Customer Reviews

Once Upon a Castle

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jove has gathered some of the better fantasy-romance writers on the market today to contribute to this well written anthology.

Bryna cast a thousand year old spell on Calin, the man she has always loved. Now she must free him yet pray that he finally returns her love. Readers will be left "Spellbound" by Nora Roberts magical tale.

Ariane gloomily rides to "Castle Doom" to rescue her imprisoned brother Marcus. She finds an ally in Nicholas to fight the evil incarcerating her brother. However, she did not expect to fall in love with her ally. Jill Gregory takes readers on a brilliant tour of lovers fighting an evil kingdom.

In 1870 England, American Felicity crosses the ocean to help Oliver battle a curse. She is ably assisted by a ghost, who she falls in love with. Ruth Ryan Langan scribes a fasincationing supernatural short story.

Princess Tressalara, asssisted by a sorcerer and a Highlander sets out to save her kingdom from an evil being. Along the way the Princess adds to her agenda, desiring to gain the love of her accompanying warrior. Marianne Willman will place everyone who reads her tale under its spell.

This short story collection consists of some of the best written fantasy romance tales available. This is must reading for fans of the sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

Escape into these four wonderful tales of magic and romance. I stayed up late reading these four tales late into the night, making me very tired for my classes the next day. I would recommend this book to anyone, who like I, has never outgrown fairy tales and still dreams that a world of castles, princes, and those magical words "they lived happily ever after" exists.

"Once Upon a Castle" is a fabulous anthology by four very talented romance authors.

In Nora Roberts' "Spellbound," Calin travels to Ireland and ends up at the front door of the bewitchingly beautiful Bryna. Together, in the culmination of a thousand year spell, these two must fight an evil sorcerer who can only be conquered by true love. Calin must return Bryna's love freely, or the evil sorcerer will triumph and all will be lost. This is written in true NR style and will have readers captivated.

Next is Jill Gregory's "Castle Doom," in which Arianne sets out on a mission to save her brother Marcus from his evil captor, Julian. She finds an ally in Nicholas, an old friend of her brother, and together they must fight the evil Julian in order to save Marcus and free the people from his tyranny. In the midst of their dangerous plight, Arianne and Nicholas unexpectedly fall in love. This story was suspenseful and romantic and highly entertaining.

In "Falcon's Lair" by Ruth Ryan Langan, Felicity travels from her home in America to Ireland to help Oliver, an old friend of her father, with a terrible curse. Something is not quite right in this majestic old castle and Felicity finds help from a handsome spirit (Gareth). With Gareth's help Felicity begins to see that this home is filled with betrayal and sets out to save Oliver and his son. However Gareth and Felicity fall in love and break the rules that govern Gareth to be together, for which there will be dire consequences. This story will touch your heart and leave you believing in magic.

The final story is "Dragonspell" by Marianne Willman and I think this one was my favourite (it's just so hard to choose because they are all so good!). Princess Tressalara, with the help of 2 sorcerer's apprentices and a dashing and dangerous rebel named Cador, sets out to reclaim her kingdom from the evil usurper, Lector. Tressalara joins Cador's rebel camp originally as Trev, a young boy, but Cador immediately sees beneath her plain clothes and dirty face to the beautiful woman beneath. Cador and Tressalara fall head over heels in love with each other and enjoy a wonderful romance that readers will love. This tale will sweep you away to the magical land of Amelonia and leave you feeling fulfilled and satisfied.

This is an absolutely superior anthology. If you enjoy a good "happily ever after" and a bit of magic then you will LOVE this book. All four stories are well-written and lots of fun. You will be sad to see this one come to an end!

THIS WAS A DEFINITE BOOK WITH MANY STORIES THAT I COULD NOT PUT DOWN UNTIL I HAD READ THEM ALL. THE PLOTS WERE GOOD , THE CHARACTORS WERE BELIEVABLE, AND THE LENGH OF EACH STORY WAS RIGHT. WONDERFUL READING!

