Customer Reviews

Heart Choice (Celta's HeartMates, Book 4)

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Robin Owens takes us back to the wonderful world of Celta. This fourth in a series brings back our favorites and adds several more including a few new Fams.

Mitchella Clover is a warm, beautiful, loving woman. She has faced the fact that due to a childhood illness she can never have a child of her own. But Mitchella knows that children are not just born, they can also be discovered. And love can make any child a child of her heart. She has faced her demons and found one child already, Anteen Moss is the child of her heart and she will add more until she has the loving family she wants for herself. She may even find a man to share her life with, but it won't be a greatlord, because they only want children of their bodies to increase the flair in their lineage. knowing this and abiding by her decisions are two different things. A heart is not easily reclaimed when it follows where love leads.

Straif Blackthorn is the last member of his greathouse left. They have a defective gene which allows a common virus on Celta to kill them. He has searched for 17 years for a cure and now he has come home to Druidia to repair the family mansion. While aquiring a Fam he is led to Mitchella, who is a wonderful designer and interior decorator. Straif knows he has a heartmate but he is unwilling to find her until he has a cure for the affliction of his family. He is very attracted to Mitchella and decides an affair is fine for now.

Mitchella is fasinated by Straif and doesn't realize he is a greatlord until she has fallen under his spell. Straif hires her to repair his residence, unknowing that both of their lives and strengths are about to be tested. She thinks he knows she is barron and can't have children. He is unable or unwilling to give up the hope for an heir of his own body. Although he knowa he has a heartmate his feelings for Mitchella are so deep and full of passion he doesn't know if he can live without her.

While fighting for control of their love they find that Straif is being attacked in counsel by a blackthorn he never knew was alive. And someone or something is trying to hurt or kill Mitchella. The wonder of their love and the conclusion of their story is full of pitfalls and vipers. Sometimes the only way to save everything you need is to loose everything you have.

Wonderful book. I loved it.

I have been waiting for Straif Blackthorne's story since Heartmate, the first of the Celta books from talented Robin D. Owens. There was something about this solitary man that called for his own story. I am delighted to see in this, the fourth book in the series his story, is finally realized.

Straif is the only descendent of his family line, years he has mourned this loss, years he has searched for the reason why. On Planet Celta family is everything. Ancient descendent from planet Earth, they value their lines, rites and traditions, and being the head of a first family carries great honor and responsibilities. Only Straif is the last Blackthorne. His ancient family estate has stood empty, unloved as he has journeyed hard and long trying to unriddle the curse that has plagued his family, but failed to claim him. Finally coming home to Druida City, he hires Mitchella Clover to bring alive the long neglected manor house of his estate.

Mitchella has the key to discovering her heartmate and is determined to find him, but Blackthorne keeps cloaking the fact he is the one, knowing he cannot marry this woman. To do so would seal the end of the Blackthorne line.

As with each set of lovers in Owens very original series, the premise is there is a Heartmate for true lovers. As young men and women come of age they go through a series of three passages and if the have a heartmate they will generally glimpse this person. Straif has glimpsed a woman, but like the family that bore him, their romance is doomed. He must marry to produce heirs to carry on the Blackthorne line - heirs he hopes can survive. The woman in his visions is Mitchella Clover, a woman who cannot have children. This is very painful to her, as she comes from a very fertile family. Her lack of the ability to have children is only magnified with so many nieces and nephews around her. She longs for her own family, but knows her having suffered Macha's Disease stands between her growing love for Straif. Mitchella soon learns Straif is her heartmate but he refuses to accept her because he believes it would be the end of the Blackthorne family.

There is a dark menace killing young first familiar members and as Straif tries to stop him, he fears the evil shall claim the one thing he loves - Mitchella.

Of course, there is another darling FamKitty. This one is Drina. Ah, sigh, if Straif and Mitchella would just listen to the smart know-it-all Drina!! But such is the lot of a FamKitty!!

Owens paints with pictures, not mere words, pulling you into her very intricate world of Celta and kitties with telepathy and the power to speak. One cannot wait for the next Celta tale.

I really enjoyed this book. This has the quality and the intensity that she hasn't matched since Heart Mate. If you liked Heart Mate, get this book. It'll also answer the question as to whether T'Blackthorn's father knew of T'Ash's use of his shed.

