Love's First Light

Love's First Light - By: Jamie Carie

Love's First Light
Jamie Carie
B&H

 Christophé, the Count of St. Laurent, has lost his entire family to the blood-soaked French Revolution and must flee to an ancient castle along the southern border of France to survive. But the medieval city of Carcassonne proves more than a hiding place. Here Christophé meets the beautiful widow Scarlett, a complex and lionhearted woman suddenly taken by the undercover aristocrat’s passion for astronomy and its influence upon his faith. Although their acquaintance begins brightly enough, when the Count learns that Scarlett is related to the man who murdered his family, he turns from love and chooses revenge. Heaven only knows what it might take for Christophé to love again, to love his enemy, and to love unconditionally.

There are not a lot of Christian fiction novels set during the French Revolution (something I plan on remedying myself sometime) so when I saw this one I decided to check it out.

I felt really torn about this book. There is something engaging about Jamie Carie's writing style, but there were several "cons" about Love's First Light that rather outweighed the "pros."

First of all, I didn't care for the romance. I know not everybody feels the same way I do about this, but I don't like a lot of kissing, but even more than that I don't like kissing when the characters barely know each other! Christophe and Scarlett's relationship progressed to the physical waaaay to quickly- not to mention they kept putting themselves in compromising positions. It's not that they did anything "wrong", really, but if anyone had seen them, it would have looked really, really bad. (Like her being at his house, at night, in her nightgown. I mean, seriously- what was she thinking? I have a problem with it now- can you imagine how scandalous it would have been back then?)

That was another thing- historical accuracy. When Scarlett's sister Stacia mentioned the Statue of Liberty, red flags went up everywhere. The book takes place in 1794- the Statue of Liberty was not even given to America until about a hundred years later! That was a huge oversight. An oversight that really makes you question the historical accuracy of everything in the novel.

So what are the pros? Well, the first chapter completely sucked me into the terrifying world of revolutionary France. Things bothered me later in the book, but the beginning was heart-pounding! And Jamie Carie also is good at creating likable secondary characters (something I noticed from the other book I've read by her).

Since I have another of Jamie Carie's books in my possession at the moment, I know I'll be reading at least one more book by her. However, unless The Duchess and the Dragon drastically changes my opinion of her writing, it might be the last time I read one of her novels.

Objectionable content: kissing, as I mentioned above. Also, it takes place during the revolution, so people are guillotined- something that can be quite disturbing.

Rating: 5

Comments

  1. GraceJune 4, 2013 at 2:30 PM

    I thought the romance in this one came a bit too fast. It did not seem very realistic. Like the cover, though.

    Grace

    ReplyDelete

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