Once Upon a Castle is a compilation of four stories by four different authors. All have mystical magic included and are set in times of knights, sorceresses, and royal families. Being a Noraholic (die-hard fan of Nora Roberts) I picked up a copy with the purpose of reading her portion of the book and tossing it into the library bin for others to read. Once I started, I decided to read the entire book and not just Nora's story. So here's what I think on each of the tales:

Spellbound by Nora Roberts

A delightful tale that actually is set in modern times with "memories" set back in ancient times of knights and witches. Brynna is an Irish witch. Calin is an American photographer. When Calin was young, he had an active imagination; at least that's what they termed it since he had a friend that no one else saw, and he knew things that he couldn't possibly have experienced (or could he).

Calin once again starts dreaming the dreams of the past and wonders if he's having a nervous breakdown. His parents convince him that he needs a vacation and suggest he go with them to Montana. Before he thinks, he blurts out that he's going to Ireland. He seems to have an agenda that he doesn't even know - he rents a car and drives to an enchanted castle and sees the woman from his dreams. She's gorgeous, she's everything he remembers, and she's Brynna, a witch.

The story gets a bit slow when Brynna is trying to let Calin remember their "past" on his own, all the while battling a wicked witch. The battling of Alasdair is not slow, but the bouncing from past to present is a bit tedious. It seems a legend has it that if Calin doesn't pledge his true love to Brynna within 24 hours (which is exactly 1,000 years since the curse has been enacted), then she must become Alasdair's mate.

The story ends with a clash, lots of magic, and tons of undying love. Ah, yes, a pure romantic, 'happily ever after' type tale.

It's interesting, but not as well developed as I've come to expect from Nora Roberts. It could very well have something to do with the short length of the story (each of these tales runs just under 100 pages). I wish she'd do a rewrite and fully develop the characters and plot - it would make a very interesting full-length book!

Castle Doom by Jill Gregory

This is the first literary work I've read of Jill Gregory and if this story is any indication of her talents, I'll definitely be reading more of her work in the future.

Castle Doom throws us into the middle of a battle over a kingdom. When Marcus, count of a neighboring land, went to talk with Archduke Julian about his reign of terrorism, he was thrown in the dungeon and is now about to be hanged. His sister, Arianne, vows to free him and sends word to Marcus' childhood friend, Nicolas that his life is in jeopardy. Nicolas arrives to rescue his pal and must match wits with his half-brother Julian in order to keep Arianne safe and free Marcus.

This story shows lots of various emotions, ranging from friendship to love to hatred to conceit; it definitely runs the gamut of feelings. It is also filled with humor and you'll find yourself chuckling several times in the short life span of this story.

Again, I wish it could have been lengthened a bit, but it was a quick and very enjoyable reading adventure!

Falcon's Lair by Ruth Ryan Langan

Of the four stories, this is the only one that I really didn't like at all. Felicity, a young American woman, travels to England when she receives a message that her father's old friend needs him. Since her father has recently passed away, she takes it upon herself to go even though she's never met this man, nor does she know what assistance he needs.

Felicity finds herself at the home of Lord Falcon and is thrown into a plot for murder. It is believed that a curse follows the Lords of Falcon's Lair and all of the men are doomed to an early demise. The oldest son of Lord Falcon, Chandler, has been missing in the Amazon jungles; the youngest son, William, was injured in a riding accident and is bedridden and slowing dying; while Lord Falcon shows signs of quickly failing health and his death seems eminent.

Felicity begins to uncover mysteries that surround these events and her life is then in danger. But when someone tries to push her down a staircase, her friendly ghost catches her just in time to save her life. This ghost is Gareth, the first Lord of Falcon's Lair and he appears to Felicity to point her in the right directions to help her solve the crimes. Not only is he a ghost, but he shape changes into a Falcon and flies off frequently.

The part that I don't like, or understand, is how a woman can fall in love with and have a romantic interlude with a ghost. Yes, it happened and I'm still shaking my head and wondering how and why. The story line is weak and contrived. The characters are well described and you can see the mental pictures clearly. Even with that clarity, I shook my head and wondered. This was a stretch for even my imagination!

Then there's the ending. You can see this one coming for miles and when it does finally get there, it's boring and anti-climatic. There's little imagination as to the plot and I would definitely recommend that you skip this short story altogether!

Dragonspell by Marianne Willman

This story showed a lot of humor along with the romance, which kept it from being predictable and made it highly enjoyable.