It is said that when the heart speaks a person should listen, for without the beating there is not heart to find it's mate.

After years away, Straif Blackthorn is going back to his ancestral home T'Blackthorn alone. A Celtan Angh virus has wiped-out the entire Blackthorn family he is the sole survivor. On his way there, a telepathic familiar named Drina greets him. Now he does not have to face his return home unaccompanied.

Once Straif reaches his home, it is in great need of love and care. With Drina's helpful guidance, they go to the design store of one Mitchella Clover. Not only does Straif appreciate Mitchella's decorating skill and talent; there is also an instant sexual attraction between them upon meeting. What will happen in the future to a man without his Heartmate and his family? What about sweet Mitchella who is facing a future without the ability to conceive a child? The possibilities are endless. Sometimes what is in the heart is the most important thing of all and it can change the person's destiny.

HEART CHOICE is by Robin D. Owens. This is the fourth book in the Heart series. Heartmate (2001), Heart Thief (2003) and Heart Duel (2004). This book could easily be a stand-alone, but after reading it, you will want to rush out to purchase the remaining series!

This book is a proclamation of victory and pure genius. Ms. Owens writing talents are expediential. The story keeps pulling at you, until you become one with the characters and their futuristic realm. You will not be able to deny them nor will you want too. Ms. Owens writes to her own beat. It is a rhythm rich in form and imagination. The storyline is unique and faultless. The dialogues and thought sequences flow with horizontal grace. There are also some valuable lessons imbedded deep within this tale of love that we all could learn from.

This reader loved the cohesiveness between the characters and their telepathic familiars. Also, the wonderful ways they compliment each other and play-off one another is special. Drina is a prissy little beauty of a cat, with a piercing howl that can rattle the brain. Straif and Mitchella are like a chemical meltdown, hot and over flowing with passionate desires! Straif with his arrogant mannerisms and Mitchella with her barren future, can these two make up for all their differences?

HEART CHOICE is a book you do not want to miss! This reviewer highly recommends it. With the popularity of the other books in the series, it is sure to be a sellout, so buy your copy today!

Reviewed by © Janalee Ruschhaupt, 2005
Courtesy of Love Romances www.loveromances.com

Having given this author a not so great rating on her last book (Heart Duel), I am pleased to say this book is terrific!! If you loved HeartMate and Heart Thief as much as I did, you'll be very pleased with this book. It even addresses some of those issues from Heart Duel that so many people disliked. All my favorite characters from previous novels turn up in unique and wonderful ways. I absolutely can't wait for the next book in this series. A++ for Robin D. Owens!!

On Celta, after years away mourning the deaths of his loved ones due to the Celtan Angh virus, thirty-two years old Straif Blackthorne comes home to Druida City. He plans to find a cure, marry a fertile woman, and repopulate his line of which he is the last "Mohegan".

Straif hires For Leaf Clover designer Mitchella Clover to fix up his neglected home. She is the only sterile member of a very fertile family as she suffered from Macha's Disease as a child. Mitchella recognizes Straif beyond just his being a First Family with incredible power and the man she loves, but though he loves her too he refuses to have anything more than a fling with her because he rejects a barren spouse.

The fourth Celta fantasy romance is filled with plenty of heart and flair as Mitchella knows she found her life's Heartmate and willingly gifts her heart to him, but Straif insists that though he loves her he has a duty to continue the Blackthorne line. The lead couple is a delightful pairing because he stubbornly clings to his belief of siring the next generation so that he fails to see the obvious. Straif's feline familiar adds comic relief though some readers will feel Drina interrupts the exhilarating love story of two stupendous genial scarred souls who belong together.

Harriet Klausner

Heart Choice is the perfect title for it. Straif and Mitchella have some hard choices to make.

Straif Blackthorn is the last of his line--his entire family died from a disease that, due to a genetic disorder, they lack immunity to. He's spent his adult life searching the wilds of Celta for a cure, with no success.

Mitchella Clover's life was also changed because of disease. In a family known for its fertility, she's sterile.

When Straif hires Mitchella to renovate his Residence, on the advice of his new Fam, Drina, the attraction is immediate, but both know it can't go anywhere.

