drake fan and I have to say this book is not her usual par. For one thing, three-fourths of the way through the book, the two main characters still have no real foundation for their relationship other than conquerer/prisoner relationship and physical attraction. Their interaction and growing attraction was not crafted as carefully as Drake's other novels. In addition, parts of the story were so gory, such as the part where a pregnant woman was hacked to pieces as she gave birth was mentioned, that I had nightmares and wanted to cry for the baby. It is hard enough to know that things like that occurred in the past and may still occur today (God forbid), but material like that really takes the pleasure out of reading the story because you don't know what other gory nightmare lurked on the next page. You can write a good story without details such as that and still provide enough reason for the cause of Arryn's revenge. It's almost if she went from romance to horror in this novel.

This was my fourth or fifth Shannon Drake/ Heather Graham book. She is a master story-teller, and I end up loving all of her books, with the exception of Princess of Fire. This particular book is one of my favorites. She balances love and war out wonderfully, so that there isn't too much of one or the other. Her historical details are phenomenal, it's unbelievable how informative her books are! These are romance novels that are not just romance novels.

I thought this book was okay except for a few irritating things. Such as the long drawn out war seen and how is it that the woman on the cover hair is black but Kyra hair is reddish blond at least be consistant. I thought there arguments and hatred for each other and Kyra escaping grew kind of tiring. But overall I thought the book was pretty good.

I don't like cruel, ruthless heroes who rape someone to get even with their enemy no matter how awful the enemy is. I don't like heroines who cry and moan rape and abuse but try to instigate the hero forcing themself on them again. This is pretty much what this book was. The hero imprisons and rapes the heroine, later on she is attracted to him and tries to instigates these sexual advances while still calling it force. The characters did not make any sense and the plot ran in circles until the conclusion. Needless to say, I won't be wasting my money on Shannon Drake again.