Princess Tressalara found her kingdom under attack and her father murdered by his top knight, Lector. She fled before she was forced to marry Lector and as she was planning her overthrow, she ran into Cador of Kildore, the most feared knight in the land. Since Tressalara is dressed as a young lad, Kildore at first believes the ruse and takes her to the camp as another sworn to help overthrow the villain Lector. Once he realizes exactly who Tressalara is, it's too late to keep from losing his heart to her.

Princess Tressalara is the ultimate in the fairy tale princesses - she's beautiful, kind hearted, and devoted to her subjects. Cador of Kildore, is the ultimate in knights - he's gorgeous, proud and brave. Yes, it was truly a perfect match.

The humor comes in with a subplot of two sorcerers and their ineptness. One is assigned to Cador and the other to Tressalara. In their attempts to help their humans remain safe, they have a series of mishaps that are hilarious. They turn themselves into frogs, into swans, and into mice. They spit at each other, and snipe at each other, but they always try to do what's best for their humans. It was a truly fun way to keep the reader glued to her chair and turning those pages as fast as she could read! This was a fun sideline.

If this humor and excellent weaving of a story line is any indication of Marianne Willman's writing abilities, then I'll definitely find more of her work.

My Conclusion

Three of the four stories were very good which makes the book definitely worth reading. I'd suggest skipping over Falcon's Lair but read and enjoy the others. The best part of anthologies such as this is when you get the book because of an author you really like and then you're introduced to new authors that you enjoy. Because of Once Upon a Castle I now have two more writers to read!

To be honest I read this book and after I put it down I didn't really remember anything about it. I like to read books that I remember and can think about . . . not the case here. Even after reading the summary of the book I had a hard time remembering what it was about. Hopefully the other books in this series are better.

This book came in a very timely manner and in excellent condition. No complaints...

I had already read the Nora Roberts Spellbound in another book, but the additional stories were absolutely wonderful. I am glad I bought the book. Now I want all of the Once Upon books!

I have to admit, this is my favorite of the series. So far I've read all but the newest one (i'm working on it). I feel that the writing in this one is a little more interesting and thought out than the other books, but I would recommend it. All four authors have really pulled together a book where romance is just sweet enough (with some passion in the mix). Take it from me, I'm 19 and I love these books, so anyone should enjoy them.

I admit, I like this better than Once Upon a Rose. These four stories are very well-written.

Roberts' Spellbound was...nice. But I would have to say that it was the worst story in the lot. Calin travels to Ireland to meet Bryna, who he'd been seeing in his dreams since he was born. They were lovers, or they were the reincarnations of lovers, a thousand years ago and he must go back in order to save her and their love. I'm just a bit surprised that they would find that they love each other in a day.

Gregory's Castle Doom was nice. Arianne's brother was kidnapped and his castle sieged. It turn's out that their distant cousin Julian is planning to spread his rule. Arianne knows that the only one who could help her is the exiled Nicholas, Julian's older half-brother. I liked the ending because everything is solved. And Nicholas gains back the kingdom he was born to rule. I'd say this was my favorite of the four.

Langan's Falcon's Lair...was ok, but a bit weird in the end. It started out fair enough and the rest of the story was well-written. Felicity travels to England in order to help his father's old friend, who is under a "curse". When she arrived, she met a spirit...that of the first lord of Falcon's Lair. They fall in love...even though they know there is no hope. He dies (I don't know how because he's already dead) while protecting her. And she finds "him" again in the current lord's oldest son, Chandler. Which is why I'm iffy about this story...I personally think she's transferring her love from Gareth (the first lord and spirit) to Chandler...and is that real love? But then none of the stories are based in reality, so I accept it.

Willman's Dragonspell is somewhat like Castle Doom in that both involve princesses trying to gain back their castle and kingdom. Except in this one, Tressalara teams up with a rebel. She is headstrong and feels that she doesn't need a man to rule her kingdom wisely. One of her late father's advisors overthrows and rules...killing her father himself. Tressalara disguises as a boy to find Cador, the rebel. Together with the power of the Andun Stone, they try to overthrow the evil advisor and his wizard.