Then a distant cousin, unaffected by the genetic disorder, challenges Straif for head of the family, accusing him of neglect, and a series of escalating threats are made to Mitchella, and both of them have to determine what's most important to them.

Every time I get a new Celta story, I'm reminded again why I like them so much. Not only is there convincing world-building of a fascinating environment and system of magic, not only are there compelling characters and a happy-ever-after romantic ending, but the characters have real problems to overcome and life-altering decisions to make. And of course there are those Fams for insight and comic relief.

I enjoyed the book immensely. I have now read all opf the series and would like to see how some of these relationships work ok. I was unable to stop reading unless I fell asleep or reached the end of the story. I like the way all of the main characters cross over into the other books in the series. All of the series seems to be well put together and I will be looking forward to more books from the Heart series.

As with her previous books in the Celta series, Robin Owens once again enriches her stories with a romantic match-up between characters who are unique, interesting, and fun to get to know. Straif, whose flair power has made him the premiere tracker on the planet, has been searching for a cure to the illness that wiped out his family. For years he has avoided returning home since everyone in his family died there except for him (at last, fans will learn how he managed to survive the fatal illness). But now a distant relative is laying claim to the home and all his property unless he returns, fixes the place up, and restores it to its past grandeur. He hires Mitchella Clover for the daunting task. Her flair skills at interior decorating are still developing, but her creativity will delight the reader, especially her passionate desire to help Straif even when his accounts are frozen while ownership of the property is contested. This books delves into the rigid obligations of Druida City's upper crust society, what is expected of those with great flair, and the responsibilities that heretofore Straif has been avoiding. Mystery, danger, humor, heartache, revelations, and love are all deliciously intermixed in this story, a skill Owens is a true mistress of in all her "Heart" books. New readers and fans alike will not be disappointed.

Straif Blackthorn is the last of the Blackthorn family. His entire family had been wiped out by the Celtan Angh virus fifteen years ago due to a defect in the family genes. He had decided to move back to the T'Blackthorn Residence, his ancestral home. The morning he made his decision to move back to the ancestral home, a wet cat informs him that she is his Familiar. "You will adore Me. Everybody adores Me." They adopted each other and became companions. The Fam's name is Drina. She's a beautiful half-Siamese cat, the daughter of the Cat Zanth, which is Familiar to T'Ash.

Mitchella is a member of the Clovers family. They are a family that pride themselves as the most fertile family on Celta. Mitchella cannot bear children of her own. She's sterile, a condition caused by a disease when she was a child. She has a ward, Antenn, who she loves as much as she would any child of her own body. Mitchella owns The Four Leaf Clover, a store specializing in interior design.

After returning to his ancestral home and activating the spells for housekeeping and general habitation, Drina informed Straif that the house was not up to a cat of her degree. They must go shopping. After all Drina is female, she likes shopping. She insists they shop at The Four Leaf Clover. Drina will not allow the gloom to remain in the residence. Besides, she needs an adequate pillow to sleep on. Mitchella had been pondering how she was going to keep her store open without getting a loan from her family. When Straif introduced himself and told her he needed his home redecorated and refurnished, she just knew this would be an expensive job. Sexually attracted to the man and a good paying job, could a woman ask for more? But, he's a noble of the highest class, and a relationship between them would never work.

Robin D. Owens has written another winner with HEART CHOICE. This is the fourth book in her Heartmate series. I was fascinated by the magical environment. The house itself was amazing. It was like a living being. It was able to communicate and use Straif's flair in order to take care of itself. Mitchella was able to use her flair to redecorate the rooms. She could even make walls into moving scenes. I absolutely adored the Familiar, Drina's snotty attitude. Her diva attitude had me laughing out loud many times. Straif and Mitchella's hearts had both been grievously injured in the past. Straif by the deaths of his family to the virus he had survived, and Mitchella by men's rejection due to the fact that she couldn't bear heirs. Their love for each other is almost tangible. Straif's determination to find a cure for his family's genes keeps him from seeing the possibility that Mitchella could be his Heartmate. It was wonderful to revisit Celta and get to read about some of the characters we learned about in previous books. HEART CHOICE is a wonderful book to lose yourself in for a while! I'll be anxiously awaiting the next book in this wonderfully imaginative series.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)