Reading an historical romance can be an enjoyable thing when you know it is not an epic novel and is longer than a novella. It makes it even more enjoyable when the author takes the time to do research and gives the reader a glimpse into what the world was like in the time the story is set. I found Suzanne Barclay's Lion's Lady such a read.

The story is about a young girl who is in love with a Highlander chief's son. When Rowena learns she is pregnant, she wants to tell him the truth at their next secret meeting. But he never shows. He reportedly has already left for France. Another man who needs an heir has discovered her secret and quickly convinces her of the wisdom in marrying him and letting him claim the child. All is fine until her husband dies with his heir only five years old. Intrigue sets in as Rowena does everything she can to protect her son from his conniving uncle. What she doesn't expect is that by doing so, she is thrown together with her old lover, Lion, and the father of her child.

Romance, murder, and mystery get me every time. I enjoyed it as I tried to figure out all the secrets. I did get over half the mysteries solved of who tried to kill who, who murdered who, who betrayed who. But Ms. Barclay threw a few curve balls at me.

If you don't like detailed love scenes, I do want to warn you that this book has two and a half of them. ( I say half because one only begins.) They are easily skipped over if you still want to enjoy the rest of the story.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 rating.

Note: I have had this book for years and just read it. It was not given t

I took a class called the History of the English Language. It was a very interesting class. I really did learn a lot. The book that was assigned to the class was the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. I have to say that this book is not small and not fluffy. It is large and meaty.

I found this book to be a great resource for anyone in the English and/or literature field. In fact, anyone should read this book as it goes through the entire history of the English language and discusses the development of what we use today. It discusses the various present day uses, where many of our words come from, and why we spell and pronounce words the way we do even among the various regions that speak English. The sections on the various regional dialects was one of the most interesting.

I would have to say that this book could be rather difficult to read as I am a visual learner and there was just too much visual aid. One page could have five boxes of different things to read and examples presented. All of them were colorful and overstimulated my brain. It took me longer to read the assigned sections that it should have because I had to give my eyes and brain a break.

Yet, this is a great resource book to have on your shelf. Even if your field is not English, you could learn so much by reading this book. The chapters and subsections are designed where you can skip around and not have to read them in order to build up the knowledge to understand. That is really great.

I place this book on level four of my bookshelf (with five being the very best place to reside). This is only because of the visual difficulty I had in reading it. Check it out. You won't regret it.