Book Review: Once Upon A Tower

Author: Eloisa James
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Publisher: Avon
Series: Happily Ever After…AKA Fairy Tales # 5

Once upon a time…

A duke fell in love

Gowan Stoughton of Craigievar, Duke of Kinross, values order and self-control above all else. So when he meets a lady as serene as she is beautiful, he promptly asks for her hand in marriage.

With a lady

Edie—whose passionate temperament is the opposite of serene—had such a high fever at her own debut ball that she didn’t notice anyone, not even the notoriously elusive Duke of Kinross. When her father accepts his offer… she panics.

And when their marriage night isn’t all it could be, she pretends.

In a tower.

But Edie’s inability to hide her feelings makes pretending impossible, and when their marriage implodes, she retreats to a tower—locking Gowan out.

Now Gowan faces his greatest challenge. Neither commands nor reason work with his spirited young bride. How can he convince her to give him the keys to the tower…

When she already has the keys to his heart?


Time wasted itself, in his opinion. All too soon, and out of the blue, you toppled over and died, and all of your moments were gone.

 

The only problem was that the room was filled with English ladies, and he had determined that it would be a bad idea to marry one of those.

 

Perhaps Shakespeare was useful for something after all.

I, like many others, am a huge fan of Eloisa James, and whenever she releases a new book I am one of the first ones on the scene. She gives a new feeling to romance and really knows how to bring a story to life. This is the fifth addition to this series and although I wish it followed the fairy tale of Rapunzel a little more precisely, I was still pleased with the story and the characters involved. Gowan and Edith are quite possibly the best couple I have read and followed this year. Eloisa once again does a fabulous job of painting a fairy tale in the manner that it should be!

 

Gowan was such a charmer! I knew that I was going to love him when I started reading the letters between him and Edith. He had such a remarkable sense of humor that you would never expect from someone so established and influential within society. He was an amazing male character, and as you know they are usually not my favorite. Gowan is such the perfect match for Edie, who is a little pushy at times and quite the typical woman in my opinion.

 

Edith was also a success in my book. I loved her drive and how determined she was. I thought the fact that she was a brilliant magician was a small detail but really played into her character quite nicely. I was able to see where all of her quirky traits and small fetishes come from. I also liked the relationship between Edie and her stepmother, Layla. It was nice to experience some of the girl talk and the long conversations they endured about love and marriage.

 

If you haven’t already, you should definitely give this series a try!!

 

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Avon in exchange for my honest review***