Review: Guardian of the Trust by Irene Radford

After reading the first novel in this series, Guardian of the Balance, I decided I needed to get the second book, so I bought it off of Amazon.  This book brings us to the early 1200's in England - Arylwren's dedcendant, Resmiranda Griffin (Ana), shares the magical abilities of her ancestor, but having been raised in the Church, she is hesitant to use magic.  As a child, she is pursued by a dark force which she doesn't understand, so she spends much of her formative years running from convent to convent, hiding from the man with the black aura who seeks her.  As an adult, she meets Sir Hugh Fitz Chenenoir, who saves her from a raid on her latest hiding place, and the two begin to fall in love.  However, the two are soon separated.  Can Ana defeat the man with the black aura?  Will she and Sir Hugh ever be reunited?

I did enjoy this book, but not as much as the first.  There was a lot more history in this one - King John, the Crusades, even a bit of a cameo by Robin of Locksley.  Sometimes the court intrigue and royal history got to be a little much.  I did enjoy the magical parts, and the love story between Ana and Hugh.  But I didn't like Ana as much as I liked Wren, in the first book.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was that she was much more religious than Wren, and more reluctant to use her magic.  She spent a lot of the book dithering about whether or not using magic would estrange her from God.  I just wasn't into the religious overtones, although I understand that it was a symptom of the times.

Recommended for fans of the first book, for anyone who likes a pretty solid love story, and for anyone who enjoys stories about the Middle Ages.  Four out of five Whatevers.  I'll be checking out the next one, if only to find out which descendant of Ana it deals with.

2014-10